First, my twin, Sheriff Leon Lott, magnanimously agrees to solve one of the city of Columbia’s knottiest problems by taking over its police department.
Lott heads to Iraq to train police forces
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott has been invited to travel to Iraq to train Iraqi police forces.The sheriff traveled to Iraq at the invitation of the U.S. Army and the S.C. State Guard where he is a provost marshal, said sheriff’s department spokeswoman Monique Mack. Lott will be at the Iraq Police College for two to three weeks.While in Iraq, Lott will teach courses in community policing and will talk about the importance of having women on a police force, Mack said.– Noelle Phillips
Ol’ Leon’s just saving the world, isn’t he? He’s pretty much got my endorsement for his next election sewn up.
Next: Mideast Peace!…
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Lott’s nothing but a glorified narc. Time for him to go. Maybe he can just stay in Iraq.
Leon has impressed me over the years with how well his department is run–his judicial services officers (the “deputies” you see at Richland County Courthouse) are even impressive, and how effective he has been in the heretofore orphaned MLK Park neighborhood downtown. Policing that area was improved under Tandy Carter, but before that, the law-abiding citizens had to turn to Leon and he delivered.
But do we really need a tank to enforce the laws in Richland County? Who’s paying the gas bill for that monstrocity?
I like Leon a lot and have know him for years, but Bud has a good point. Poor way to project public safety and law enforcement with the tank image.
But… the tank is so cool. I want one. Don’t you think I need an official blog armored personnel carrier? I could start a blog arms race. I’d get it, then the Shop Tart would have to have one, then she’d accessorize hers, and I’d have to match that, then Wes Wolfe and Earl Capps would start talking about the “Blog Tank Gap,” and off we’d go…
Seriously, though — one of the things that Steve Benjamin talked about during the campaign was that Leon sees to it that his people have whatever equipment that they need. Not so much the tank, but smaller things, such as carrying adequate ammunition for their weapons. Most cops never have to discharge their weapons in the line of duty, but when they DO, it’s a hell of a thing for the bad guys to have more ammo.
So while it may be extreme, the “tank” (which isn’t really a tank, but more of an APC) is sort of an outgrowth of that.
In fact, at the time he spoke of it in the campaign, Steve complained specifically that city cops DON’T have an armored vehicle, that the city SWAT team has to make do with “a bread truck.” (I have audio of that if you follow that link.)
So I got the sense that another reason Steve would like Leon to take over is that he’d close the armored-vehicle gap.
Do you Force Protection in Ladson has a factory outlet where Columbia might find an armored vehicle as a factory second. It’s not like we have IEDs to deal with.
To Bud light…and I despise beer…is it that little old Bud got nabbed by the “glorified narc”? Is that why you’re so miffed at efficiency? God’s speed Leon and hurry home. Love the tank! Joe