Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Today's classic Don Wright cartoon


Hotel and restaurant magnate J. Willard Marriott makes plans for an "Honor America Day" celebration on July 4th, 1970.

And Miami News cartoonist Don Wright imagined what the celebration's organizers might do with a captured hippie....


Miami News cartoon by Don Wright.
June 21, 1970.

(Click image to enlarge)




Monday, June 29, 2015

The way we were....Cops try to shut down Miami's first underground newspaper in the Summer of '69


via Coconut Grove Grapevine

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Jerry Powers was ahead of his time.

In the summer of 1969, Miami cops did everything they could to harass Powers, who was the 22-year-old publisher of the Miami Free Press and the Daily Planet, Miami's first underground newspapers - including arresting the paper's teen-age newsboys. Police called the paper's contents, "obscene."


Associated Press,  April 21, 1969.

Powers told the AP, "One morning we may wake up with a 1984 situation here in Florida, where the police can do anything they want."

In August 1969, Powers dared cops to arrest him.

From a 2009 Miami New Times story:
Jerry Powers strolls the sidewalk outside the stately Biltmore Way entrance to Coral Gables City Hall. An impish 23-year-old New Jersey native with a shaggy black mop top and mutton-chop sideburns, he carries a newspaper bundle under his left arm. It is the ninth issue of the Daily Planet and Miami Free Press, a fledgling underground newspaper he founded four months earlier.

Around 10 a.m. August 25, 1969, the muggy air causes his dark polyester slacks to cling to his legs. But the stifling heat does not deter him.

Near the Mediterranean-revival building's front door, Powers hands a newspaper to a heavyset, silver-maned man, who unfolds the tabloid to reveal a front-page spoof of the City of Miami's plans to annex Coconut Grove. Powers gives copies to three other passersby.

He's daring the cops to arrest him.

Inside city hall, Coral Gables City Attorney Charles Spooner addresses a gaggle of reporters crowding his desk. The well-groomed lawyer with a Brylcreem pompadour and a tightly knotted tie says the Daily Planet is obscene and has no place in Dade County. Eight merchants who carry the twice-monthly publication have been threatened with arrest. "Perhaps we are a little bit more backcountry than a big city like San Francisco," he says. "From reading [the Daily Planet], I don't know how it meets the social needs of our community."

Powers presses on as four Gables cops approach. A tall one wearing Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses takes a copy of the Daily Planet, peruses it, and then abruptly grabs Powers's right arm. "You are under arrest for distributing obscene material," he announces while walking Powers to a squad car. The fledgling publisher sits comfortably in the back seat, his right arm hanging out the window. A reporter asks if the arrest was a surprise.

"We sort of expected this to happen because the people in Coral Gables are used to burning books," Powers declares. "The city attorney, by the way, and this is a fact and I have documentation, is on a mailing list [for] sex literature. I think [this is] his motive for causing this arrest."

"Move away," the cop barks. "No one should be talking to this man."

_________


Miami News, Aug. 26, 1969.

In 1974, the Daily Planet ceased publication.

In 1992, Powers launched Ocean Drive magazine.



Wednesday, June 24, 2015

The way we were...Miami's Highway Singles Club


Single and lonely in Miami in the 80s?

Well, there was always the "Highway Singles Club." Somehow, this idea never became ... "a thing."







Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Here's proof that prolonged exposure to the Internet will make you stupid



Wondering what the latest Internet outrage is?

This.


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That's right. Hordes of keyboard commandos are outraged that the Shelby police department bought accused mass murderer Dylann Roof a hamburger after his arrest.

The Internet masses have taken a single line from a newspaper story about Roof's arrest and blown it all out of proportion.
In Shelby, the FBI handled Roof’s initial questioning, Ledford said. Shelby police’s lone conversation with the mass-murder suspect was about food. Earlier in the day, Roof had bought water and chips at a south Charlotte gas station. Now he was hungry. Police bought him food from a nearby Burger King, Ledford said.

