Soldiers, Sheriff's Deputy Clash in Fla.

[DoYouEverWonder]

June 28, 2005

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Some Army reservists say they were disrespected by a sheriff's deputy who made racially derogatory remarks during a confrontation in a national forest.

The incident in the Apalachicola National Forest about 20 miles southwest of Tallahassee last week ended with three of the 12 soldiers getting $50 tickets.

The soldiers, most of whom are black and all but one of whom was in uniform, immediately filed a complaint with the Leon County Sheriff's Office. An internal review by the department a few days later cleared the deputy sheriff, one of two law enforcement officers involved.

A sheriff's official said Tuesday that it was the soldiers who acted rudely and inappropriately, not the law enforcement officers.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-soldiers-complaint,0,6739311.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[WhiteTara]

1. What? No tasers? eom

[jody]

2. News story is limited but it does seem the soldiers were out of line. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Seems there was plenty of bad behavior

on both sides.

[pokercat999]

6. Cops and soldiers the misfits of society what could go wrong?

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. I wonder how many of those cops

drive around with yellow ribbons on their cars?

[Pepperbelly]

12. "Can you read at a ninth grade level?"

That was not really an appropriate question from the deputy. In fact, I suspect that it was intended as an insult.

[teryang]

4. Leon county

...the look of the old south.

[tallydem]

8. Hey, FYI Leon is a very liberal county

Not saying the sheriff was right, but most of Leon County is a heavily liberal area (due a lot to having three colleges). It's not perfect, but this would be taken very seriously here. Leon was about the only very blue county in all of N. Florida in the 2004 elections. The other thing that the article does not say is that is a state park. So the Park Ranger would have had to call the sheriff to start with unless he just happened to be hanging around.

[teryang]

9. First impressions can be wrong but...

Some of the neighborhoods I passed through, (you know not the yuppee professional college student type neighborhoods) had the look of Waldo, Florida an old plantation/sharecropping town.

I'm not putting the county down, its beautiful. I tried to move there for one of the professional government jobs. I saw the beautiful developements. There was construction going on everywhere. But the crushing social disparities and racism are there.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Leon County isn't the only blue county in No Florida

I did some research after the election and posted a thread at the time that I called "Busting the Dixiecrat Myth". Here are the results of my findings:

Gadsden
6,253/Bush
14,629/Kerry

Jefferson
3,298/Bush
4,134/Kerry

Leon
51,594/Bush
83,830/Kerry

plus Madison was very close

Madison
4,196/Bush
4,048/Kerry

Believe it or not Gadsden is even more blue then Leon.


BTW: Welcome to DU :hi:

[saigon68]

5. When will those Negroes learn their place?

</Extreme Sarcasm>

[montana_hazeleyes]

10. Whatever happened,

to say that those comments were not racially motivated is ridiculous.