UC Davis police Lt. John Pike has earned a place in history

From James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic.

I can't see any legitimate basis for police action like what is shown here. Watch that first minute [of the video] and think how we'd react if we saw it coming from some riot-control unit in China, or in Syria. The calm of the officer who walks up and in a leisurely way pepper-sprays unarmed and passive people right in the face? We'd think: this is what happens when authority is unaccountable and has lost any sense of human connection to a subject population. That's what I think here.

UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike uses pepper spray on Occupy UC Davis protesters. Photo by Louise Macabitas

Less than two months ago, it seemed shocking when one NYPD officer cavalierly walked up to a group of female protestors and pepper-sprayed them in the eyes. The UC Davis pepper-sprayer doesn't slink away, as his NYPD counterpart did, but in every other way this is more coldly brutal. And by the way, when did we accept the idea that local police forces would always dress up in riot gear that used to be associated with storm troopers and dystopian sci-fi movies?

If you watch the whole clip, you see other police officers beginning to act "human" in various ways -- taking off their riot helmets, being restrained rather than unbridled in use of force, a few of them even looking abashed or frightened as they walk off. (More photos here.)

So, how did we go from a country that decries human rights abuses that occur in countries like Iran and China and Syria, to one that stands by idly as local law enforcement officers act like Gestapo storm troopers?

Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic writes that the kinds of tactics we are seeing at Occupy protests got their start right here in sunny Miami:

Then came the massive and much-disputed 1999 WTO protests. Negotiated management was seen to have totally failed and it cost the police chief his job and helped knock the mayor from office. "It can be reasonably argued that these protests, and the experiences of the Seattle Police Department in trying to manage them, have had a more profound effect on modern policing than any other single event prior to 9/11," former Chicago police officer and Western Illinois professor Todd Lough argued.

No one wanted to be Seattle and police departments around the country began to change. "In Chicago for example, paramilitary gear such as that worn by the Seattle Police was quickly acquired and distributed to officers," Lough continued, "and the use of force policy was amended to allow for the pepper spraying of passive resistors under certain circumstances."

9/11 put the final nail in the coffin of the previous protest-control regime. By the time of the Free Trade of the Americas anti-globalization protests in Miami broke out eight years ago this week, an entirely new model of taking on protests had emerged. People called it the Miami model. It was heavily militarized and very forceful. The police had armored personnel carriers.

In case your memory is hazy, here's what Miami was like in 2003 thanks to Miami police chief John Timoney:

On the news, [Miami police] Chief [John] Timoney spoke in sober tones about the tear gas that demonstrators fired at his officers. No, that is not a typo. Timoney said the protesters were the ones launching the tear gas. He also said the demonstrators had hurled missiles at the police. I got a lot of tear gas, Timoney said. We all got gassed. They were loaded to the hilt. A lot of missiles, bottles, rocks, tear gas from the radicals.

Seeing Timoney up close and personal evokes this image of Mayor Daley at the '68 Democratic Convention ordering his men to shoot protesters on sight. He is that kind of guy.
[...]
As Timoney was talking with his men, one of the guys on the bikes approached us with a notepad. Can I have your names? he asked.

I thought he was a police officer preparing a report. He had on a Miami police polo shirt, just like Timoney's. He had a Miami police bike helmet, just like Timoney's. He had a bike, just like Timoney's. In fact there was only one small detail that separated him from Timoney a small badge around his neck identifying him as a reporter with the Miami Herald. He was embedded with Chief Timoney.

That reporter was one of dozens who were embedded with the Miami forces (it's hard to call them police), deployed to protect the FTAA ministerial meetings from thousands of unarmed protesters. In another incident, we saw a Miami Herald photographer who had somehow gotten pushed onto the protesters side of a standoff with the police. He was behind a line of young kids who had locked arms to try and prevent the police from advancing and attacking the crowds outside of the Inter-Continental Hotel. He was shouting at the kids to move so he could get back to the safe side. The protesters ignored him and continued with their blockade.

