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NOV 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 11

  • Text
  • Art acevedo
  • Officer killed
  • Officer shot
  • Kareem atkins
  • Ptsd
  • Warstories
  • Blues police
  • The blues
  • Police magazine
  • Police news
  • Wwwbluespdmagcom
  • Retirement
  • Hiring
  • Carollo
  • Cuban
  • Commissioners
  • Atkins
  • October
  • Enforcement
  • Acevedo
NOV 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 11 FEATURE STORIES: Remembering Those We’ve Lost Deputy Constable Kareem Atkins • Remembering Those We’ve Lost to COVID • Remembering Those We’ve Lost to LOD Deaths • The Rise & Fall of Art Acevedo • Who Wants To Be A Cop Part 7 DEPARTMENTS: • Publisher’s Thoughts • Editor’s Thoughts • Guest Editorial w/Daniel Rivero • Your Thoughts • News Around the US • Products & Services -Alternative Ballistics • Honoring our Fallen Heroes • War Stories • Aftermath • Open Road-Mustang Mach E Goes to Patrol • Healing Our Heroes • Daryl’s Deliberations • HPOU-From the President, Douglas Griffith • Light Bulb Award • Running 4 Heroes • Blue Mental Health with Tina Jaeckle • Off Duty with Rusty Barron • Parting Shots • Now Hiring - L.E.O. Positions Open in Texas • Back Page -Let's Go Brandon

