Polk County Fire Rescue responded to a two-alarm commercial structure fire on Holden Road in Lakeland at 2:16 p.m. on Aug. 2.
Upon PCFR’s arrival, smoke was observed billowing from a commercial building. The fire was contained to the single structure at that time. Due to the severity of conditions observed on scene, the fire was quickly categorized as a two-alarm fire to ensure that additional resources were en route to assist with firefighting efforts.
PCFR crews worked to gain control of the fire and to prevent it from spreading. It was later determined that the commercial building was being used as a provisional storage unit.
The cause of the fire is undetermined, and the incident is being investigated by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Twenty-two PCFR units responded to the scene. One PCFR employee was transported from the scene as a precautionary measure.
A single-vehicle crash Wednesday afternoon, August 2, 2023 in Lakeland resulted in the deaths of a mother and her 9-year-old son.
Deputies from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched at about 4:30 pm, along with Polk County Fire Rescue to Tom Costine Road west of Beverly Hills Road. Upon arrival, emergency responders located 43-year-old Tera Kita and 9-year-old Brandon Arcadipane, both from Lakeland, deceased at the scene.
According to the investigation so far Ms. Kita was driving a gold 2000 Chevrolet S10 Blazer northbound. As she began to take the right-hand curve, the rear wheels of the Blazer lost traction and the SUV began to slide. The SUV then exited the road on the south shoulder where it rolled upside down into a water-filled ditch.
“This is devastating – a family has lost a mother and a son, and our hearts break for them.” – Grady Judd, Sheriff
Heavy rain was reported in the area at the time of the crash. The road was closed for approximately 4 hours during the investigation, which remains on-going.
On Wednesday, August 2, 2023, at approximately 10:28 p.m., officers were dispatched to the 5100 block of US 98 North for a traffic crash involving three vehicles. At the scene, officers located three unresponsive occupants inside one vehicle, a 2012 Nissan Versa. The Lakeland Police Department, Polk County Fire Rescue, and the Lakeland Fire Department all arrived on the scene to begin life-saving measures. The driver of the Nissan was extricated from the vehicle and transported to Lakeland Regional Health where despite the best efforts of medical professionals, she was declared deceased a short time later by hospital staff. The front seat passenger and the rear passenger of the Nissan were declared deceased at the scene by on-scene emergency medical personnel.
The driver of the second vehicle, a 2006 Lincoln Mark LT truck, had minor injuries. The driver of the third vehicle, a 2010 Toyota Corolla, also sustained minor injuries. Neither driver was transported to a medical facility for treatment.
Based on information gathered thus far in the investigation, officers believe the Nissan Versa was traveling northbound on US 98 North in the inside lane at a high rate of speed. At the same time, the Lincoln pick-up truck was traveling southbound on US 98 North, entered the left turn lane, and was attempting to turn left into the plaza located on the east side of the roadway. As the Lincoln began to make its turn, it was impacted by the Nissan. Post-impact, both vehicles rotated and began to slide in an eastbound direction. The Nissan came to final rest in the entrance/exit to the plaza. The Lincoln impacted the Toyota Corolla, which was attempting to exit the plaza and turn right onto US 98 North. Both the Lincoln and the Toyota came to final rest in the roadway.
Members of the Traffic Homicide team responded to the scene and took over the investigation. The crash remains an open investigation. Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to contact Traffic Crash Investigator Officer Tyler Anderson at [email protected].
To be honest, when it first premiered, I hadn’t taken much notice or interest in Sound of Freedom. However, two things about the movie quickly piqued my curiosity.
First was how much this little-known film from a little-known indie studio made at the box office. Surprisingly enough, Sound of Freedom managed to outgross big-budget blockbusters like The Flash or Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny.
Second was the controversy surrounding this film. Many mainstream media outlets, and left-wing critics and pundits especially, have lambasted this movie as “reactionary”, “right-wing” propaganda, with The Guardian going so far as to call it “Qanon adjacent.”
So how can such a small film from a small studio generate such large controversy and big numbers at the box office? Does Sound of Freedom deserve all the attention? Or is this all simply much ado about nothing?