The photographer grew angrier and angrier before he began hitting one of the young kids on the line. He punched him in the back of the head before other journalists grabbed him and calmed him down. His colleagues seemed shocked at the conduct. He was a big, big guy and was wearing a bulletproof vest and a police issued riot helmet, but I really think he was scared of the skinny, dreadlocked bandana clad protesters. He had this look of panic on his face, like he had been in a scuffle with the Viet Cong.

The Atlantic's Madrigal writes that "John Pike has become the new face of evil among people following the Occupy protests around the country."

And very soon, if it hasn't happened already, John Pike will suddenly realize that his cruel actions last week - instead of suppressing the Occupy movement - have had the reverse effect and galvanized it.

And thanks to the Internet and YouTube, Pike's name and the pictures of him pepper spraying peaceful demonstrators, are rightfully taking their place beside other historic images and accounts of brutality and oppression.

Kent State shooting. May 4, 1970. Photo by John Filo.

Civil rights demonstrator being attacked by police dogs, May 3, 1963, Birmingham, Ala.

Bill Hudson/AP

Is Maureen Dowd out of her mind?

Miami police chief John Timoney
The other day New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd weighed in with her opinion on the Henry Louis Gates arrest. (Hasn't everyone by now?)

Twenty-two words into her column, Dowd invoked the name of the country's most noted proponent of police restraint - Miami police chief John Timoney:

[M]y friend John Timoney, the police chief of Miami, observes: “There’s a fine line between disorderly conduct and freedom of speech. It can get tough out there, but I tell my officers, ‘Don’t make matters worse by throwing handcuffs on someone. Bite your tongue and just leave.’ ”

Holy Jeebus!

Are you kidding Maureen?

Is that the same John Timoney who cost the City of Miami hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the storm-trooper tactics used by his police department against protesters at the 2003 Free Trade Area of the Americas conference?

Not that John Timoney?

Or the same John Timoney who once said "F**k the Cubans"?

Or the same John Timoney that Miami New Times called "America's Worst Cop"?

Is that the John Timoney you're talking about Maureen?

Stenographers and journalists; there's a difference

What's the worst thing you can call a journalist?

A "stenographer."

We all know what stenographers do: they transcribe, or type, material which is dictated to them.

But the derogatory form a "stenographer" gets used in official Washington quite a bit. In this case a "stenographer" is a journalist who goes to press conferences and writes down whatever is said-usually by a government spokesperson-and then writes their story without a whole lot of follow-up or checking.

But "stenography" doesn't always happen in Washington.
We had some blatant "stenography" occur right here in Miami over the weekend.

The Herald ran a short item about the theft of a purse from the wife of Miami police chief John Timoney.

The item appears to be a rewrite of a police department press release. Here's the item in its entirety:

Noreen Timoney, wife of Miami Police Chief John Timoney, had her purse stolen from her car at a Miami gas station last Sunday morning.

It happened at 10:30 a.m. at the Sunoco gas station at 54th Street and Miami Avenue, said Delrish Moss, a spokesman for the Miami Police Department.

He said Timoney had just finished pumping gas in her car.

When she went inside the station to pay, someone opened her car door and snatched her bag.

Inside her purse were cash and other objects, Moss said.

She was not harmed in the incident.

Some cynics, myself included, immediately started wondering how much effort police would put into finding the thieves who took Noreen Timoney's purse. The Herald sure didn't provide any answers beyond the rewrite of the PD's press release.

I started thinking: Did Timoney order all-out manhunts, roadblocks, helicopters over the crime scene and perhaps a call-out or two of the SWAT team?

I channeled that cynicism into the form of a spoof of a Miami Herald front page that speculated on the "what ifs."

It looks like my fantasy front page wasn't too far off the mark. As a matter of fact I was downright clairvoyant!

Yesterday CBS4's Jim Defede proved once again that he's not just another pretty face with a poofy hair-do on Miami's TV journalism landscape.

Defede eschewed "stenography" and committed some old-fashioned eye-opening journalism that we don't see a whole lot of these days. He used the press release as a starting point to focus on the real story.