“He was very quiet, very calm. He didn’t talk,” Ledford said. “He sat down here very quietly. He was not problematic.”

"Police treat Dylann Roof to Burger King while unarmed Black suspects continue to die," someone tweeted.

Another tweet: "Arresting Officers Bought #DylannRoof Burger King. Think about this the next time an unarmed brother dies in custody."

Another tweeter called the act of buying Roof a hamburger, "white privilege."

And on this story on New York Magazine's website, someone commented: "This is disgusting. It's not the fact that he was fed, it's what they gave him. Burger King is a treat! Someone who just murdered nine people does not deserve a treat. Give him a slice of bread and a piece of bologna."

Thanks to the Internet, we are all experts. And all stupid.

But had any of those commenters done a little research, they might have discovered that buying some fast food for those arrested for even the most heinous of crimes is not unusual.

RECIPE FOR A CONFESSION: TWO ALL-BEEF PATTIES . . .

Miami Herald
March 24, 1996
MANNY GARCIA, Herald Staff Writer
Edition: FINAL
Section: FRONT
Page: 1A

First came the lie detector test. Now comes the "Truth Whopper."

In Dade County, more and more detectives are learning that fast food helps them solve robberies, burglaries, even murders.

"The quickest way to a confession is through a man's stomach," said Kent Hart, a Hialeah homicide detective.

Nauseated by the prospect of jailhouse cuisine, defendants are trading confessions for one last Big Mac, chicken sandwich, pizza or Whopper -- which detectives countywide swear is the meal that reels in the most confessions.

"We should open an account at Burger King," Hart said. "Every time we walk in, they ask, 'Are you taking confessions tonight?' "

The public saw the payoff of feeding a suspect during the Jimmy Ryce investigation. Metro-Dade cops made sure that Juan Carlos Chavez regularly ate during more than 50 hours of questioning before he allegedly confessed to the killing.

"If I ate, he ate," said Pat Diaz, the lead investigator in the Ryce case.

"The name of the game now is feed them and schmooze them," said David Waksman, a Dade prosecutor and former Bronx beat cop. "If you keep a guy in custody and he is hungry and you don't feed him, you have deprived him of his rights, and that is illegal."


Police, at the request of prosecutors, routinely write down everything they feed defendants. Sometimes they corroborate it with a photograph.

After Charles Pitts asked robbery detectives for a Wendy's double cheeseburger, they snapped a Polaroid.

The Chavez and Pitts cases are but one example. Court records and police files show heaps of fast-food-induced confessions. "Our trade secret," Metro robbery detective Steve Brajdic said.

Among those who have succumbed to the hamburger: Gerardo Plaza.

"Buy me a Whopper," Hialeah police said he told them after his arrest in February 1995.

Detectives Hart and Bassam Fadel bought him a Whopper combo meal, which includes fries and a Coke. Between bites, Plaza allegedly confessed to a liquor store robbery and murder.

"Well, you got your Whopper's worth," Plaza reportedly said, purposely omitting the ending of the story, so he could add, "I'm really hungry. Buy me a cheese steak."

So take a chill pill, Internet...and then go back to watching your cat videos.




Monday, June 22, 2015

The South Beach photographs of Andy Sweet


Miami Beach resident proudly shows off her velour 
suit in Lummus Park. (Andy Sweet)
(Click here to enlarge)


In the late 1970s and early 1980s, photographer Andy Sweet roamed a the streets of a very different South Beach.

Long before the supermodels and movie crews showed up, Sweet shadowed So Be's elderly residents, photographing them as they went about their daily activities.

Then, in 1982, just as Sweet was beginning to make a name for himself, he was murdered in his apartment at 215 30th St. on Miami Beach.