Sound of Freedom begins in Honduras, where a little girl and her brother are approached by a media scout promising a big career in the entertainment industry. If this offer sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. It turns out to be a front for a child sex trafficking operation that traps both little children.
Enter Tim Ballard, a Special Agent for Homeland Security. When Tim rescues the little boy, he vows to find his sister and return her to her family, even if it involves going against his superiors and forcing his way through Hell on Earth. The question is, will he succeed?
Sound of Freedom is based on the real story of Tim Ballard, a former U.S. government agent and an anti-human trafficking activist who served as the founder of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.). The movie was originally filmed five years ago and slated for release by 20th Century Fox. However, following Disney’s acquisition, the movie was dropped and eventually picked up by Angel Studios, an independent crowd-funded studio.
While Sound of Freedom is being marketed as a thriller, don’t go into the movie expecting yet another action flick with high-octane chase scenes or climatic battles. Instead, the film is more of a grounded, character-driven drama.
Jim Caviezel does an excellent job playing the main character. Rather than yet another over-the-top action character, Jim remains reserved and grounded in his role. His performance portrays a man who struggles with the evil deeds he has witnessed throughout his career, yet remains determined to maintain human goodness by fighting back against the evil.
Being a more-grounded character, Tim does not engage in the over-the-top dramatics or tropes of other action characters, which, in turn, helps to subtly and artfully subvert said tropes.
For example, in one scene, Tim tries to gain intel from a prisoner. He goes to the man’s jail cell, where he notices a security camera inside. He tells the man to come with him for a “walk.” In any other movie, he would do that to beat the information out of him. Instead, he simply escorts the man to the courtyard for a leisurely smoke and chat.
Being a film about sex trafficking, the movie touches upon heavy, dark subjects; yet while other, bigger Hollywood studios would hyperfixate on the gratuitous (and even objectifying) aspect of that subject matter to entice audiences, this movie remains reserved yet no less pathos-inducing.
For example, in one scene, the young girl character is in a hotel room with a solicitor. The man shuts the blinds. The music stops abruptly for a few hallowing seconds before cutting to the girl crying in a bathtub. The implication is evident yet equally haunting.
Admittedly, the movie is quite melodramatic. The good characters are explicitly good and the bad characters are explicitly evil. Some critics would criticize this movie for lacking “nuance”, but sometimes, some issues need to be portrayed in clear black and white. Human trafficking is one of them. Sex trafficking, especially child sex trafficking, is unequivocally evil, so portraying everyone involved in it as evil, mustache-twirling villains is a good thing, actually!
Sound of Freedom has become controversial, mostly due to its association with the Qanon conspiracy. However, this movie was made five years ago before Qanon became popular. Not every portrayal or discussion of sex trafficking is about Qanon, and it’s not the film’s fault if people associate it with the conspiracy.
However, to be fair, many viewers who buy into the Qanon conspiracy will, no doubt, feel their beliefs vindicated by the movie—which, again, is not its fault. And it certainly doesn’t help that Jim Caviezel has made many infamous (and unfortunate) comments supporting Qanon.
One fair criticism involves the film’s depiction of sex trafficking. Many critics accused the film of not portraying the issue accurately. As with many other movies about real-world issues, the film does overdramatize and exaggerate the circumstances surrounding the issue for the sake of cinematic drama. As such, people should never gain all their information about any given topic from movies or media (as they are, for the most part, fiction), but should instead educate themselves on the matter through reliable, non-fictional sources.
Overall, Sound of Freedom is a decent thriller, and while it isn’t the greatest movie ever, the fact it surpassed many big-budget Hollywood films in both ticket sales and ratings is nothing to sneeze at. If you’re looking for a good movie that isn’t the same-old Hollywood shlock, give this film a chance.
Welcome, World Travelers! The Barbie Movie: Life in Plastic is Fantastic!
by James Coulter
It’s the end of July. Two of the hottest movies are playing in theaters. One of them is Oppenheimer, a dramatic biopic of the man who helped build the atomic bomb. So, you know which movie a self-respecting, red-blooded cis-hetero white dude like me is going to see?
That’s right! The Barbie Movie!
