I'm a frequent business traveler, always going to different states where people are much more friendly than Florida residents. This is more of a warning for tourists.
When exiting the airport (arrivals pick-up area) beware of the extremely rude security officers on patrol. I always have a ride waiting to pick me up within minutes of steping onto the ramp. We communicate by cell phone to time it perfectly and to blend in with the "rush" of Florida traffic. My ride pulls up, luggage is loaded, and then we're off very quickly. Tourists that aren't used to Florida will generally take much longer. Even as quickly as we perform this routine exercise, 99% of the time, we still get the security officers yelling and verbally abusing us to move. So almost every time I come home, I get more and more angry that the people are so rude and have come to hate it here. More importantly, this is the "Welcome to Florida" our tourists are getting.
A few days ago was the last straw. I was ahead of a bus pickup area, not directly in front of it. Surprisingly, there was no other traffic around. My ride pulled up, got out of the car to put my suitcase in the back. Before he even had his car door open a "security guard", (not a police officer) stormed up to him and began yelling and threatening. I got in the car as soon as he stopped the car. He had his ticket book open and said how many tickets should I write you? My ride, who happens to be a Ft. Lauderdale Fire Fighter of 15 years, just ignored him because this guy was wrong and there was nothing he could do with his screaming and ridiculous threats. My ride very calmly said, "my friend is already in the car." The security guard then said, "And tell your dopey friend to not stand at a bus stop next time." My friend calmly told him to have a nice day and then got in the car.
After doing some research, I've found that the Broward's Sheriff Dept. Oversees the security there. There's a branch that works under them called ASO or Broward County Operations Agents. I'm doing a lot of work to try to put this to an end. I wonder how many people go home with horror stories of how awful Floridians are because of experiences like this.
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