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By Eduardo Gonzalez, former director of the U.S. Marshals Service. I have worked as a law enforcement professional for 34 years, rising through the ranks from patrolman to deputy director in the Miami-Dade Police Department during a 27-year career. Later, it was my privilege to return to my hometown of Tampa when I was selected to serve as its police chief. Finally, I was given the opportunity to serve at the national level as director of the U.S. Marshals Service for the past five-and-a-half years of my career. There isn’t anyone I’ve worked with in law enforcement who would disagree that the single most important asset local police have in protecting public safety is the trust and cooperation of the community they are sworn to protect.

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When the U.N. Human Rights Committee reviews U.S. compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) this October, the review will tackle many of the human rights violations plaguing Florida. Last week the committee released its list of issues, which will form the basis for the U.S. review, and demanded answers to questions regarding U.S. laws and policies in areas such as juvenile solitary confinement, felon disfranchisement, and discriminatory enforcement of criminal law.

The United States House of Representatives has just passed a bill, HR 1797, which would ban women from obtaining abortion care starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy. It is the latest in wave of ever-more extreme legislation attempting to restrict a woman’s right to make her own decision about whether or not to continue a pregnancy. On Monday, I had the honor and privilege of standing with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Planned Parenthood of South Florida, Mi Lola, NCJW, and a health care provider at the Planned Parenthood Pembroke Pines Health Care Center in speaking out against HR 1797. Here was my statement:

Note: The following blog post originally appeared on the National ACLU Blog of Rights. That post can be seen here In Florida, incarceration is big business. So is college football. There might be some twisted logic, then, to the GEO Group, Inc.'s latest scheme to whitewash its public image.