Sh*t just got real, y'all!

Last Thursday, some pissed-off Miami police officers showed up at Miami City Hall demanding commissioners restore their pay and benefits that have been cut over the years in an effort to help balance the city's books.

The cops filled the commission chambers, clogged the aisles, and at times, ignored the rules of decorum by shouting their demands at commissioners.

The Miami Herald's Nadege Green tweeted...

What do you do when the pd invade city hall and bring meeting to a halt? Do you call the police? #Miami @miamiherald pic.twitter.com/IEVI0VTnpF
— Nadege C. Green (@NadegeGreen) February 27, 2014

...and...

The only commissioner left in the chambers is @KeonHardemon. Everyone else is hiding? Police take over #Miami city hall.
— Nadege C. Green (@NadegeGreen) February 27, 2014

Local 10's veteran political reporter Michael Putney covered the demonstration.




Yesterday, Putney ended his Sunday public affairs show with some thoughts on the cops' behavior last Thursday.

The Miami cops were not just disrespectful and rude, they violated the rules of conduct that apply to anyone who appears before the commission. But all the sergeants-at-arms did was stand by and watch. Of course the sergeants-at-arms are Miami police officers, so what do you expect?

After about 10 minutes of haranguing commissioners the cops left. But then they came back and started banging on the glass windows on the second floor above the commission chamber and yelling demands. Again no one stepped forward to stop them. This is unacceptable.

Commission Chairman Willy Gort should have ordered the officers to pipe down or leave the chamber. But he didn't.

Police Chief Manuel Orosa and other top brass were at city hall. They didn't do anything either.

If a group of angry citizens had behaved this way, they would have been arrested. By allowing the cops to do it, the City of Miami is accepting and setting a double standard. It is a terrible precedent.

Today, the Herald's Charles Rabin and Nadege Green are reporting that Chief Orosa responded Friday to the city hall mob scene with a strongly-worded, department-wide email. (Full text below.)

A day after dozens of Miami police union members stormed City Hall and interrupted a commission meeting, Police Chief Manuel Orosa laid down the law: Do it again and you’ll be prosecuted.
[...]
What started [last Thursday] as a tame protest by upset police officers became increasingly unruly. They shouted “Regalado gotta go!” referring to Mayor Tomás Regalado, and “Restore pay!”

Stunned observers took photos on their cellphones. Others joked about calling police to quell the unrest. As officers chanted “Second floor, second floor,” they filed out of the chamber and up the steps toward the mayor’s and city manager’s offices.
[...]
“Please keep in mind that the disruption of a governmental official meeting is a prosecutable crime. . . . Should this behavior repeat itself, members should expect punitive legal action, up to and including prosecution. I would hope that in the future, none of you allow yourselves to follow misguided individuals who act without first considering the consequences of their action," Orosa said [in his email].

The chief was taking a clear shot at Javier Ortiz, the outspoken president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the police union, who organized last week’s rally in the park.

Today, according to Rabin and Green, union president Ortiz had this to say about Orosa's email:

“Chief Orosa’s letter was him trying to cover up his lack of leadership at last week’s demonstration. I do not condone unprofessionalism or illegal acts. However, we will exercise our First Amendment rights, which if he intends to squash, will result in some bigger challenges for him.

“A threatening letter will not intimidate us from having our voices heard,” Ortiz said. “This is just the first demonstration this year and you should anticipate many more in the very near future.”

Looks like sh*t just got real, y'all!

________

Text of Chief Orosa's email.

At yesterday's City Commission meeting, a group of Miami Fraternal Order of Police members marched to City Hall in order to petition the City Commission to restore their wages and benefits. I fully support any effort to restore lost wages for the difficult and honorable work that you perform every day. A few years ago (prior to becoming Chief), I too lost wages of 12% and 9% in consecutive years of cuts. However, your message must be a peaceful exercise of your First Amendment rights.

Unfortunately, yesterday's demonstration turned into a mob which disrupted a City Commission meeting and placed several administrative employees in fear for their safety. Think about that for a moment. Members of the Miami Police Department, whose mission it is to protect and preserve the public order, disrupted an official City function and placed fellow City employees in fear. [Emphasis mine.] Yesterday's behavior is an embarrassment to both the Miami Police Department and the Fraternal Order of Police. The unruly expression of your frustrations will only serve to alienate the people you need to support your cause.

