Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony flew into a closed door rage against his deputies at Wednesday’s special Broward County Commission meeting in Parkland following an attempted handshake from a local activist. Tony joined numerous elected officials and reporters for the swearing ceremony of new County Commissioners Torey Alston and Jared Moskowitz at Parkland City Hall. Chris Nelson, a local resident who gained notoriety for highlighting the hypocrisy of officials during the COVID-19 lockdown, also attended the ceremony.

On his Facebook page, Nelson shared photographs and video of his encounters with Broward’s elected elite. County Commissioners Mark Bogen, Tim Ryan and Jared Moskowitz posed with Nelson. But Nelson’s attempted interaction with the notoriously thin-skinned Sheriff Tony ended with BSO deputies getting yelled at by their boss.

According to a longtime BSO official, Sheriff Tony did not appreciated close contact with the Broward resident. The official told REDBROWARD that Tony took two deputies into a Parkland City Hall conference room and demanded they disable their body cameras.

Once inside the room, Tony excoriated the deputies for failing to keep a twenty-five foot buffer between himself and the public. Tony told his deputies he is “the most important person” in Broward County. Tony said punishment would result if they failed to maintain the buffer.

Video posted by Nelson after the ceremony shows Sheriff Tony gladly posing for pictures with everyone but Nelson. Also, the layout of city hall made any twenty-five foot buffer impractical. Deputies would need to keep Nelson or any member of public out of the public building when Tony was present.

More to come…