Did anyone see in the news
 

The Deputy Chief of Police and another officer resigned from the Fruitland Park Police Department after an FBI investigation turned up evidence against both as active in the Ku Klux Klan. I came in on the end of the story so didn't get it in its entirety but I was surprised to know there was active KKK in this area...

There's a story on it here FDLE: 2 Fruitland Park police officers in KKK | Lake County

Frightening and disgusting!

I saw the Deputy Chief resigned within a few minutes of being accused of having KKK ties. I do not recall what happened to the other one. He should have been fired a long time ago. The paper said he had 5 letters of reprimand and 1 demotion.

Amazing that right next to a bubble of the diverse minded people of The Villages that the festering boil of racism of the KKK exists.

On one hand, it is discouraging to realize that such primitive forms of hatred still exist in the US.

On the other hand, a step in the right direction even if it took the FBI to make things happen when the local authorities dragged their feet.

This isn't the first time that the Fruitland Park police have had ties to the KKK. About 5 years ago, an officer was dismissed for distributing KKK material while on the job.

Good Riddance. I wonder if the owner of the new area recently annexed had some hand in getting this done.

Unfortunately, this is a true legacy of this area. Northern Lake County was a bastion of KKK activity. The aftermath of this can be found in many communities throughout Central Florida, especially when you spend time with some of the locals that are native to this area. Having grown up in a small town in Ohio, I was truly shielded from this type of hatred. I have had numerous conversations with older folks that remember vividly life around here under this cloud. So for me, this news was not a bit surprising.

Well I was pretty surprised. I didn't know the KKK was still really an organization other than the skinhead variety.

Sadly, the KKK is still very much around. Not just here but around the country. The only organization that I loathe more is the Neo-Nazi party. Anyone that spouts hatred because of race, religion, sexual orientation is a blight against humanity and those people should be hung by their short hairs (actually, I think boiling them in oil would be too kind).

That it took the FBI to get rid of these two officers says a lot for line Fruitland Park PD. It is a shame they didn't clean up their department on their own. Wonder how many others are at least KKK sympathesizers.

KKK membership sinks 2 Florida cops

That made USA Today.

http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan

It just seems incredibly intellectually lazy to judge people by their color, sexual preference, age, gender, economic status, etc.

Fruitland Park has a dubious record as far as racism. Back in the days of Jim Crow, Florida had a higher per capita rate of lynchings than any state in the union.

The Lake County sheriff until the 70s was a know KKK member. His last last name was McCall, I believe. I work with a lady that has some interesting stories to tell dating back to the Groveland incident. Sad.....

This provides a bit of a backdrop: Floridian: A Southern sheriff's law and disorder

If anyone is interested, there is a fantastic fictional book written based on true events Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands. It is based on the Groveland Case but really enlightens one to the storied past of the area.