Central Florida Law Enforcement Gone Wild

I must assume that the State of Florida is flush with money, so much money that they are clueless as to what to do with it. We've got two separate situations here that when combined leave the unemployed citizens (there's plenty around here) in central Florida counties wondering what they've done to deserve such absurd targeting by law enforcement. And then there's the high crime – actual crime that is committed against person and property in the area.


Are our law enforcement officials on steroids, psychotropic drugs, or a combination of the two?

The first story is about the barbershop raids in Orange County, Florida (Orlando). Yes, you read that correctly – they actually had close to 50 law enforcement officers raiding central Florida barbershops yesterday. Try to imagine this – really – do you have the image?

Some high-level official must have received a bad haircut. The Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation (DBPR) and the Orange County Sheriff's Office (OCSO) conducted SWAT raids on several barbershops in the area. I first saw this on the late news yesterday. Unlicensed haircutters were lead out in handcuffs and piled into a van while a dismayed worker that apparently was licensed commented that around 50 deputies entered the shop under the guise of a drug investigation search. There were no drugs, but they arrested one pastor in her seventies that cuts hair part-time and a list of others without licenses. They repeated this in fifteen barbershops in the Orlando area.

All of those arrested in the barbershop raids are Black Americans and these were low-priced old-fashioned barbershops – at least that is what I viewed on tv news. This is like Church people with scissors. Has the OCSO gone nuts? An Orange County spokesman claimed that "the aim of the operation is to give the Department of Business & Professional Regulation a "little more teeth" in addition to the fines and other sanctions it typically hands down." Read the entire article in the Orlando Sentinel HERE.

Yes, I'd say that some official got a bad haircut.


The morals agenda in Polk County, Florida seems to have escalated recently. Polk County is just west of Disney World – a few miles down I-4 – so these prostitution sting operations involve people from Orlando to the east and as far as Tampa to the west. In my opinion, only a total idiot would book a call in Polk County or Davenport or attempt to visit a female out there, but it looks like we have plenty of idiots around here as Sheriff Judd managed to arrest 44 men and women over the course of the last week. Of course some people believe that Davenport is a part of Kissimmee as they are so close in proximity, and Sheriff Judd did use a nice house in a gated community.

Usually Judd's operations net 20 arrests or less – I believe that the sexual predator sting op last week attracted a total of fifteen men. The prostitution sting operations are normal for Judd and last week's targeting of sexual predators by luring them with the Craigslist ad was an isolated event. The set-up this week involved placing ads on Backpage and Craigslist to lure "prostitutes, pimps, and their drivers," according to an Orlando Sentinel article that quoted Judd. The article is HERE and the Sentinel listed each of the 44 people arrested and their charges.

One thing about it – you know I'm on target in relation to the telephone line blocking and website blocking during large conventions when Sheriff Judd can manage to get 44 people to travel to Polk County, as many are from Orlando. I wonder if Judd is working with the network blockers…

Clearly law enforcement agencies in central Florida are flush with money and have less concern with solving murders, rapes, armed robberies or especially property crimes. I find the entire situation absurd.

Yes, I'd say that some official encountered a bad prostitute.


Image: Map of Central Florida with Golden Plane - 2009 © Jesse Kunerth / 2010 © iStockphoto.com