Defede did a little digging and discovered that in fact the Miami police did handle the theft of Noreen Timoney's purse a whole lot differently than the similar theft of another woman's purse at a Biscayne Blvd. filling station 24 hours earlier. The woman, Majorie Sheppard, had her purse stolen and couldn't even get police to take her seriously. See for yourself. Make sure you watch the video report that shows a platoon of Miami police showing up at the gas station where Timoney's purse was stolen!

But here's the kicker...Defede learned of the theft of Sheppard's purse because it was mentioned in the the Miami police press release. So Jim wasn't working with any info that the Herald didn't have. However, the Herald chose to practice stenography, Defede chose journalism.

Defede's been doing some kick-ass work lately. He broke the story exclusively last week of the Miami Dade School Board buying out Rudy Crew's contract.

Thanks Jim, for showing us that journalism is still alive in Miami.

Who wants to be Miami's next police chief?

Miami mayor Tomas Regalado stands behind his man, Chief Miguel Exposito.

Miguel Exposito is learning the hard way that the job of being Miami's top cop is not for anyone who cherishes job security or a stress-free work environment.

In the the year he's been on the job he's also undoubtedly learned that the constant scrutiny and second guessing from the politicians at city hall can be just as oppressive as a Miami summer.

The Miami Herald's Chuck Rabin reported Sunday that Exposito "is the subject of growing speculation about his job security, after a first year that included four fatal shootings by officers, a videotape of police punching a man several times while he's pinned down, a botched attempt to control an unruly crowd and some anti-corruption investigations that fizzled."

Exposito runs a department with a checkered past.

In the fifties Miami cops were accused of being soft on gambling and bookmakers.

In Dec. 1967, Chief Walter Headley, frustrated by a week of violence, gained national attention by threatening to send his cops into high crime areas with police dogs and shotguns.

In the eighties it was hard to tell the drug dealers from the Miami cops.

In the nineties there was more corruption and the high-profile case of cops shooting unarmed suspects and then planting guns and orchestrating cover-ups.

Last August, following four fatal shootings by Miami police over a six-week period, the Herald reported that some wondered "if police under new Chief Miguel Exposito have become overly aggressive."

Miami mayor Tomas Regalado appeared to back Exposito.

"Regalado," the Herald reported, "began showing up at crime scenes with promises to ''take back the streets,'' by flooding those neighborhoods with cops. At one point, he raised eyebrows by challenging the well-armed gangs he believes responsible for several incidents, saying: ''We are going to respond to violence with violence.''

But that was then and this is now. Three months later, Regalado appears to be backing off in his support of the chief.

``It's all on Exposito,'' Mayor Tomás Regalado said, referring to police chief Miguel Exposito and the problems on his watch," the Herald reported Sunday.

If Exposito gets to keep hs job he'll almost certainly be in for more turbulence.

And if he goes, he'll just be the latest in a long line of Miami police chiefs to get swept up in Miami city politics.

In 1988 the Miami Herald compiled a list of 12 police chiefs that had served Miami since 1928. The Herald wrote that "politics played some part in the resignations or firing of eight of them."

CLARENCE DICKSON [first black police chief,] 1985-88. Resigned, saying he was "frustrated with the antics of the City Commission." ["I just didn't want to work for the City Commission anymore," said Dickson. "They didn't like me and I wasn't crazy about them."]

HERBERT BRESLOW, 1984-85. Resigned amid rumors he would be fired. Closely identified with former City Manager Howard Gary, Breslow's main foe was ex-Commissioner Joe Carollo, who didn't like Gary. [According to the Herald: "Breslow was chief less than a year, the shortest tenure ever in that post. He became chief at 2:47 a.m. Jan. 27, 1984, when former City Manager Howard Gary fired Harms. Breslow resigned Jan. 2, 1985, amid rumors he was headed for a similar fate." ]

KENNETH T. HARMS, 1978-84. Fired in a 2:47 a.m. phone call by City Manager Gary, the climax of a long feud between the two. Harms believed Gary was interfering in his department; Gary said the chief didn't follow orders. Gary was fired by commissioners nine months later.

