In 2007, County Administrator George Touart and Sheriff Ron McNesby devised a plan to deputized the code enforcement officers. While the beefing up code enforcement in the unincorporated areas was much needed, the power went to the heads some of the code boys. Soon commissioners had their own private goon squad that selectively enforced the code and even did traffic stops.
McNesby saw lawsuits coming and took away their deputy badges. We wrote about it in 2008–Bubba’s On Patrol
We all know those Keystone Cops. Ever since the silent film series of the totally incompetent policemen first appeared in 1912, Hollywood has given us the hilarious Barney Fife in “The Andy Griffith Show,””Police Academy,””Reno 911!,”etc.
Well, let us introduce you to a few real Keystone Cops-Charlie Walker, Sotirios Thagouras and Steve Littlejohn.
They are Escambia County code enforcement officers who currently have civil suits pending against them in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Florida in Pensacola. The federal suits allege wrongful conduct that violated Escambia County business owners’ and citizens’ constitutional rights in two different cases.
Escambia County Sheriff Harry “Ron”McNesby is also named in the lawsuits for deputizing the county’s code enforcers.
We like to refer to these episodes as “Bubba’s on Patrol.”
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