Barbie is a girl who needs no introduction. For more than 60 years, she has remained the doll most played with by little girls, to the point where she has become synonymous with American girlhood. So, it was only a matter of time until the little doll made her big debut on the big screen with her titular movie. But will it prove to be made of plastic and fantastic? Or will the film bomb bigger than the atomic bomb playing in the neighboring theater?
Barbie lives a perfect life in Barbieland. She wakes up every morning in her dream house. She gets dressed in her best clothes. She goes driving in her pink car. She goes to the beach to flirt with Ken. And then she and the other dolls finish the night off with a dance party. Life couldn’t be more perfect for the perfect doll.
Or is it?
Lately, Barbie has been experiencing existential dread about her “perfect” life—so much so that it starts affecting her and Barbieland. When she wakes up with “flat feet”, she learns she must travel to the real world to find out what’s going on. With Ken by her side, she travels to the real world, but will they find the answers they seek?
The Barbie Movie looks fabulous! Barbieland itself looks like a little girl’s toy set coming to life. Everything from the houses to the cars and even the smaller props appear perfectly toy-like and set to scale to the toys they’re based on. The movie crew evidently went to extreme measures to ensure the scenery looked perfectly pink—to the point where it actually created a real worldwide shortage of pink paint.
Moreover, the Barbie characters do an excellent job pantomiming how toys are played with, to the point where it feels like an invisible girl is playing with them. When Barbie gets into the shower, she bathes herself with no water. For breakfast, she pretends to eat her food. And when she goes downstairs to get into her pink car, she floats off her balcony, almost like how a little girl would lower the doll in real life.
Both Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling do an excellent job of playing Barbie and Ken respectively. Will Ferrel, Michael Cera, and Kate McKinnon also act like their hilarious comedic selves. And America Ferrera, while not playing a major role, delivers a superb soliloquy about the complexities and contradictions of being a woman.
The main story is The Lego Movie meets Legally Blonde. The crux of the film deals with identity. Both Barbie and Ken experience major character arcs in which they grapple with who they are both as toys and as people. Barbie starts to feel her perfect life isn’t all that perfect, and she learns the importance of not having to be perfect. Ken, meanwhile, feels inadequate always playing the “and Ken” part of his “Barbie and Ken” relationship, and learns to be his own man with his identity separate from Barbie.
Of course, as Barbie has served as a symbol of womanhood, the movie inevitably has a feminist message. When Barbie ventures into the real world, she discovers it isn’t as ideal as Barbieland. She learns that being a real woman is much more complex and complicated than her perfect life in her perfect world. Through her journey, the “perfect” role model for little girls learns to be her ordinary self and not always strive to be extraordinary.
Of course, also inevitably, the film’s feminist message has stirred up quite the controversy and instigated a culture war. One right-wing political pundit even burned a Barbie doll before his 40-minute polemic against the movie. Many male critics (and I use this term generously) have accused the movie of pushing a “woke” and “anti-male” agenda and hating men. This could not be further from the truth. As a man who watched this movie, I can attest this movie is not “anti-man.” Quite the opposite. And the proof lies with Ken.
In the movie, Ken undergoes a character arc that mirrors Barbie’s. He considers his relationship with her inadequate and feels he’s not getting enough respect in Barbieland. He, like, Barbie, goes on a journey of self-discovery, and while that journey has him pick up some unfortunate toxic masculine ideals, he inevitably sheds those ideals by learning that he can be his person outside of Barbie—that he can be, as his new slogan puts it, “Kenough!”
In the end, The Barbie Movie is quite the hilarious romp that simultaneously both tickles your funny bone and tugs at your heartstrings. Girls young and old who grew up playing with the doll will experience both a love letter to a childhood classic and a thoughtful deconstruction that explores what it means to be a woman. Overall, life in plastic proves to be simply fantastic!
One minor disclaimer: though the movie is based on a little girl’s toy, it is rated PG-13. Though the movie isn’t completely inappropriate to show little children, the more adult themes will go over their heads and some of the jokes are rather suggestive. There are even several words you’d never imagine hearing someone say in a Barbie movie. They’re not swear words, by any means, but unless you feel like explaining to your child what a “gynecologist” or the “patriarchy” is—let alone what’s a penis, vagina, or genitalia!—perhaps consider watching this movie without the little one.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office and Davenport Police Department investigators are seeking a homicide suspect in Davenport killing; $5,000 reward offered
Polk County deputies are seeking information related to the homicide of a 35 year old Davenport woman that occurred in the area of Fuller Street West in Davenport during the early morning hours of Saturday, July 29th.