GARLAND P. WATKINS, 1975-78. Unexpectedly resigned to move to Tennessee. He would not elaborate on his reasons for leaving and denied reports of a rift with City Manager Joseph Grassie. Watkins had been unhappy about forced layoffs and budget cuts.

BERNARD L. GARMIRE, 1969-74. Resigned under pressure after a series of City Commission inquiries and a Dade grand jury report criticized morale in the police department. Garmire's resignation followed a year of confrontation with Mayor Maurice Ferre.

WALTER E. HEADLEY, 1948-68. Died in office. He had a running battle with Mayors Abe Abronovitz and Robert King High, but the Florida Supreme Court, in a lawsuit involving Headley, ruled he could not be fired unless specific charges were brought up.

FRANK MITCHELL, 1946-48. Resigned after City Manager R.G. Danner was ousted by the City Commission. "I refuse to stay and see it torn down," he said of his department.

CHARLES O. NELSON, 1944-46. Forced to resign by City Manager Danner, who was not pleased with gambling in the city. Danner wanted the police department to eliminate all gambling.

HOWARD LESLIE QUIGG, 1921-28 and 1937-44. Twice fired; in 1928 after a grand jury indictment in a police shooting and in 1944 after he refused to follow City Manager A.B. Curry's order to quell a strike by Miami Transit bus drivers.

JOHN B. ROWLAND, 1936-37. Forced out of office by city administrators who wanted to replace Rowland with Quigg . Rowland was named a deputy sheriff.

GUY C. REEVE, 1928-33 and S.D. McCREARY, 1933-36,, also were police chiefs. Existing records do not show why they left.

In the 22 years since that list was compiled by the Herald, eight more have headed the Miami police department.

PERRY ANDERSON Jr., 1988-1991.

CALVIN ROSS, 1991-1994.

DONALD WARSHAW, 1994 -1998. Resigned to become Miami city manager.

WILLIAM O'BRIEN, 1998 - 2000. Resigned April 28, 2000 in the wake of the political fallout over the seizure of Elian Gonzalez. ``I refuse to be chief of police when someone as divisive and destructive as Joe Carollo is mayor,'' O'Brien said.

RAUL MARTINEZ, 2000 - 2003. Martinez, the Herald reported at the time, "was one of several targets in a failed 1980s federal corruption probe of Miami Police that included allegations he helped destroy evidence against drug smugglers, shared bribes, and skimmed cash and drugs from seizures, according to FBI documents."

"Several Miami Police Department veterans and federal law enforcement agents expressed surprise at Martinez 's appointment last week, noting that it was well known Martinez had invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination before a federal grand jury. in 1984," reported the Herald.

Two and a half years later, Martinez resigned as chief. From the Herald: "His resignation came just two days after a Herald series that documented dozens of questionable shootings involving Miami police officers over the last decade."

Martinez was replaced by outsider John Timoney, who had gained a reputation as a tough cop on the mean streets of Philadelphia and New York. Timoney took over reins of the department in Jan. 2003.

In interviews with the Herald Timoney "referred to himself repeatedly as an expert on the police use of 'deadly physical force.'"

"He said some Miami officers have been involved in 'too many' deadly police shootings during the past decade, adding that officers constantly involved in shootings should be reassigned 'for their own good, and for the good of the public.' "

But despite the fact that the department under Timoney went almost two years without an officer firing a gun, his tenure was not without controversy.

In 2007 he came under fire after it was learned that he had been given free use of a Lexus.

But that paled in comparison to charges that his department had trampled the rights of demonstrators during the FTAA demonstrations in 2003.

Timoney lasted almost 6 years.

In Nov. 2009, "Timoney announced his resignation just as [newly elected mayor Tomas] Regalado stood among hundreds of supporters on the dais at City Hall for his swearing-in," wrote Rabin.