Please keep in mind that the disruption of a governmental official meeting is a prosecutable crime under Chapters 877.03 and 870.02 of the Florida Statutes. Should this behavior repeat itself, members should expect punitive legal action, up to and including prosecution. I would hope that in the future, none of you allow yourselves to follow misguided individuals who act without first considering the consequences of their actions.

Manuel Orosa
Chief of Police

The Random Pixels Mugshot of the Day®

Gerrine Garrett.
(Miami-Dade Corrections photo)

The cops arrested 48-year-old Gerrine Garrett in the early morning hours last Saturday and charged her with possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and tampering with evidence. She was booked in to jail at 6:39 a.m.

Click to enlarge.

Saturday's arrest wasn't Garrett's first.

She has a rap sheet with dozens of arrests in Miami dating back to 1990.

Gerrine Garrett's arrest record dates back to 1990.
(Click to enlarge.)

Almost all them have been for drug possession, with an occasional bust for trespassing or auto theft thrown in to break up the monotony.

Garrett's latest arrest probably would have gone unnoticed had it not been for her choice of earrings....no doubt bought at Flea Market USA on NW 79th Street.

Congratulations, Gerrine!

After almost a quarter century of getting busted and being booked at the jail in total anonymity, your luck just changed.

Your 15 minutes of fame starts now!


h/t Local10.com

Your lunch hour time waster

How to peel a banana like a monkey.

Soldiers remind 8-year-old Myles Eckert of his dad

8-year-old Myles Eckert found $20 in a restaurant parking lot and was thinking of spending it on a new video game. That changed when he saw the man in uniform.

-via CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley







scott pelley cry, cbs anchor scott pelley cries

Your Sunday time waster

Cooper and Daisy enjoy an ice cream treat from the drive-thru window at McDonalds.

Editorial: Rick Scott's '$100 million re-election campaign will not undo the damage' he's done to Florida

Via the Tampa Bay Times:

If Gov. Rick Scott only had a heart

Feb. 28, 2014

This time four years ago Rick Scott was a stranger to Floridians. Then he spent $73 million on his first political campaign and rode an angry voter wave to the Governor's Mansion. For Florida, this has been a hostile takeover by the former CEO of the nation's largest hospital chain. In three years Scott has done more harm than any modern governor, from voting rights to privacy rights, public schools to higher education, environmental protection to health care. One more legislative session and a $100 million re-election campaign will not undo the damage.

This is the tin man as governor, a chief executive who shows no heartfelt connection to the state, appreciation for its values or compassion for its residents. Duke Energy is charging its electric customers billions for nuclear plants that were botched or never built. Homeowners are being pushed out of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and into private insurers with higher premiums and no track records. Federal flood insurance rates are soaring so high that many property owners cannot afford the premiums but also cannot sell their homes. The governor sides with the electric utilities and property insurers. He criticizes the president rather than fellow Republicans in Congress for failing to fix the flood insurance fiasco they helped create.

In Scott's Florida, it is harder for citizens to vote and for the jobless to collect unemployment. It is easier for renters to be evicted and for borrowers to be charged high interest rates on short-term loans. It is harder for patients to win claims against doctors who hurt them and for consumers to get fair treatment from car dealers who deceive them. It is easier for businesses to avoid paying taxes, building roads and repairing environmental damage.

[...]

The son of a truck driver and a store clerk, Scott grew up poor, lived in public housing for a time and worked his way through law school. He moved to Florida as the former head of a hospital company that paid a record fine for Medicare fraud, and he got himself elected to the state's highest office. Yet the governor who overcame so much adversity himself shows remarkably little empathy for Floridians and their everyday challenges as they seek a brighter future for themselves and their children. Scott's soulless approach to governing is turning the Sunshine State into a cold-hearted place, where the warm promise of a fresh start and a fair shake are fading fast. 

Click here to read the complete Tampa Bay Times editorial.