Santa Rosa County is just wrong on traffic enforcement on 87 under construction

For the last four months we have taken 87 which is under construction from Navarre to the Milton area. We have enjoyed watching the progress and how the project is coming together. What we have not enjoyed is the aggressive drivers speeding in construction zones. The posted speed limit is 45. We go 50 only because if we do not there will be 30 cars behind us as the average speed all week is about 65 to 70. We have only seen one or two stops in four months. Today we saw about six out of state stops on 87. It is so wrong to wait to spring break periods and pull over out of state drivers when near reckless driving happens every single day putting motorists and construction workers at risk. I am disgusted with the way LEO operates in the panhandle. I have argued on the PNJ about squads with their lights on every wed. and Sunday at churches, and the former officers on the PNJ tried to convince me that the Churches were paying for the officers, and that they drive their squads home anyway. I have never seen a more democratic machine politics like Mayor Daley, than Santa Rosa County. It is hard to get equal protection of the law with this blatant good old boy system. I will have my wife post more after I am gone, but it is simply wrong. So much poverty. So many people gaming the system with wealthy developers not meeting setback lines, road widths, paying impact fees, and having to upgrade commercial properties on change of ownership......two sets of rules in Santa Rosa County and Mayor Daley's Chicago.......the only difference, folks vote Republican, but they are all just old democrats who like the racial politics of the Republican Party where poor blacks are seen as getting something free like medicaid or food stamps, and they vote nationally Republican, but I have NEVER seen more dam gimme something for nothing democrats than Santa Rosa County. Hell, just watch the lawyer commercials.....they say it all.

Well, you know what the good ol' boys say to northerners who come down here and dare to criticize: "Why don't y'all just go back where y'all came from."

What I want to know is, did you get to the New Yorker last time you were down here (last week)? If so, order anything besides pizza?

We just did the pizza again. We told the kids about the Pizza place, but they do not want to drive all the way over to Pensacola from Navarre, and their kids are pretty much happy with a domino pizza. The problem I have is not the usual Yankee hate, I knew that well from my days in Birmingham......it was like the Civil War was fought twenty years ago, and the resentment was very strong in the fifties, but what is wrong to the core in America is unequal application of the law. It cannot be by accident that three squads were assigned to 87 pulling over motorist with non Florida plates. It was not a Yankee thing because we saw Georgia plates and Louisiana plates. Was it a shift supervisor who said"go to 87 and get some revenue" or did three squads just mysteriously show up along 87 and start writing tickets? I mean the speeding in the construction zone goes unchecked for four months, and spring break comes and suddenly the safety of the construction workers is important. Sorry, the panhandle reminds me of Mayor Daley's Chicago where police and fire are all part of patronage and good old boys.......people talk about crime in Chicago....well most of the problem in my opinion is with the police department which has so much political clout that they do what they want. I have never seen such a police state anywhere in the nation as all the police cars I see in Santa Rosa County. I mean it has been told to me that Santa Rosa has more churches per capita than anywhere in the nation, it has more retired and active military than anywhere in the nation, and I do not know how I would research the squad car ration per capita, but I have never seen anything like it. In my county, at night there are two squads for a county which is geographically larger than Santa Rosa, but not quite as populous. Our crime rate is less, but we are predominately agriculture and non urban. Our police officers will write a ticket to a resident or non resident without intentionally targeting out of area Americans. How does an area develop such a mindset, and what precursors caused this reality?

I mean the same logic applies to the resentment of beach residents. Especially, the resentment toward Portifino (sp). I mean I have heard folks who are neighbors speak with glee that those "visitors" are finally paying taxes. Folks just have this built up resentment, which I understood when I was on the beach when my neighbors had an arrogance that they should not have to support the schools or roads because they paid a lease fee........like that small amount was going to educate a child in a public school. I guess their is long held resentment about out of area folks having resources to buy on the beach, but it was not until portifino that I heard such overt discrimination against wealth and "visitors". I have NEVER seen this attitude in my rural community. Hell, folks are happy as pigs in chit when the tourists visit some of our state parks, and campgrounds as their economic activity help keep things open. In a rural community, the in town gas station is often the only business. It has fresh bread, milk, and staples which would require a drive of ten miles to the next town over. So when those tourists stop and get gas and buy beer, the owner keeps the business open. I have seen two towns near us close their gas stations which were relatively new buildings because they were not selling gas or product in store. This all but killed the town. In rural areas we have seen over the last thirty years school consolidation which means the lifeblood of a small town which is their school is often being closed. So I just do not understand this deep seated resentment toward visitors, and I certainly do not understand law enforcement not giving every American equal protection of law.

Wasn't Santa Rosa the town where the pod people invaded in that old movie? Bob probably remembered that movie.