So, will Exposito stay or go?

Exposito, who is 56, has been with the department for 36 years. At some point he may just decide that he's had enough - and like Clarence Dickson in 1988 or Bill O'Brien in 2000 - tell the suits at city hall to "take this job and shove it."

If that happens, the city will start a search for his successor.

But before anyone decides they'd like to be the next Miami police chief, they'd do well to read up on some history.

The John Timoney story no one wants to read

We all remember John Timoney...right?

America's Worst Cop?

The "Junkyard Dog" who forgot to read the constitution before he trampled on demonstrators' right of free assembly during the FTAA in Miami in 2003?

The guy who drove a Lexus for free for 15 months until he was outed by Gary Nelson at CBS4?

The guy who mobilized the entire Miami Police Dept. to look for the thief who stole his wife's purse?

Yeah, that John Timoney.

He's been laying low lately.

But Miami Reuters bureau reporter Tom Brown has found him and interviewed him. But apparently no one wants to read it.

I could find only one link to it on the 'net. And that's because it was on the Reuters website!

I emailed a journalist friend today and kidded her because she didn't get the interview.

She responded that journalists call this kind of story a "beat sweetener."

"A gratuitously flattering profile[s] that a reporter writes about a government official in the hope that it will encourage...that reporter's access to the official in question."

Timoney doesn't give many interviews to pesky reporters.

But Reuters' Tom Brown found a way to get one.

Apparently he agreed to not ask the chief any tough questions!

Come back Chief...all is forgiven!

Click image to enlarge

News item: Nov. 6, 2009: MIAMI — The day John Timoney was sworn in as Miami police chief in 2003, 11 of his troops stood trial for concocting evidence and planting guns in a spate of shootings. Seven would be convicted.

Within two years, Timoney's administration would clean up the mess, turning a sometimes trigger-happy force into one where no officer fired a weapon for 20 months. Bad cops were punished. Crime dipped.

News item: July 6, 2010: Family members and residents sought answers, police and community leaders pressed for calm a day after a fatal [Miami} police involved shooting in Overtown.

Okay, so Timoney wasn't a saint. But compared to this....

Who will be the next to wear the Miami Beach Police Chief's badge ?

Miami Beach is poised to pick its next police chief.

Last December, the Miami Herald reported that nearly 80 people had applied to fill the vacancy left by retiring police chief Carlos Noriega.

Last week, two screening panels submitted a list of four finalists who are now scheduled to undergo a final screening and interview process on Feb. 22.

What follows, are thumbnail sketches of each man.


______________

Raymond Martinez, Miami Beach Police Asst. Police Chief and acting Miami Beach Police Chief.

Martinez

A 22 year veteran of the Miami police department, Martinez was picked in Oct. 2001 by then Miami Beach Police Chief Don De Lucca to "handle administrative duties such as hiring, training and overseeing the annual budget," according to a Miami Herald story at the time. He has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from FIU.

Martinez is viewed by those familiar with the inner-workings of Miami Beach politics as a long shot to be the city's next chief.

Last September, Commissioner Ed Tobin told the Herald's David Smiley, “The present candidate for chief, the assistant chief, [Ray Martinez] has been here for 10 years and I would say that I think the police department needs some fresh blood for a lot of different reasons.”

In a Facebook post, Commissioner Jerry Libbin wrote, "I am fed up with the continuing revelations about our police department. That's why i have been adamant about the need for a new police chief who is committed to dealing with these issues and restoring confidence in the department. This means bringing in someone from the outside, as opposed to promoting from within."

Many department insiders view Martinez as someone who stood by and did nothing as the department became embroiled in one scandal after another under previous chiefs, including Noriega. Others fault him for having "zero personality."

Mark Overton, Hialeah Police Chief.

Overton

As police chief of Miami-Dade county's second largest city - one with a long history of corruption - Overton has managed to avoid any hint of scandal in his 28 years as a Hialeah cop. One person familiar with backgrounds of all the candidates calls Overton, "Tim Tebow in a police uniform."

