I keep thinking about this news story, about two Florida police officers, including a deputy chief, that were fired from the Fruitland Park police department, when an FBI report revealed that they were members of America's oldest domestic terrorism organization, the Ku Klux Klan.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/...
Fruitland Park police shaken by KKK charges
Fruitland Park police Chief Terry Isaacs said his department has been shaken by troubling but unproven allegations that a deputy chief and a former police corporal were associated with the Ku Klux Klan.
The allegations, contained in a confidential FBI report provided to Isaacs by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, led to the sudden resignation of Deputy Chief David Borst and Isaacs' decision Friday to dismiss Officer George Hunnewell.
Isaacs would not confirm that the report linked the two officers to the KKK, instead describing the group as a "subversive organization." He said he couldn't be more exact in his description because he thought he was not authorized to release details of the report. Issacs said the document was given to him as chief to consider how the allegations might affect the officers' credibility and the perception of the department in the community.
Chief Deputy State Attorney Ric Ridgway, from whom Isaacs sought advice, identified the KKK as the hate group.
Another example of law enforcement involvement with hate groups and hate crime is the Civil Rights Era killings of civil rights workers James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael "Mickey" Schwerner by members of the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office, and the Philadelphia Police Department (that's Philadelphia, Mississippi.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In short, the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office arrested these three after their car broke down in Philadelphia. They were held in jail, then released... at 10:00 at night, where they were immediately hunted and chased down by the Klan and the cops, working together. They were then shot execution style. By Klan cops. To serve and protect segregation.
Or we can go to Arizona, where everyone's favorite asshole sheriff, Joe Arpaio has chosen poor company...
This image was originally posted on Stormfront, then brought to us by the Phoenix New Times. Joe Arpaio is in the car, posing with Neo-Nazi Vito Lombardi.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/...
Joe Arpaio Takes Pic with Neo-Nazi, Gives Nazis Intelligence on Marchers
As mentioned in a previous blog post, at Saturday's Walk for Respect to Joe Arpaio's Tent City, I spoke with neo-Nazis J.T. Ready and "Vito Lombardi," both of whom were throwing up the sieg heil sign as they verbally attacked the marchers passing by on Durango Street. They told me that Joe had stopped by earlier and spoken with each of them. Ready said Arpaio called him by his initials "J.T.," and Lombardi bragged of getting a photo with the sheriff. But I held off on reporting this until I got some sort of confirmation.
Well, confirmation came today, as spotted by activist Carlos Garcia of the civil rights group Puente. Seems United for a Sovereign America member Lynne Stevens, aka, "Jackie 40d," has what appears to be footage of Arpaio stopping by the neo-Nazis, exchaging pleasantries with them, and allowing them to take pictures. (J.T. was actually further down with a gaggle of nativists when this particular scene transpired, so I can't verify if Joe called him by name.) National Socialist Movement member Lombardi scores a personal photograph with the sheriff after telling him, "We've got your back." The sheriff (it definitely sounds like his voice) advises the neo-Nazis (and Stevens) that the marchers are about an hour away. The only prob is that in the video, Arpaio is in the shadows.
I know, I know. Racist police officers.
Collaboration between hate groups and law enforcement has a long history. The predecessors to today's police departments were the slave patrols of the antebellum era.
I hate to say it, but law enforcement has a cancer in its midst.