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| Raphael Herman. (Miami-Dade Corrections photo) |
Miami Beach police have arrested wacky Miami Beach mayoral candidate Raphael Herman and charged him with aggravated battery, assault and criminal mischief following an incident that took place on a bus Sunday afternoon.
According to the arrest report, Herman, 67, boarded a Miami-Dade transit bus at 41st Street at Alton Road.
Police say Herman immediately became aggressive toward black passengers who refused to move so that he could sit down because he was elderly.
Herman then turned his attention to the female bus driver, who is also black, "verbally abusing" her, police say.
The driver stopped the bus at 41st Street and Indian Creek Drive where Herman, the bus driver, and another male passenger got into an argument over Herman’s behavior.
After Herman and a male passenger got off the bus, cops say that at some point Herman "armed himself with a wooden flag pole and began to wildly swing it."
Herman, still swinging the flag pole, narrowly missed striking the male passenger on several occasions. The passenger blocked some of the blows and finally was able to punch Herman in the face.
Another passenger intervened and stopped the fight.
After the cops arrived and started interviewing the driver and passengers, according to the arrest report, Herman said, "all blacks always stick together" and that if cops didn't arrest them he "would have them killed in 24 hours." Herman also told the cops that he was a member of the Israeli Special Forces and a candidate for mayor.
After his arrest, Herman told cops he wasn't feeling well so they took him to Mt. Sinai Hospital.
Herman was booked into jail at 9:15 last night.
It's not Herman's first arrest while running for mayor.
Thirty years ago, Herman - a perennial candidate for Beach mayor - was "arrested and charged with fleeing arrest after parking his campaign truck in a no-parking zone," according to a 1983 Herald story.
That year Herman was running on a platform of ridding Miami Beach of terrorists, telling the Herald that the city "was overrun not by tourists but by terrorists."
An Oct. 30, 1983 Herald story quoted Herman: "I am used to terrorists, and I know how to deal with them. Elect me as mayor."
...and to think: 107 Miami Beach voters decided on Tuesday that THIS was who they wanted for their next mayor.
ReplyDeleteEgads.
For someone who obviously has a frail state of mind, maybe being refused a seat at the front of the bus triggered this breakdown?
ReplyDeleteIt isn't mentioned if the people refusing to seat him were elderly or not.