From the Washington Post:
Throughout the 1970s, a young photographer named Andy Sweet documented the personalities of Miami in vivid color. In 1977, Sweet returned to the area after completing his studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and set out to document South Beach’s vivid old-world culture. His subjects–predominantly the quirky, stylish, eclectic elderly residents, many of them Jewish–either grew up in the Miami area or were the snow birds who flocked there and found a nest for life.

Sweet died in 1982 at the age of just 29, but his vivid archive continues to epitomize South Beach (SOBE) culture and aesthetics. The Andy Sweet Photo Legacy was established in his memory and continues to display his work with hopes of publish a book of Sweet’s work in the future.

A well-dressed man crosses a deserted Ocean Drive. In the 
background, Andy’s well-used old car. (Andy Sweet)
(Click here to enlarge)

A big grin from a nautical character in the 
park. (Andy Sweet)
(Click here to enlarge)


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Miami Herald, Dec. 5, 1982: Andy Sweet | A portrait

Washington Post: Vivid 1970s Miami Beach culture: All quirk, no vice

Andy Sweet: The Miami Beach pictures

Facebook: Andy Sweet Photo Legacy



Sunday, June 21, 2015

The way we were....Miami Beach cops take down cocaine lab in the Summer of '85


June 19, 1985: Thirty years ago this week, Miami Beach cops evacuated about 1,000 residents from nine apartment buildings after a cocaine lab filled with volatile chemicals was discovered in a penthouse apartment at 6855 Abbott Ave.

The cops moved the chemicals to a nearby beach and blew them up.






Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine is 'getting things done'


Possible first line of Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine's autobiography:
"My journey to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue began with a tacky 

welcome sign on 5th Street."


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Miami Beach's full-time, millionaire populist mayor, and part-time parking enforcement officer, Philip Levine wants you to know he's "getting things done."





Welcome to Miami Beach
“Welcome to Miami Beach” sign on 5th street is up and running again. It’s all about getting things done. #MiamiBeach #MBMayor
Posted by Mayor Philip Levine on Thursday, June 18, 2015



Thursday, June 18, 2015

Congrats to Eliott Rodriguez on being named "Best TV news anchor" by Miami New Times


Eliott Rodriguez, CBS 4 anchor and Don Corleone look-alike.
Photo illustration by rakonturmiami's David Cypkin


Miami New Times has named CBS4 anchor Eliott Rodriguez, Miami's "Best TV News Anchor" for 2015.

New Times says, "With decades of experience covering every single area of Miami, Rodriguez is like the godfather of local TV news."

Congrats, Eliott! Not bad for a guy who sometimes gets mistaken for Tom Brokaw at the local coffee shop.




Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Coming Friday in the Miami Herald - Cops, cash and the cartels



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UPDATED on Friday, June 19: Read the complete Miami Herald series by clicking here.

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Watch videos from the series by clicking here.

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Looks like the Miami Herald is taking another look at the Bal Harbour Police Department and all that drug money they collected a few years ago. 




"How an undercover sting operation generated millions for a police task force that never made a single arrest. A Miami Herald I-Team report coming Friday."






Donald Trump is running for president. God help us all




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Trump Vows to Create Jobs for Comedians

NEW YORK - Businessman Donald Trump entered the Presidential race today, telling the nation's comedians, "I'm doing this for you." Trump said he hoped his candidacy would fill the void of ridicule created by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's failure to enter the race. "There are far too many unemployed comedians in this nation," Trump said. "I'm going to put you back to work." Just hours after entering the race, a new poll of comedians showed Trump in first place, pulling ahead of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. -via Andy Borowitz





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Thursday, June 11, 2015

Meet Ruby Evans, the Internet's latest viral Superstar


Ruby Evans - aka Courtney Barnes - witnessed a crash involving a police car in Jackson, MS the other day.

The TV reporters showed up and asked Ruby what she saw.

She gave them what just might be the best car crash description, ever. (Even better than this.)







Wednesday, June 10, 2015

McKinney Texas cops crash pool party....the footage CNN didn't show you





Stephanie Kienzle doesn't like the New York Times bashing Marco Rubio




Stephanie Kienzle blogs about North Miami and North Miami Beach politics.

