Court hammers Florida sheriff’s office for SWAT-style raid to check for barber licenses [View all]

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/court-hammers-florida-sheriffs-office-for-swat-style-raid-to-check-for-barber-licenses/



Court hammers Florida sheriff’s office for SWAT-style raid to check for barber licenses
Travis Gettys
18 Sep 2014

An appeals court harshly rebuked the Orange County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office over a SWAT-style raid to check for barber licenses, finding it was unreasonable to conduct such an investigation of a second-degree misdemeanor.

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that deputies had violated the civil rights of barbers at Strictly Skillz during a 2010 license inspection, reported the Sun-Sentinel.

~snip~

No illegal or unlicensed activities were found at Strictly Skillz, where barbers said eight to 10 masked deputies wearing bulletproof vests raided the shop and cleared out customers during a busy weekend.

The appeals court ruled inspections “must be ‘appropriately limited’” and “may not serve as a backdoor for undertaking a warrantless search unsupported by probable cause.”