The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the Jacksonville Florida Sheriff's department. They get the award for the following.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office says the victim of a police shooting over the weekend on the Southside is 81-year-old Isaac Singletary.

Police say the shooting happened after they ordered Singletary to drop his weapon.

Police say they had no choice but to shoot Singletary.

"If you've got an individual that's got a firearm, then you have to do what you have to do based on your training to protect your life or protect the lives of others," said the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Director of Homeland Security and Investigations, Micheal Edwards.

Edwards says the undercover narcotics unit was using the area near Singletary's yard to bust drug operations in the neighborhood.

He says words were exchanged between the undercover officers and Singletary.

What exactly was said is under investigation.

Edwards says JSO is also investigating whether police identified themselves to Singletary before the shooting.

"The policy is that if you have the opportunity to identify yourself, we will identify ourselves," said Edwards.

Some who say they saw the shooting have a very different story. Neighbors there refer to Singletary as 'Pops.'

"That's the first thing he did. He came outside and asked, 'Will you please get off my property? You have no business on my property. You know you're wrong, get off my property.' The next thing you know, he said, 'He's got a gun.' So he ran around the tree and he shot Pops. Pops fell right here. Pops fired some shots, but all his shots hit the tree because the dude was behind the tree. That's exactly how it went," said Price Benton III, a neighbor.

Reporter: "Do you think he knew they were officers?"

"How? They didn't have nothing on that said, POLICE. After the man told them to get out of his yard, they didn't say, 'We're holding a police investigation out here, or we're officers.' They didn't say none of that," said Shafonda Boyeoten, a neighbor.

Boyeoten says everyone in their neighborhood knows not to go into Singletary's yard. She says even the drug dealers know it and respect it.

"He's real mean. He don't let nobody in his yard. You know, he don't play. So we respect him for that because he's an elderly man," said Boyeoten.

Police say they are investigating the shooting, and the two officers involved in the shooting are on standard paid administrative leave.

A story all too eerily similar to this one. Police in general don't like their authority being questioned. They are quick to turn paranoid, even towards law abiding citizens. I know, a few years ago I ran into just one such imbecile here in Palm Beach County. Needing help for a broken down car, I waved down a cop. He responded as if I had raped someone, soon there were 3 police cruisers on scene.

So here in Jacksonville someone goes to see who is on their property and gets shot and killed for his trouble. And police say they have no choice? Shooting innocent people is fair game in these people's minds. If that is the attitude of police, no one is safe and therefore the Jacksonville Florida Sheriff's department is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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