But yesterday, she left the reservation - without permission - and went off on the New York Times for its coverage last week of Sen. Marco Rubio's driving record, and then Monday's story on his finances.

"Gotta love the New York Times!" she wrote, "Last night this tweet went viral."


Kienzle.
Continuing, she wrote: "This morning, the New York Times corrected its online story, but too little, too late. Screen shots are FOREVER!"

Problem is, Stephanie had it all wrong. The newspaper page in that tweet wasn't from the New York Times, it was from a newspaper called the East Oregonian.

But Stephanie is a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth, right-wing, certifiable nut job who can't be bothered with trivial facts.

In her post, Stephanie went on to chastise the Times for the Rubio driving record story. No surprise there....just about everyone has.

But Stephanie takes it a step further, writing, "Not one mention by the New York Times about the undeniably looniest politician on either side of the aisle, Alan Grayson (who happens to be a Democrat), who caused a horrific car accident on March 12, 2012, when he ran a red light and drove his Mercedes into a bus on his way to a fundraiser. Two people were injured."

(More irony: Stephanie Kienzle called someone "loony.")

Hey, Steph, the Times probably hasn't mentioned Grayson's car crash, because, why should they?

Last time I checked, the Times doesn't report on every car crash that every politician is involved in. And besides, is Grayson running for president? I'm sure if he was, they'd do a story on it.

When I pointed out to Stephanie that she had her facts wrong when she attributed the front page error to the Times, her response was, "Of course you ignored the real story about how the MSM attacks Republicans but gives Dems a pass. Like you just did. SMH!"

Yes, Steph, it's all one huge mainstream media conspiracy to make Marco look bad. There, feel better now?

By the way, it was Kienzle who last year sent me an email questioning why I posted a video of Barack Obama taking a walk.

In her email, Kienzle reminded me that she wasn't a racist. It was his policies she didn't like. Umm, yeah.



The Random Pixels Losers Corner welcomes....




....Alberto Iber, principal of North Miami Senior High School.

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UPDATE: Iber has been removed from his post as principal at North Miami Senior High. 

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Iber lands in the Losers Corner, because, well, he's a loser!

I mean, what else would you call someone who, in 2015, still has no idea that everything posted on the Internet can be instantly seen by everyone?

From the Miami Herald:
The principal of North Miami Senior High School inadvertently injected himself into the racially charged national debate over police treatment of blacks with a social media comment — and apologized on Tuesday after hearing the backlash.

Cell phone footage from McKinney, Texas, caught white officer David Eric Casebolt throwing a black teenage girl to the ground, then briefly drawing his gun while responding to a call about an unruly pool party. The incident last week was just the latest in a string of encounters that have sparked charges of abusive police treatment of minorities.
[...]
North Miami Senior High Principal Alberto Iber — in a brief public post on a story on the Miami Herald’s web site — defended the officer’s response.

“He did nothing wrong,” Iber wrote in a comment that showed his Facebook picture, name, school and title. “He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions.”
[...]
Iber, who just finished his first year as the head of North Miami Senior, said he meant to write the comment anonymously.

“I regret that I posted the comment as it apparently became newsworthy and has apparently upset people,’’ he said. “That was not my intention in any way.”


Sunday, June 07, 2015

The way we were...Feb. 1962 - Dade County welcomes its one-millionth resident


LIFE Magazine, Aug. 17, 1962. 

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Feb. 1, 1962: The Miami - Dade Chamber of Commerce selects Minas Edward Nicolaides as Dade County's official one-millionth resident after he wins an essay writing contest.

Nicolaides, and more than 100 other people who had moved to Dade between September 1961 and February 1962 submitted essays to the Chamber on why they chose to move to Dade County.

Miami News, Feb. 1, 1962.