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comment about the pushback he was receiving that would change everything. He reportedly said: “Miami is run by the Cuban mafia.” Backlash Against Chief’s Comments The comment angered the Fraternal Order of Police and Cuban-American members of the city of Miami commission. They said the comments echoed attacks Cuban dictator Fidel Castro would lob at the Cuban exile community in an effort to discredit them. The police chief issued an apology, saying he was not aware of the history of the “Cuban Mafia” being used as a slur. But the comment was enough. A series of city commission meetings was soon called, entirely aimed at scrutinizing the police chief — and possibly pressuring the city manager to fire him. In the days leading up to the first meeting, the police chief issued a scathing memo in which he accused the three Cuban American commissioners of misconduct, interfering in internal affairs investigations, and possible corruption. He called on the FBI to investigate the commissioners, who make up three-fifths of the commission, and painted the criticism against him as a political witch hunt of the sort practiced by the Cuban dictatorship. “If I or MPD give in to the improper actions described herein, as a Cuban immigrant, I and my family might as well have remained in communist Cuba, because Miami and MPD would be no better than the oppressive regime and the police state we left behind,” Acevedo wrote in the memo. The commissioners categorically say all of the accusations of misconduct and possible corruption are false. The FBI has acknowledged it is aware of the allegations in the memo, but the nature of any potential ongoing investigation, if any, are not known. The memo and the “Cuban Mafia” comment loomed large over the commission meetings. “If he had used the same adjective to any, any — think about any ethnic group — any. And said this is the “whatever mafia” and said they are similar to the people who oppress them,” said Commissioner Reyes. “He would have been long gone,” interrupted Commissioner Diaz De La Portilla. “Oh, hell yes,” said Reyes. The commissioners voiced frustration that the police chief only issued an apology over Twitter, and that he did not do Spanish language radio interviews to apologize for his comments. Commissioner Joe Carollo led the meetings and he called the police chief’s Cuban roots into question. The chief was born in Havana but moved to the United Stated at four years old. Unlike the commissioners, Acevedo’s family moved to Los Angeles shortly after arriving in the U.S. He is not a Miami Cuban, a point Carollo drove home at the meetings. “He says he is Cuban but I still haven’t seen anything about his past, not even his college transcripts, there hasn’t been any investigation,” Carollo told reporters in Spanish. “That he says he is Cuban and that he acts like a Cuban are different things. Because this man has never cared about Cuba until he got here.” EVOKING THE M-WORD? Cuban American Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo holding forth against new Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo during a special commission meeting on Monday. Referring to comments that the chief made at a Patria y Vida event in July that were critical of the Cuban regime, Carollo said the chief only then decided to act like a “real Cuban.” “He was born in Cuba, but then because he’s Cuban, he was born in Cuba, he has the right to offend us like that?” asked commissioner Reyes, referring to the “Cuban Mafia” comment. “I mean Castro was Cuban too. Fidel Castro was born in Cuba, and the people that are oppressing the Cuban people, they were born in Cuba, too.” A Reformer or Not a Reformer? The in-fighting, ethnic undertones to the ongoing dispute conceal another potential motivation for going after the police chief, said Stephen Hunter Johnson, the chair of the Black Affairs Advisory Board of Miami-Dade County. Johnson was on the hiring committee that interviewed potential police chiefs and said he was unhappy about the way the chief was directly recruited and hired, but he broadly approves of the actions taken by the chief to restructure the leadership of the department. “To the extent that he made a comment about the ‘Cuban Mafia’ and he found himself in hot water — not necessarily because there is no such thing, but because Fidel used that term to describe Miami Cubans — takes away from what it was that he was identifying,” said Johnson. “Which is: There’s a homogeneous clique of people who have exercised inordinate control in decision making within the Miami PD, and I think it has to stop. And I bet you there were hosts of Black officers and white officers who were in their heads clapping.” “The chief’s offense is literally bucking the good old boy network in place. That’s his offense,” Johnson said. Notably, members of the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association — a black police union — support the police chief. Dana Carr is a major in the police department, and secretary of the union, and said the department has a long “history of allowing corrupt behavior” and of alienating any officers who try to break the mold. “These practices were allowed by senior leadership,” she said. “Chief Acevedo was brought here to institute reform and he deserves the opportunity to do so. Reform isn’t pretty to police officers because it goes against the blue wall of silence and some of the friends of the family will have to be held accountable. Which may include up and to termination. But reform is necessary.” Stanley Jean-Poix, the union president, told commissioners the chief has started much-needed reforms within the police department. “When he came into the department, he was the first chief I ever saw conduct a department-wide survey to give our opinions on what we thought was important. He brought the interview process back to specialized units. Before that it was the chief and his friends pick and choose whoever they wanted, there was no chance of advancement if you weren’t in the clique,” said Jean-Poix. “He formed committees talking about what are the right qualifications if you want to move up to become a staff member — what can you do to make yourself a better candidate? Before, no one ever told us that.” “He brought diversity as you can see. We have now white females in certain positions, white males, we have blacks,” he said. An internal poll released by the Fraternal Order of Police, however, shows that a majority of officers do not have confidence in the police chief. The Fraternal Order of Police is the union that handles contract negotiations for the police department. Commissioner Carollo says the police chief is guilty of hypocrisy and that he is in fact protecting bad officers. Minor damage to the chief of police’s vehicle recently went unreported, the same offense for which he previously fired the police couple. In a commission meeting, photos of the vehicle damage were shown and the city manager acknowledged the proper paperwork was not filed in a timely manner, as required. And Carollo pointed to one notorious officer who has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements for excessive use of force. That officer was previously on desk duty but has been let back onto the street and has recently been raking in money on overtime on the police chief’s watch, Carollo said. “This chief was the one that got him out, got him a five percent raise and look at all the overtime,” said Carollo, raising his voice. “The fake reformer. Mr. Acevedo — the fake reformer.” The Chief’s Past, And Future, In Question A central focus of the two commission meetings was Chief Acevedo’s history in law enforcement prior to joining the Miami Police Department. Commissioner Carollo spent hours reading a laundry list of scandals and accusations from the chief’s past, dating back to the 1980s when he was with the California Highway Patrol. For example, the commissioner cited a scandal involving the mistreatment of rape test kits when Acevedo was the chief of police in Austin, Texas. In a surreal moment, he showed video of a pair of fundraisers the chief participated in, dating from 2008. Carollo froze the image to comment on the bulge in the chief’s pants, calling his character into question. “That he would go out publicly with pants like that, in that fashion, where his midsection are in pants so tight like this — is this something that you would believe is appropriate for a police chief?” Carollo rhetorically asked the city manager. “The only time that you would see me like that is when I played football, but that’s because I had a jock strap.” Some of the accusations and scandals read into the record were either unsubstantiated or lacking full context. One scandal cited by Commissioner Carollo dating back to the 1980s was over the chief allegedly showing nude pictures of a subordinate to other officers. However, Acevedo won 16 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 17

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