To hear local pollsters tell it, Leon Lott is the most popular politician in Richland County, S.C. He’s supported by men and women, blacks and whites, Republicans and Democrats … pretty much everybody.
That’s why Lott has been able to amass a small army – one that includes aerial drones and a friggin’ tank.
But the news that Lott is bringing in soldiers from Fort Bragg, N.C. to conduct military exercises with his men in eastern Richland County this week strikes us as a bit much.
“Citizens may see military and departmental vehicles traveling in and around rural and metropolitan areas and may hear ordinance being set off or fired which will be simulated/ blanks and controlled by trained personnel,” a press release from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) notes.
Of course Lott has forbidden the media to view these military exercises – and is refusing to discuss which units are coming from Fort Bragg to assist his men. Oh, and he’s sure as hell not telling us how much all of this ridiculousness is going to cost us.
Don’t worry, though … it’s all part of Lott’s “longstanding commitment to making sure that deputies are trained and prepared for every event and potential threat.”
Really?
Richland County is becoming a truly frightening place to live, people. Its election commission just rigged a referendum to steal $1.2 billion … and now its Sheriff is conducting military exercises with federal soldiers?
That’s a scary juxtaposition …
We realize Leon Lott has been called upon to clean up the City of Columbia police department’s mess, but in no universe does his department need a tank, or drones … or joint exercises with unidentified units of the U.S Armed Forces. Because that stuff is even scarier than the criminals Lott is fighting.
In fact if his department keeps militarizing, it will become a “potential threat” in its own right.
37 comments
Isn’t that marijuana growing right behind him?
Cocaine.
Hemorrhoids?
Pansies..??
He’s just selling out to his benefactors, the ones who provided him with his tank and other military gear. Like Metts, Jim Matthews, and quite a few more, when they tell him to jump in the future, his response will be “how high?”
Oh, for what it’s worth, the current mess at Columbia PD would not be such a mess if
not for Leon and his planting Chief Shorty, and Santiago plus a few more, there to mess things up so totally.
This all makes me feel so safe and secure…………………NOT!
Tell it to your justice system, moron. See Nikki and Alan on that one, and Keel by the way.
I don’t know for sure, but before we all get frothy over this there is a possible explanation. Leon may not be “bringing” these soldiers here to train his boys up; depending upon who the guys from Bragg are, it could be part of a very old program where certain special operations forces use parts of actual communities as a training location. In that program (which dates all the way back to my days in that world in the late 80’s), the special operations guys are not “joint exercising” per se. The local law enforcement folks get some exposure to what’s going on, but they are there mainly to keep innocent bystanders from wandering into a training area. These SOF units need to be exposed to lots of different types of environments to train at the level at which they operate. Sounds to me like ol’ Leon is just shining himself up a bit trying to make it sound like his boys are joining a Tier-1 special mission unit or something. Just a guess because nobody calls me anymore- I am what the specops world calls a FAG – former action guy (translation = old and soft).
Robin Sage is still going on though it has been greatly modified since the early days – you’ve explained quite succinctly what’s going on, not that the “POLICE STATE ALL CAPS CROWD” will bother to pay attention.
True- attention spans are dropping like IQ’s, surely. The Tier-1 gangs pop up all over the place as well. During my fed days I worked with that crowd a good bit and used to laugh my ass off at their stories about some training mission in BFE USA where a Mom and Pop in their minivan would accidentally pop out in the middle of an otherwise clean rendition op…
As if ordinance being set off or fired in Richland county isn’t a common thing.
In this age of online GED, work at your own pace course work, there is no excuse for you Karl Smarx and your twelve stooges to confuse a piece of “legislation enacted by a municipal authority, ORDINANCE” with “ORDNANCE: mounted guns; artillery”…idiots.
As far as General Lott is concerned, when he took over from Sheriff Sloan, there was zero gang activity in middle schools, junior high schools, high schools, or on the streets of Richland County.
He owns the rise in gangland killings in Richland.
This error in judgement to devote his department resources, despite SRO’s and roving patrols on our mean streets and cell phone tower dumps and unchecked GPS tracking of suspects cars until the courts ruled otherwise January 2012, to commit his sworn deputies utiliizing Multi-agency Narcotics Enforcement Teams combined with a well funded local Federal Prosecutors office in cohorts with equally well funded assorted federal law enforcement agencies is their colossal failure, a failure that will haunt the Midlands for generations.
His “tank” is an obsolete armored personnel carrier he got for free and has maintained by staff members who learned vehicle maintenance in the Army. It spends most of its time doing “community relations” as a static display – I don’t think they’ve ever deployed it.
The exercise was planned by the Army not by Lott. Lott was asked to participate in large part to help keep the public safe. This type of exercise has been going on for years at Fort Bragg and other forts throughout the country.
But hey, what’s a little hype between friends on a slow news day?
Fits would never take any story out of context.
Whoa…you’re guilty of allowing the facts to interfere with an opportunity to pander to rednecks. All political “discourse” in SC seems to come down to pandering to rednecks.
Even tiny North Augusta has a “tank”. Also 150 M-16,s according to one article.
Go figure.