Overton grew up in Hialeah and attended Hialeah High School.

In 2007, Overton told the Herald that he aspired to be a firefighter but changed his mind while working as a security guard at Hialeah Hospital in the early 80's. He graduated from the police academy in January 1984.

Thirteen years later, Overton was a lieutenant in the department's special investigations unit. A 1997 Miami Herald story detailed Overton's efforts to crack down on Hialeah's many illegal bars.

It's a scene Hialeah police, who have heightened crackdown on illegal bars in the past six months, say they find too often: Many of the same cafeterias that serve up lunchtime rice and beans and cafecitos are also acting as illegal bars, especially at night and weekends.

The maverick cafeterias become breeding grounds for violent crimes, drug sales and gambling.

Patrons bet on video games in back rooms. At the counters, employees pass along drugs with booze. Skimpily dressed bar girls who get a commission according to the number of drinks they sell, keep customers' glasses full. Arguments escalate into shootings and stabbings.
[...]
Overton estimates that more than 70 percent of the city's 459 licensed cafeterias, tucked away in the city's industrial sections or in plain sight at strip shopping centers, break the law regularly. It's easy and profitable, he said.

Frank Fernandez, former Miami Police Department Deputy Chief under John Timoney.

Fernandez

Fernandez joined the Miami Police Department in 1985 according to the City of Miami's website.

A 2005 Associated Press story offers some insight into Fernandez's style of policing. When the Miami Police Department announced it was adopting a new strategy against terror the AP reported,

Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.

"This is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there," Fernandez said.
[...]
"People are definitely going to notice it," Fernandez said. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears."

In 2007, as deputy chief under Timoney, 85% of the members of Miami PD's police union cast ballots saying they had no confidence in Fernandez.

In 2008, a Miami New Times story described Fernandez like this:

It's tough to find fault with Fernandez's record. In 23 years on the department, his only reprimands have come from minor accidents in his patrol car. And his personnel file shows him as a young sergeant's pet who received accolades for volunteering at seemingly every police event, including helping to run the '92 "Pig Bowl" football game (we couldn't make this stuff up). The schmoozing paid off: Fernandez went from a 19-year-old recruit making $6.94 an hour to his current position, which earns him $174,319 a year.

In Nov. 2009, Fernandez announced his retirement from the department which coincided with that of Timoney.

Some MBPD insiders say that Fernandez is is just what's needed to bring "real change" to the department, but "he is hated for his iron fist."

Tom Hunker, Chief of Police, Bal Harbour.

Hunker

Chief of police of the tiny town of Bal Harbour since 2003, Hunker - a retired Miami Beach cop - is arguably the most controversial of the four finalists for the top job.

There are two camps within the MBPD: those who despise Hunker and those who love him.

One source tells me that Hunker "does not have the knowledge, skill or ability to be chief and has too many skeletons and too much political baggage to be an effective leader."

The source charges that "while on a drug raid in the 1970's at the Star Island mansion of the Zion Coptic Church, Hunker stole their custom made flag and displayed it in his office for years."

Others criticize Hunker for being too close to Miami Beach Commissioner Ed Tobin.

Last December, the Herald's David Smiley reported that anonymous posters on a forum frequented by cops, "questioned whether Tobin ’s entering the {Miami police] academy had anything to do with his relationship with Bal Harbour Police Chief Thomas Hunker and Hunker’s bid to become Miami Beach police chief.

"As a 13-year-old Explorer, Tobin came to know Hunker, then a Miami Beach police officer and advisor to the Explorers," wrote Smiley.

But, chief among the criticisms of Hunker is the role he played as supervisor of a June 1988 undercover drug sting that "went wrong."

Miami News, June 30, 1988.

When the botched operation was over, Scott Rakow, a much-admired 28 year-old Miami Beach cop was dead.

Twenty-four years later, those with knowledge of the case bitterly blame Hunker for Rakow's death.