Nicolaides, who earned $9,000 a year as an electronics engineer, received more than $5,000 in prizes, including fishing rods, golf clubs, a silver service, a stay at a hotel, a blimp ride, water-skiing lessons and "tickets for nearly everything in South Florida," according to LIFE Magazine.

But four months later Nicolaides was gone.

He'd had enough of South Florida.

"His whereabouts is a mystery. But it could be (horrors!) California," the Miami News reported. (He'd actually moved to Arizona.)


Miami News, June 12, 1962.


Minas Edward
Nicolaides
When he was selected as Dade's millionth resident, his wife told the Miami News, "He has an overwhelming desire to live here that amounts to an obsession....it would take a stick of dynamite to get him out."

But in an August 17, 1962 LIFE Magazine article, Nicolaides talked about Dade's County's shortcomings: "There wasn't a park for miles and only a couple of public beaches, and they were dirty."

He also told LIFE that South Florida's cockroaches were so big "they fight back if you corner them. I told my neighbors if they heard me screaming it meant cockroaches were after me and they should try to save themselves."



Saturday, June 06, 2015

How bad is a roach in a slice of a kid's pizza? Probably not as bad as a steady diet of what passes for TV news these days.


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Click images to enlarge.
Local 10 "reporter" Jeff Weinsier is a perfect example of why you should limit your consumption of TV news.

A couple of nights ago, colleague Calvin Hughes breathlessly introduced one of Weinsier's "Dirty Dining" reports with these words: "....a Dirty Dining EXCLUSIVE...a disgusting discovery at an end of the year pizza party at a South Florida kindergarten class. A student discovered a topping that had legs! Local 10 investigator Jeff Weinsier is live now with the pictures and reaction you'll see only on Local 10!"

In his piece, Weinsier, Local 10's Chief Rat Shit Investigator, squandered three minutes of a 30 minute newscast talking about a bug in a slice of pizza.

Somehow, Weinsier got word that a roach had been found in some pizza that had been served to a student at the pizza party at Rainbow Park Elementary School in Opa-locka.

I can just imagine the excitement in Local 10's newsroom when one of teachers called in to say they'd found a roach in some Papa John's pizza.

"Get Weinsier on the phone and get him up to Opa-Locka, right away!" an editor probably shouted.

"Someone found a cockroach!" (Actually the bug in question looks more like an earwig than a roach.)

Weinsier reports the pizza party was immediately halted as soon as the "roach" was discovered.

He backs this up with an EXCLUSIVE interview with a four year-old student: "Did they tell you stop eating the pizza?" Weinsier asks the bewildered girl. "Yes," she replies, meekly.


Jeff Weinsier conducts an EXCLUSIVE interview 
with 4-year-old kindergarten student. 


His investigation complete at the school, Weinsier heads on over to the Papa Johns at NW 133rd Street and 27th Avenue.

The employees aren't in the mood to talk, but that doesn't stop the intrepid Weinsier from going outside and asking complete strangers for their reaction to something they knew nothing about five minutes before.

Confronting a woman in the parking lot who had overheard him inside the store, Weinsier asks, "You just ordered some pizza?"

"That's right, and I just got my money back, too," the woman says as Weinsier shows her the picture of the "roach" on his iPhone.

"That's a big roach!" she exclaims.

Moving in closer, Weinsier reminds her where the "roach" was found: "In a kindergarten class."


"A roach! In a kindergarten class!!"


"That's sad, that's really sad," replies the woman.

No, Jeff, what's really sad is the sight of you trolling for comments in restaurant parking lots.

What Weinsier never talked about in his report is that the school probably shouldn't have been serving the kids pizza in the first place.

________
Earlier: Local 10's Jeff Weinsier goes tabloid
________


Pizza, it turns out, is one of the foods that contributes to childhood obesity.

And here's something else for you to chew on, Jeff: I'm pretty sure one "roach" in a slice of pizza never killed anyone.

As a matter of fact, there are plenty of places in the world where people eat insects all the time.

