But it better not be the Ku Klux Klan
Police chiefs and sheriffs across the country are always encouraging their officers to become active in community organizations.
The Florida town of Fruitland Park, with a population of fewer than 5,000 people, is located 48 miles northwest of Orlando and has 13 full-time and 5 part-time cops on its police department.
I’m sure Fruitland Park police Chief Terry Isaacs, like other police administrators, would like for his officers to become active in community organizations to help foster community oriented policing. The problem is that Fruitland doesn’t appear to have a Kiwanis or Rotary Club, or any other civic organizations for that matter. So it came as a shock to him when he learned that two officers in his department had found a community organization to join up with.
Chief Isaacs was surprised and shocked when he received a confidential FBI report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that listed Deputy Chief David Borst and Officer George Hunnewell as members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Borst, who was also Fruitland Park’s fire chief, denied he was a member of the KKK, but he resigned from both positions Friday. Also on Friday, Isaacs fired Hunnewell.
Chief Deputy State Attorney Ric Ridgway told the Orlando Sentinel: "It's not a crime to be a member of the KKK, even if you are the deputy chief. It's not a crime to be stupid. It's not a crime to hate people. It may be despicable, it may be immoral, but it's not a crime."
It may not be a crime to belong to the KKK, but it sure as hell will get you fired if you're a cop.
Borst and Hunnewell were not the first Fruitland Park cops to belong to the KKK. In 2009, Officer James Elkins resigned after pictures surfaced of him in uniform and wearing a KKK hood and robe.
Chief Isaacs was so shocked over the revelations about Borst and Hunnewell that he followed the practice of school authorities by making grief counselors available to his remaining officers.
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