In his 1996 book, Forgotten Heroes: Police Officers Killed in Dade County 1895-1995, author William Wilbanks cites a 1989 two-part Miami New Times investigation that "concluded that the sting was 'poorly planned and poorly executed' and should have been called off after several warning signs and that 'disastrous blunders' occurred during or before the sting."

(Read the full account of Rakow's death in Wilbanks' book by clicking here and then scroll up to page 206 to the beginning of the chapter.)

What kind of leader will Hunker be if he's picked?

Highlights of Hunker's tenure as Bal Harbour's chief include his purchase of a $100,000 police boat with seized drug money and increasing the frequency of DUI checkpoints on the stretch of Collins Avenue that runs through his little burg.

Some police department insiders call Hunker's management style, "reckless." A source likens Hunker to "Jimmy Hoffa."

City Manager Jorge Gonzalez is expected to select one of the four finalists by the end of this month. He'll then forward his recommendation to the city’s seven commissioners who will vote on who becomes the new police chief.

Q: What happens when you turn over a rock in Broward County? A: Scott Israel and his supporters slither out.

Click here to enlarge.

UPDATED Monday, July 29 @ 3:00pm: Sun-Sentinel - BSO deputies are reminded not to take gifts.


UPDATED Sunday, July 28 @ 6:30pm: Sheriff Scott Israel appeared on Michael Putney's show today. Click here to see the complete interview.

________

Recognize these names? Ken Jenne, John Timoney, Carlos Noriega, Donald Warshaw, Cheryl Cason and Tom Hunker.

If you follow the news closely, then you know that all of those people, at one time or another, were in charge of various South Florida police departments.

And all were ethically challenged. And a few were just downright corrupt.

Ken Jenne, was Broward County's top cop from 1998 until 2007. In September 2007 he agreed to plead guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud charges.  Jenne got a year in the federal pen.

Miami Police Chief John Timoney got in trouble after it was learned that he drove a brand-new Lexus SUV for more than a year "without paying the car dealership a penny."

Carlos Noriega was Miami Beach's police chief from 2007 until 2011. During his tenure, he grappled with one scandal after another, including drunken cops joyriding in police ATVs on the beach and a  deadly 2011 Memorial Day shooting.  Towards the end of his term as police chief, Noriega was also dogged with questions over his decision to give official-looking police badges to a select group of friends.

Donald Warshaw, who was Miami's police chief before becoming city manager, was indicted in September of 2000 on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and mail fraud. In 2001 he was sentenced to a year in prison.

Cheryl Cason was the police chief of the tiny, crime-ridden town of Opa-Locka until her retirement this year. Hired in 1984, Cason had two failed drug tests and more than 22 disciplinary charges before becoming chief.

Tom Hunker, until he was fired last March, was police chief of the tiny Village of Bal Harbour. Hunker, a retired Miami Beach narcotics detective, became enmeshed in scandal after questions were raised over his department's handling and spending of millions of dollars in cash seized from drug dealers.

Now, it might be time to add another name to that list.

Last January, Scott Israel, the former police chief of North Bay Village, became the latest law enforcement professional to head the Broward Sheriff's Office, the largest, fully accredited sheriff's department in the country.

A little more than a week after taking office - and even before he'd learned the location of all the elevators at BSO headquarters - Israel raised more than a few eyebrows when he invited Ken Jenne, the disgraced former Broward sheriff and convicted felon, to visit him in "the $1.6 million office space Jenne used public funds to redecorate."

And while Jenne's visit to BSO wasn't a secret, something Israel did in secret shortly before his swearing-in is now the focus of some scrutiny.

Early last week Local 10's Bob Norman reported that Israel took "a five-day luxury cruise to the Bahamas on a $35 million super-yacht ... paid for by the sheriff’s largest campaign donor, construction magnate Robert Pereira."

Norman reports Israel reimbursed Pereira for the trip with a check for $1500.




Israel claims he did nothing wrong by accepting the yacht trip; but his reaction to Norman's straightforward questions about the trip say otherwise. Any reporter who's ever cornered a corrupt politician will attest to that.