In 2013, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a report that noted "there are more than 1,900 edible insect species on Earth, hundreds of which are already part of the diet in many countries."
"In fact, some two billion people eat a wide variety of insects regularly, both cooked and raw; only in Western countries does the practice retain an 'ick' factor among the masses."

A final thought, Jeff: Over the years, those kids at the Opa-Locka school will probably suffer more harm from a steady diet of the swill that you and many of your colleagues pass off as TV "news" these days, than they will from ingesting a bug or two.





Thursday, June 04, 2015

Life as a PD (Public Defender)

In a series of posts on her Facebook page she calls "Life as a PD," Kim Segal has been sharing her experiences as a relatively new public defender at the Broward County Courthouse.

In her last post she wrote about how mentally ill defendants are treated by the justice system in Broward.

Today she talks about how the deck is stacked against poor defendants in Broward County, and how one of her colleagues leveled the playing field for one client.

LIFE AS A PD: “I went into the hallway and asked every African American woman I saw if they would do me a favor and come sit in my courtroom for a few minutes,” my friend and fellow Public Defender told me. 

Kim Segal
In this case the Pubic Defender had scheduled a non-jury trial in a driving with a license suspended case. The client was dealing with a high-risk pregnancy and the Prosecutor’s offer was to put the woman in jail for 45 days. Yes for a driving offense. The woman’s crime: She couldn’t find anyone to take her to get food for her children so she took a chance and drove while her license had been suspended.

Putting people in jail for a crime that only impacts the poor is infuriating. People get their licenses suspended all the time because they can’t afford to pay tickets for nonmoving violations, child support, court costs and court fines that have nothing to do with traffic offenses. In Florida if you get caught smoking a joint, even while sitting on the beach, and the court adjudicates you guilty you will pay a few hundred dollars in court courts and lose your driver’s license for 1 year.

When the officer arrived in court to testify at the non-jury trial the PD asked him if he could identify her client. The officer said he didn’t remember what she looked like as he consulted the traffic ticked and replied but she was a black female. The PD then asked the officer if her client had any identifying features. That is when the officer admitted, “I probably wouldn’t be able to identify her if she was standing in front of me.” The Prosecutor aware of this problem tells the officer that the case will have to be dropped since he can’t identify the defendant. The annoyed officer leaves the courtroom.

The case is called up in front of the Judge for the Prosecutor to announce that the charges will be dropped. It was at that point the Prosecutor must have realized that there was only one black woman sitting in the courtroom. Instead of announcing a “nolle prose” the Prosecutor puts the case on recall then goes outside and calls the cop on the phone asking that he return to the courtroom.

The sharp PD realizes what is happening so she goes into the hallway looking for African American women. She finds two women and quickly explains to them what is going on. The women agree to sit in the courtroom next to the client. The officer returns to the courtroom where there are now 3 black ladies sitting together. The Prosecutor says some b.s. about wanting to be certain the officer didn’t remember her by sight. In front of the PD the Prosecutor asks, “which one is she?” The officer replies, “the one on the end.”

Yes the PD’s client was the one on the end only the officer picked the wrong end. The case was finally dropped and the three women ended up as new friends, they even celebrated by going out to lunch together.




Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Question: What's better than a video of a dog having fun in a water fountain?


Answer: Nothing.





An open letter to the Miami Herald's executive editor and managing editor


An open letter to Miami Herald executive editor Mindy Marques and managing editor Rick Hirsch:

Dear Mindy and Rick:

Mindy Marques and Rick Hirsch.
Yesterday, Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA, resigned after failing in his efforts to distance himself from the controversy surrounding soccer's governing body.

And on Monday, Melvin Carraway, the acting administrator for the TSA was "reassigned" after reports surfaced that "airport screeners failed to detect explosives and weapons in nearly every test that an undercover team conducted at dozens of airports."

So, here's a question for both of you, Rick and Mindy: Why do you still have jobs at the Miami Herald
Like the TSA's acting director and the head of FIFA, isn't it time for the two of you to move on to something else?

