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.

Random Pixels presents: How not to get your ass kicked by the police

Almost four days have passed since the contentious meeting at Miami city hall where Mayor Tomas Regalado and Commissioner Richard Dunn presented "evidence" they believed would show that Miami police chief Miguel Exposito should be fired.

Actually. the only person with the power to fire Exposito is the city manager and he hasn't said what he's going to do. The chief's job is safe for now.

Regalado, who picked Exposito as chief in 2009, has long since grown disenchanted with him.

Dunn wants Exposito gone in the worst way. He's not happy with the police crackdown last summer in some of Miami's crime-ridden neighborhoods that left four men dead in six weeks.

Dunn apparently believes that cops shouldn't be so quick to shoot when they're confronted with criminals carrying guns. Or something.

Last August Dunn told the Miami Herald that he "is praying police show sensitivity, and that youth on the wrong path change their ways.

"But most of all,'' said Dunn, ``we're going to pray that the violence ends."

Good luck with that commissioner.

So far this year, Miami cops haven't shot anyone

But Dunn's prayers don't seen to be getting the job done stopping violence and bloodshed in the 'hood.

Just three days into the new year, a 52-year-old father of four was gunned down in broad daylight near NW 61st Street and 12th Avenue.

In the meantime, Miami police haven't given any indication that they will be looking the other way if they see someone walking down the street brandishing an AK-47.

With that in mind, Random Pixels offers these 8 simple tips - via Chris Rock - on how not to get your ass kicked - or shot - by the police.
(CAUTION: VIDEO NSFW)

You can thank me later!

Regalado /Exposito feud makes the NY Times

The cage match between Miami mayor Tomas Regalado and police chief Miguel Exposito has gone national.

Friday's New York Times carries a dispatch by writer Michael Barbaro that boils down the feud for the paper's national audience. A feud that we're all too familiar with here in the Banana Republic.

Barbaro - who's filling in at the Times Miami Bureau temporarily - doesn't offer his readers much historical context in his reporting.

But veteran Miami watchers know that friction between Miami's police chiefs and city hall is nothing new.

Nevertheless, John Timoney - a guy who knows a thing or two about being an embattled police chief - demonstrated that he hasn't lost his sense of humor, telling the Times, “Nobody that I know, and I know lots of people, has ever seen or experienced anything like this.”

The story appears on page 12 of today's Times.

I'm guessing the Herald will put the story a little closer to the front page in Friday's paper.

The Herald's Chuck Rabin reports that Exposito's job is safe for now.

Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito's job is safe for now, but only after two hours of political theater Thursday the likes of which have been missing at historic City Hall at Dinner Key for well over a decade.

At Thursday's meeting Miami Commissioner Richard Dunn told a packed commission chamber, "I have no confidence in the chief's ability to lead the city of Miami Police department."

And Rabin reports that "at one point Dunn likened the friction between police and the historically black Overtown community to that of Fidel Castro and Cuban exiles."

But last August, Dunn and Regalado were singing a different tune as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Chief Exposito as he announced a crackdown on crime in the 'hood.

Commissioner Richard Dunn and chief Miguel Exposito in happier times
However, the question both the Times story and the Herald story fail to answer is, how did we go from this.....



...to this in 5 short months.

Will today be the day that Richard Dunn finally speaks out against those who are terrorizing his constituents...

...or will he continue to blame the police department?

Miami City Commissioner Richard Dunn, who's been a vocal critic of the Miami Police Department's efforts to put a stop to crime in Liberty City and Overtown, has been pretty scarce lately.

A few months ago Dunn was making statements like this: “It looks like the chief [of police] 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.”

Dunn believes he has a better way to deal with the violence that pervades his district: Prayer.

However, it appears that God is not listening.

from the Miami Herald:

Police: Two men shot dead in Liberty City
By Diana Moskovitz

Two men were shot dead Wednesday night in Liberty City, according to Miami-Dade police.

The attack took place about 7:30 p.m. in an apartment complex near Northwest 65th Street and 21st Avenue. Two men were approached by the shooter, who carried a gun that was described to officers as an assault weapon, police spokesman Detective Roy Rutland said.

The shooter opened fire, striking both men, he said. One died at the scene, in the complex’s playground, Rutland said. The second died at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

But, I'm sure after Wednesday night's killings, Commissioner Dunn will be going before a bank of TV cameras and microphones today to apologize to Chief Exposito and denounce the real perpetrators of violence in his district.

Right, commissioner?