Norman also reports that shortly after Israel refused to answer his questions, he called Local 10 to say he'd never talk to Norman again. Again, the reaction of a public official with something to hide.

A few days after Norman's first report, Israel went on a local radio show to defend himself. But not just any radio show.

Israel went on the Rich Stevens Show on WFTL-AM. In a video that looks like it was shot by a five year-old, Israel described Stevens as "the consummate professional."

And, while all this was going on, something very bizarre happened. A website called the "Broward Bugle" sent out this tweet:

Channel 10's Bob Norman acting erratic and aggressive. Time for BSO deputies to detain him. #taser #redbroward
— Broward Bugle (@BrowardBugle) July 25, 2013

So what is a Broward Bugle, you ask, and why are they calling on BSO deputies to "detain" and "taser" Bob Norman?

Last May, Broward Bulldog executive editor Dan Christensen wrote this of the "Bugle" and its backers:

The registered owner of an online Broward “news” operation contributed over $120,000 to a political group that made payments to a firm owned by Sheriff Scott Israel’s campaign manager, Amy Rose, and to her husband.

Andrew James Miller, 29, gave the money to Taxpayers for Integrity in Government last August, amid Israel’s successful bid to unseat then-Sheriff Al Lamberti, election records show.

Miller is a protégé of flamboyant South Florida-based political consultant and prospective gubernatorial candidate, Roger Stone. Miller describes himself on his Twitter page as a “political pirate, provocateur, street fighter.”

[...]

The secretive Bugle does not identify its publisher or staffers by their real names. Its Hollywood attorney, Holiday Hunt Russell, would not answer questions about his client. Stone, an Israel supporter with a reputation as a political dirty trickster, has been rumored for months to be behind it because of stories with headlines like last month’s “Lamberti has Chutzpah.”

[...]

“I’m nervous talking about this. I don’t want to say something wrong,” said Miller when asked about the Bugle. “I’m not the one running it. I know who is, but I’m not at liberty to give any names. It’s above my pay grade.”

Said Stone, “I’m not going to talk about the Bugle, I’m really not."

Scott Israel, Broward's top cop, apparently has no problem rolling out the red carpet for a convicted felon or accepting a trip on a multi-million dollar yacht from a billionaire who just wants to be the sheriff's "friend." A "friend," who according to Israel, wants nothing in return. All of this while Israel seemingly gives tacit approval to a shady website that exists for no other reason than to attack Israel's critics.

The sheriff, it appears, has forgotten two adages, "You are judged by the company you keep,"  and "Appearances are everything."

When Scott Israel's term as Broward sheriff ends, he may looked upon as the most ethical person to ever hold that office.

But until that happens, if I were a Broward County taxpayer, I'd be nervous about Scott Israel.

Very nervous.

_______


Sun-Sentinel: Sheriff: Yacht trip with campaign supporter broke no laws

Local 10: Sheriff Scott Israel makes new hires to 'connect with community'

Search for new Miami Beach police chief narrowed to four [UPDATE x1]

UPDATED: The Miami Herald's David Smiley Tweets "city's HR director told me tonight list still at 12."

Call it the Final Four.

Miami Beach is one step closer to hiring a new top cop for its embattled police department.

Random Pixels has learned that there are four finalists in contention to be Miami Beach's next police chief.

Two panels interviewed a slate of 11 candidates this week and selected four to go on to the next stage of the selection process.

They are:

Frank G. Fernandez, former deputy chief under Chief John Timoney

Thomas Hunker, Bal Harbour Police Chief

Mark Overton, Hialeah Police Chief

Raymond Martinez, Miami Beach Police Asst. Police Chief who is now acting Miami Beach Police Chief

The four finalists will now meet with a third selection panel whose members include Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus, Miami Beach attorney Victor Diaz, Hugo Barrera, Special Agent in Charge of the Miami office of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Jose Smith, Miami Beach City Attorney.

The panel is scheduled to interview the four on Feb. 22 and send their recommendation to Miami Beach City Manager Jorge Gonzalez.

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.