Editor’s Note: Is this really the type of country we want? This type of raid-style enforcement is better suited to third world dictatorships. Guilty until proven innocent is not American. And for those who love the police state, do you think that paying for 14 agents to raid a barber shop is your tax money well spent?

Orlando Sentinel

As many as 14 armed Orange County deputies, including narcotics agents, stormed Strictly Skillz barbershop during business hours on a Saturday in August, handcuffing barbers in front of customers during a busy back-to-school weekend.

It was just one of a series of unprecedented raid-style inspections the Orange County Sheriff’s Office recently conducted with a state regulating agency, targeting several predominantly black- and Hispanic-owned barbershops in the Pine Hills area.

In “sweeps” on Aug. 21 and Sept. 17 targeting at least nine shops, deputies arrested 37 people — the majority charged with “barbering without a license,” a misdemeanor that state records show only three other people have been jailed in Florida in the past 10 years.

The operations were conducted without warrants, under the authority of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation inspectors, who can enter salons at will. Deputies said they found evidence of illegal activity, including guns, drugs and gambling. However, records show that during the two sweeps, and a smaller one in October, just three people were charged with anything other than a licensing violation.

Read Full Article

RELATED VIDEO:

Why Can’t Chuck Get His Business Off the Ground

RELATED ARTICLES:

10 Signs The U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country

Raiding and Regulating the New Enemy in The War on Drugs: Rawesome “Foodies”