Police officers conducted an illegal search when they descended on a Florida barbershop like "a scene right out of a Hollywood movie," in bulletproof vests and masks, with guns drawn, merely to check the barbers' licenses, the 11th Circuit ruled. On August 21, 2010, after more than a month of planning, teams from the Orange County Sheriff's Office descended on multiple target locations," the 44-page opinion begins. "They blocked the entrances and exits to the parking lots so no one could leave and no one could enter. With some team members dressed in ballistic vests and masks, and with guns drawn, the deputies rushed into their target destinations, handcuffed the stunned occupants - and demanded to see their barbers' licenses.

The lone exception: Just Blaze on Semoran Boulevard in Apopka, where an arrest report shows deputies found Ski Joseph Vasquez, 40, with "2 baggies of cocaine in a prescription bottle" and cutting agents in the barbershop's office during the Sept. 17 sweep. Vasquez was arrested on drug- and gun-related charges after deputies said they found a handgun in his car.

So. Someone in Florida decided that there was a narco gang running drugs through barbershops. So they set up to raid a bunch of barbershops. Then discovered that they were barbershops. And were sitting there in masks and body armor, with flashbangs and automatic weapons.

posted 3498 days ago