Hey ‘Colonel’ –EXACTLY WHAT FRIGGIN’ POLICE STATE DO YOU LIKE LIVING IN?! TAKE YOUR POLICE STATE MENTALITY AND SHOVE IT WHERE THE SUN DON’T SHINE.
Besides not being able to digest a reasonable explanation, your caps lock seems to be stuck.
Police state, really?!? You wouldn’t know a police state if it bit you on what I am sure is an ample ass. I’ve lived and worked in a couple over the years you have no idea what you’re talking about. Leon is cooperating with the military to ensure no one gets hurt during a military training exercise. He might even being getting some training for his guys as well.
If you want to worry about something, worry about what your President is doing with the NSA, DIA, CIA, IRS and FBI.
Sir, please remember that most of the “police state” / Infowars / tin-foil-hat club members have never actually stood on a corner in a real “police state.” I have many times, and I would imagine that you have more often than I. That changes one’s perspective a bit, so I usually let them do their silly rants without getting too bogged down trying to explain to them what one of those places is actually like. If these kids had mutaween from the CPVPV knocking their door in (or even Putin’s relatively mild kinder/gentler KGB-turned-FSB), they would understand why I just can’t get frothy about Leon’s guys driving around in some old beater APC.
Absolute armored personnel carrier like that stupid neon blue POS the CPD just got?
Lott will do and say anything to be infront of a tv camera. One thing he hasnt accomplished is lowering the crime in his county. He came out a week or so ago saying crime has fallen, but murders are up. I dont believe him. And stunts like driving with their blue lights on all day is plain stupid. Hows that woring out? Their not smart enough to turn them off when in Lexington County. Only thing little man has going for him is that “D” after his name.
Now devolving into a poor man’s Infowars? Not that the trip was a long one…
It honestly would take the military to get certain portions of Richland County under control. I’ll take Lott over whatever the Columbia PD has to offer any day.
The hierarchy at CPD for the last three-plus years are Lott’s boyz. Chief Shorty, Santiago, and more, were once Lott’s fair-haired “children”. Of course, most of his “children” seem to be problem children. Scott’s “performance” speaks for itself and Lott saw to it that he had a Law Enforcement home to return to after his dismal failure as CPD Chief. Same with Santiago and his(“alleged”) “black ops” conspiracies, which have a degree of credibility as he has solicited other CPD employees’ assistance in “getting” other employees who he did not like. Years ago, current Columbia City Councilwoman Leona Plaugh was fired from her job as City Manager, ostensibly for having a “destroy” list of employees who she wanted to see removed in her desk. Apparently, such is now OK at Columbia City Government.
Then we have our current solicitor and his antics. He was once a highly-placed RCSD official under Lott and remains a prominent member of the “Lott Family”.
Columbia is the perfect shit hole city for the military to practice urban pacification. It’s got a large, government dependent contingent that only understands the barrel of a gun.
If the shit hits the fan, Leon’s tank isn’t going to be enough. Time to make the donuts Leon.
Anybody that befriends Joe Biden is completely suspect to me.
Lott is just offering the Military people an opportunity to train their troops in an actual urban environment. It’s not meant to provide military tactics to the local police to be used against private citizens. Lott’s doing a good thing, which is what he does most of the time.
This little lady has a mouthful to say that a good police officer should listen to and take heed from. I am usually supportive of LE, having quite a few friends who are in that business. I also will not hesitate to call it out when their activities are grossly wrong or worrisome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOsN-P5abVg
DON’T TRUST HIM, HE’S ON THE OBAMA CAMP WHEN IT COMES TO MARTIAL LAW.
Hi Aura! It is good to see you back, again!
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terrific example of why ‘local control’ is a red-herring and ‘federal oversight’ is actually a good thing. people are not capable of monitoring or making informed choices about local governance. the feds live under a media microscope. people who say they don’t trust the feds are living in a dream world – there is nothing to ‘trust’ about any level of government – but the locals are the ones robbing you blind with nobody watching them do it.
“but the locals are the ones robbing you blind”
Last I checked it was the Feds that put us in $54K of debt per person….not ole T-Bone.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Under his watch Richland IS the Detroit of the south, coppers and city council are putting more effort into squelching true reports about actual crime from showing up in the press than actually fighting crime …go Lott! and take the the colunia PD with you!
He has an incredibly shady past,and I don’t like him,but I wouldn’t call him a,’politician’.
Hi 9″! Actually, ALL Sheriffs are politicians. SInce they hold an elected office, the operations of their departments are almost invariably political in nature, to the detriment of justice and and their employees.
This is why you see so many Sheriffs, especially here in the South, who take it upon themselves to dictate who their deputies live and sleep with, even though it is really none of their damn business. They do this to pander to the church crowd, which usually accounts for a lot of their votes. To Lott’s credit, I am not aware of him trying to dictate living arrangements for his deputies, unlike Hollywood Jim in Kershaw County, and Metts in Lexington County.
Ft Bragg has been using McEntire for years for training. It is fenced in and out of the public eye. I would suspect the sheriff is using his Deputies for perimeter security. He will probably put on his dress blues to welcome them. He was instigator of making himself a Col. in the State Guard.