Miami Beach City Manager and Commissioners disrespect the nation's veterans on Veterans Day

Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco's self-serving
Veterans Day placard. 

Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales, and Commissioners Michael Grieco and Ed "Mad Dog" Tobin have never served in the military.

But whenever a holiday day like Memorial Day or Veterans Day rolls around, Morales, Grieco and Tobin - like all politicians - send out press releases and stand in front of TV cameras professing their love of country, and their immense respect for the veterans who - unlike them - have actually put on a uniform and made sacrifices when their country needed them.

But while Grieco, Tobin and Morales avoided military service, you'd think the least they could do would be to show some actual respect for those who did serve, on a day that honors those who fought the nation's wars.

Let's get to City Manager Morales, first.

Here's an email he sent out to city employees earlier today:

Team

Just a short note to wish you and your families a wonderful Veteran's Day. I want to particularly shout out to those City employees that have served in one of the four military branches.

Thank you for your service and sacrifice. On this day we also remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedom and way of life.

I also want to thank the dozens of employees that participated in today's parade. It was a grand affair, and long time participants tell me it was the biggest crowds ever, punctuated by a flyover by two F-16 fighter jets.

And what beautiful weather!! Special thanks go to Major Causey and Marcia Monserrat for spearheading this great event and kickoff to our Centennial year. Again my best wishes to each and every one of you. God bless Miami Beach and God bless America.

Jimmy

Sent from my iPad

Memo to Jimmy: There are FIVE branches of the military, not four.

Morales, for some reason, left out the Coast Guard.

While the Coast Guard is technically a branch of  the Department of Transportation, under "Title 14 of the United States Code ... 'The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times.' Upon the declaration of war or when the President directs, the Coast Guard operates under the authority of the Department of the Navy."

Had Morales taken the time to do some research, he would have learned that Coast Guard members have served their nation during World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War, to name four.

Now, let's take a look at how Commissioners Ed Tobin and Michael Grieco chose to honor the nation's veterans at today's parade on Miami Beach.

Remember, these are two guys who like to associate themselves with the brave men and women in the military, but who have never served a day in combat.

Miami Beach Commissioners Michael Grieco, left, and Ed Tobin chose to honor
the nation's veterans while dressed like a couple of schlubs. 

Tobin and Grieco - both dressed like slobs - rode on a city float. I've seen better-dressed drunks at tail-gate parties.

Couldn't you clowns have at least tucked in your shirts? Showing up dressed like that was an act of total disrespect.

Morales, Tobin and Grieco, owe veterans everywhere, an apology.

Colbert Report: Busted for feeding the homeless

“One of the police officers said, ‘Drop that plate right now,’ as if I were carrying a weapon.” - Arnold Abbott, WWII veteran who's been busted twice for defying Ft. Lauderdale's law against feeding the homeless. 

“Oh, food is much worse than weapons in Florida. If George Zimmerman had fed a guy in a hoodie, he’d be in jail.” - Stephen Colbert

The Colbert Report
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Miami Beach Police having trouble getting cops to volunteer for off-duty work at Ocean Drive nightclubs

Last July 14, decorated Miami Beach police sergeant Mike Muley was suspended after it was alleged he had been drinking at an Ocean Drive night spot where he had been working off-duty.

The next day, Miami Beach's new police chief, Dan Oates, responded to the incident by announcing that officers would no longer be allowed to work off-duty at nightclubs.

The Miami Herald's Chuck Rabin reported, "critics say the move will hamper policing efforts as patrol officers will have to respond to the thousands of yearly calls from the clubs."

Miami Beach Police Chief Dan
Oates was caught napping at 
a recent Command Staff meeting.

However another effect of Oates' ban on off-duty work was its financial impact to the city. Nightclubs and other businesses that employ off-duty officers, pay the city $10 for every hour an officer works, in addition to the $35 an hour an officer makes. One Miami Beach business that's not a nightclub, paid the city almost $22,000 last year.

But six weeks after banning off-duty work, Chief Oates reversed himself.

Cops would now be allowed, once again, to work off-duty at clubs.

But there would be revisions to the off-duty policy...the biggest change being that officers would "be rotated to different locations during the off-duty shift at the discretion of the supervisor in charge," and off-duty officers would no longer work an entire shift at any one club as had been the practice for years.

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Earlier on Random Pixels: Miami Beach Police investigating drive-by shooting at Fat Tuesday's on Ocean Drive
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Now it appears that Chief Oates' attempt to fix something that wasn't really broken in the first place, is coming back to bite him in the ass.

In a letter sent yesterday [embedded below] to Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and the city commissioners, City Manager Jimmy Morales writes:

The following five Ocean Drive clubs, all of which participated to some degree in the previous off-duty program, continue to go without coverage because officers have not volunteered in sufficient numbers to make these work details practical for the Department:

1 The Clevelander - 1020 Ocean Drive
2 Fat Tuesday's - 918 Ocean Drive
3 Mango's - 900 Ocean Drive
4 Ocean's Ten - 960 Ocean Drive
5 Wet Willies - 760 Ocean Drive

Through the Ocean Drive Association, these five clubs have sought to begin off~duty coverage again. They have expressed their willingness to pay for up to four officers a night to cover these clubs. However, despite repeated offers to our police officers of such work and despite several adjustments of the hours and assignments to entice interest, the Department has been unable to get sufficient numbers of officers to volunteer for this nightclub work on Ocean Drive. [Emphasis mine.]

That last line is not sitting well with many rank and file members of the force who feel that Morales is blaming them for a problem that stems from Chief Oates' heavy-handed overreaction to an isolated incident.

Morales continues:

Off-duty work is always a volunteer assignment. It has not been unusual to have nightclub jobs go unfilled in the past because officers do not volunteer, including for jobs on Ocean Drive. Unless there are sufficient volunteers to regularly staff the entire Ocean Drive nightclub detail, it is not productive for the Department to expend the effort to coordinate incomplete and ad hoc, week~to-week and day~to-day coverage. The Ocean Drive Association has been informed that because of the staffing problem, for the time being, the Department is dropping further efforts to fill the Ocean Drive off-duty nightclub assignments.

Your move, Chief Oates.

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MBPD Off-Duty Nightclub Work by Random Pixels blog

Your lunch hour time waster...Election Day Edition

Can't we all just get along?

A classic Don Wright cartoon from Nov. 15, 1984

Miami News cartoon by Don Wright,  Nov. 15, 1984.
(Click image to enlarge.)

What is jazz?

This is jazz.

Via NPR:

On Dec. 8, 1957, CBS producer Robert Herridge assembled many of the great pioneers of jazz to perform together on live television, as part of "The Sound of Jazz." One of the most memorable performances of the night was Billie Holiday's "Fine and Mellow."

By 1957, Holiday had experienced her share of trouble with drugs and hard living, and her voice was not what it once had been. Yet that day, on the set of "The Sound of Jazz," it was clear that she was still a singer with an impeccable sense of timing and a style that could convey both joy and suffering. In this interview, Nat Hentoff, music writer and part of the production team that organized "The Sound of Jazz," recalls the highlight of the broadcast.