On Monday, I picked up the paper and could find just two staff produced items in the "B" section that contained all of three pages of "local" news from the Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Bay Times, the Associated Press and Politifact.
The one piece with a Herald staff byline was just 5 paragraphs long.

The other, an explainer on 1B about the closing of the Venetian Causeway, carried this lede:



"One fewer way?" Really?

And in today's paper, there's a story - if you can call it that - on an absolutely horrific crime that occurred shortly after noon yesterday in Miami Gardens. But the best your staff could come up with was two paragraphs on 3B for the morning paper.



But for some unknown reason a story on an elementary school getting new windows is page one news.

Miami Herald, June 3, 2015, page 1A.


So, Rick and Mindy, here's a question for both of you: Aren't either of you the least bit ashamed of what you've done to this once great paper? Do you care?

Does anyone else at the paper even give a sh*t?

For the good of the paper - or what's left of it - I'm calling on both of you to resign and have someone put in charge who cares about the paper and its readers. Or at the very least, someone who understands what the first duty of a newspaper is: Report news.

Do it now before you completely destroy the paper. 





Monday, June 01, 2015

The Random Pixels Losers Corner welcomes....




....these dumbasses.


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Memo to all you wanna-be gangsters out there: Don't leave a camera in a stolen car you just crashed that has video of you and your homeboys showing off and counting your stolen loot.

All you're doing is making it easy for the cops to find you.

Via Local 10: Four teenagers were arrested after they made a video of themselves counting stolen cash, wearing stolen jewelry and sitting in a stolen car, a Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said Monday.


The teens -- identified as Jaynell Justin, 16, of Oakland Park; Amos Marc, 17, of Oakland Park; Lamonte Scott, 16, of Oakland Park; and Machel Stevens, 18, of Fort Lauderdale -- left the stolen items in the stolen car after getting into a crash in Fort Lauderdale, BSO spokeswoman Dani Moschella said.

Among the stolen items that police found in the car was the camcorder that the teens used to record the nearly three-minute long video, Moschella said.

Deputies say a group of teenagers made a video that showed themselves wearing stolen jewelry and flashing stolen cash. Fort Lauderdale police tracked the stolen items to residential burglaries in Boca Raton and Oakland Park. When BSO detectives saw the video, they recognized each bragging burglary suspect, Moschella said.

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Miami Herald Deathwatch (cont.)


There's a rule in journalism that says you're not supposed to "bury the lede" of a news story.

Put another way, it means a writer should "lead" a story by placing the most important or newsworthy information at the top of the piece.

One extreme example of burying the lede would be if a reporter wrote a story about a politician announcing that he was running for the President of the United States, but didn't mention until the 27th paragraph that the politician had murdered his mother, father and four siblings when he was just eight-years-old.

Now here's an example of a lede from today's New York Times that gets right to the point: "Jack Warner, a former vice president of world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, defended himself against corruption charges on Sunday by citing an article from The Onion, apparently unaware that it was satire.

"Mr. Warner, 72, who was arrested last week in connection with a wide-ranging criminal investigation by the United States Justice Department, held up the faux news report, calling it evidence of an American conspiracy, in a video statement that was uploaded to the web and then removed later in the day."


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Click to enlarge.


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By now you're probably wondering, "Is there anything worse than burying the lede?"

As a matter of fact there is.

Let's let Miami New Times managing editor Tim Elfrink explain with this tweet:



That's right...the Miami Herald's Jacqueline Charles has a piece on the front page of today's paper that doesn't just bury the lede...it omits it completely.

In her piece, Charles goes on for almost 3,000 words without a single mention of Jack Warner defending himself by citing an article from a satirical website. This despite the fact that just about every other news outlet mentioned The Onion connection. (See for yourself by Googling "jack warner onion."

I've asked Charles in an email why she left that out of her story.

If she responds, I'll update this post.