Davenport Police Officers responded to the neighborhood when a woman called about an unresponsive woman in a vehicle. The Davenport Fire Department also responded to the scene and subsequently transported the victim to Advent Health-Heart of Florida Hospital. The victim was declared deceased by medical staff on Saturday, July 29, 2023 at 0422 hours. Based upon her injuries, she is believed to be the victim of a homicide.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office homicide detectives are assisting the Davenport Police Department by conducting the investigation.
Anyone who has any information about the killing is encouraged to contact Heartland Crime Stoppers in one of four ways:
1. CALL 1-800-226 TIPS (8477) 2. DIAL **TIPS from your cell phone 3. VISIT the website www.heartlandcrimestoppers.com and click on “Submit A Tip,” 4. DOWNLOAD the free “P3tips” app on your smartphone or tablet.
You will always remain anonymous and you are eligible for a cash reward if your information leads to an arrest. Your information will be forwarded to law enforcement for follow up. If an arrest is made based on your tip, you are eligible for a cash reward of up to $3,000. Because this crime is a homicide, the reward is $5,000.
“We need the help from the public about what happened early Saturday morning. Someone knows somethingso if you saw something, or if you have heard anything about this crime, please call Crime Stoppers. Help us put the person responsible for this crime behind bars.” -Grady Judd, Sheriff
LAKELAND, FL (July 31, 2023) – On Sunday, July 30, 2023, at approximately 1:55 p.m., officers were dispatched to the 1800 block of Olive Street for a traffic crash involving a single vehicle. At the scene, officers located an unresponsive male inside the vehicle, a gold 2006 Nissan Armada. The Lakeland Police Department, Polk County Fire Rescue, and the Lakeland Fire Department all arrived on the scene to begin life-saving measures. Despite the efforts of first responders, the 23-year-old male driver was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Based on information gathered thus far in the investigation, officers believe the Nissan SUV was traveling eastbound on Olive Street at a high rate of speed when it passed a vehicle traveling in the same direction on a double yellow line. The SUV entered a grass median and impacted a closed road sign on the side of the road. As the vehicle reentered the roadway, the driver lost control, causing the SUV to impact a utility pole and a fence before overturning on the south side of the roadway.
The driver of the SUV was identified as Samuel Romero, age 23, from Lakeland.
Members of the Traffic Homicide team responded to the scene and took over the investigation. The crash remains an open investigation. Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to contact Traffic Crash Investigator Officer Tyler Anderson at [email protected].
LAKELAND, FL (July 29, 2023) – On Saturday, July 29, 2023, at 1:51 a.m., a shooting occurred outside the Jade Fox Lounge, 3010 Lakeland Highlands Road. Two officers, working an off-duty detail at the business, were already on scene when a disturbance erupted in the parking lot, and the shooting occurred. One victim, a 25-year-old male, was transported to the hospital by a personal vehicle. Despite the best efforts of emergency medical professionals, he was pronounced deceased a short time later. The second victim, a 48-year-old female, was transported by ambulance with critical injuries and remains hospitalized.
Jamilah Johnson, age 23, was taken into custody, and a firearm was also recovered at the scene. It was later learned that the gun had been reported stolen in 2015. At this time, Johnson has been charged with Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Detectives are actively working to gather all evidence to determine if any additional persons were involved in the shooting.
Investigators are asking anyone who may have information to contact Detective Neal Robertson at [email protected].
Persons who wish to remain anonymous can contact Heartland Crime Stoppers:
* Or download the free “P3tips” app on a smartphone or tablet.
Tipsters will always remain anonymous when they send a tip through Crime Stoppers, and they are eligible for a cash reward if their information leads to an arrest.
This remains an open and active investigation. The victims’ names are being withheld in accordance with Marsy’s Law. No additional information is available at this time.
