The silence is deafening

Over 7 months ago, on Aug. 15, 2010, City of Miami Commissioner Richard Dunn stood shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Tomas Regaldo and Miami polce chief Miguel Exposito at a press conference where it was announced that Miami police were going to "take back the streets."

"This is not a public relations show; this is the real thing," said Regalado.

"There will be zero tolerance to this criminal activity," said Dunn.

Ten days later, - after police had fanned out and killed 4 men in high crime areas - a squeamish Dunn suddenly decided that "zero tolerence" wasn't such a good idea after all.

Now, said Dunn, "we're going to pray that the violence ends."

And by last January, Dunn was likening Exposito to Fidel Castro.

After a man was killed and another wounded in a police shooting last Feb. 11, calls for Exposito to be fired grew louder.

The Miami Herald reported, "The shooting brought instant criticism from Miami Commissioner Richard P. Dunn II, an Exposito critic who has campaigned for the chief’s removal."

“It looks like the chief has succeeded in creating a culture in the police department of shoot first and ask questions later. Unfortunately, it only seems to happen in District 5,” the Herald quoted Dunn as saying.

Sunday night there was another shooting in Overtown.

Barbara Smith-Brown was pulling out of a parking spot in the 1900 block of NW 5th Place, when gunshots rang out.

“I never thought in a million years that I would be in a hospital, that I would be shot or my son would be shot,” said Smith-Brown.
[...]
Police say a bullet went through the passenger side door, striking 8-year old Cody in the arm and Smith-Brown in the knee.

“I thought I was going to die and I was feeling that I wanted to stay alive,” recalled Cody.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Rick of SFDB wrote this morning, "Thank goodness Miami Police weren't around because they probably would have shot the perps."

Ironically, Smith-Brown and her son were shot just a few blocks from the site of a memorial wall that pays tribute to the victims of the police shootings.

Commissioner Dunn, who hoped to stop the violence with prayer, has been uncharacteristically mum on the shooting of Smith-Brown and her boy. Not a peep.

The Miami Herald, has also been silent and has yet to print a word on Sunday's shooting. A frequent critic of aggressive policing, the paper often chooses to ignore the real causes of violence in the 'hood by simply not reporting it.

Also not talking: Members of the community near NW 19 St. and 5th Place where the shooting occurred.

Other than telling police that the shooters were on bicycles, no one has provided the cops with a detailed description according to William Moreno of the Miami Police Department.

And that's strange.

In a neighborhood where everyone often knows everyone else, no one has called police to identify the shooters who rode to the scene on bicycles and who were seen arguing minutes before the shooting.

All of a sudden, the silence is deafening.