Forum Post: "Zero Tolerance" Profiling in Florida
Posted 10 years ago on Nov. 25, 2013, 1:46 a.m. EST by shoozTroll
(17632)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
When a Miami Gardens store owner saw the results of the police departments "zero tolerance" program, Alex Saleh put up 15 cameras, to tape the abuse.
16 months later and results are clear.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/11/23/quickstop-video-police-abuse-black/
What do you think?
If you follow the link in the article to the article in the Miami Herald: City’s struggles
Miami Gardens, incorporated 10 years ago, has struggled with gang violence, drug crime and shooting sprees that have claimed the lives of many innocent people. Just this year, a 12-year-old girl was killed in a hail of bullets and a retired minister and her grandson were slain in an execution-style murder.
While overall crime has declined in recent years, murders have more than doubled, according to state crime figures. Residents haven’t sat idly. For years they have demanded change. They’ve led anti-violence crusades, crime-fighting rallies and town-hall meetings to draw attention to the city’s crime problem.
With a population of 109,000 people, Miami Gardens is the third largest city in Miami -Dade. Its population is predominantly black. Its citizens have voiced their distrust of the police department over the years on a number of fronts, noting that officers — many of them white and Hispanic — seldom leave their patrol cars except to make an arrest.
In the past, Boyd and other top commanders have insisted that in order to quell violence they need the community to cooperate and help them root out criminals.
“The real problem here,’’ Drago said, “is the police department does not have a relationship with its community — black or white. When they make these kinds of stops for minor offenses, it only re-enforces the mistrust.’’
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/21/v-fullstory/3769823/in-miami-gardens-store-video-catches.html#storylink=cpy
I have to take off. I'll rewrite a post tomorrow but I want to pull this out because it's very important.
Yes, do. Between this post and your last one, I'm not sure what you are getting at.
My first post, I didn't want to forget where I was at. However, when I came back and looked a bit more into it, I found that the tapes were sent to the media but had been an edited version. There is an internal investigation but a refusal to turn over the complete tapes and allow those in the videos to be interviewed. Why is that?
The stop and frisk discussions that we have had frequently on the forum we encounter some of the same issues. In Miami Gardens, which has a high rate of violent crime, members of the same community are tired of their children dying and said do something. So, they did.
In the OP, Earl Sampson is definitely being harassed. How can the same officer stop you on the same day three times? How do you pull someone off the job? How are you arrested for trespassing at work?
That said, every time the issue comes up I ask the same questions or make the same statements. They aren't questions geared to you specifically, Shooz, but in general and are thus: So, solve the problem. Propose a solution. Don't tell me that ending the drug war solves it because the oldest reported gang in the US didn't have that issue and, yet, managed to terrorize the community for 25 years. Jobs and education will not bring immediate changes and have a vague time limit to produce results. Sometime in the future it might end. Frankly, what that tells me is that it's ok to murder 12 year old girls. It's ok to shoot people in their drive ways.
Every time that I make those statements or ask those questions, you can cue the crickets. I'm going to tell you why--proposing solutions is not anyone's problem. People go in and demand a solution to a problem. Another group of people go in and demand that the solution provided be stopped but, cannot be bothered to provide an alternative. That's not their job. Their job was to bank on emotional exploitation and after having done so and acquired what they wanted they walk away. Most often they will walk away from the community itself.
I'm over the spin. Immediate solutions should be produced. While it can be argued that the police department does not have a relationship with its community it can also be argued that this is a community that has failed to communicate with other members of it's community to locate a medium.
To be honest, I was hoping one of the posters from Florida, who always claim to be so well informed, would shed some community light on this.
There's a lot of unanswered question, only someone closer to the area could help us understand.
For instance the city was incorporated a mere 10yrs ago, yet it appears to be a part of the greater Miami area, when viewed through Google's eyes in the sky.
What was it before that?
What kind of tax base did it have then compared to now?
A cure to the problems would have to be muti-pronged and might take a generation just to implement, let alone see tangible results.
It's like that in a lot of inner city areas.
Good luck with that.
I think it would take more than a little luck to get an ounce compassion out of them.
I do get your drift, as to how some parts of this smell like some kind of set up, though, like I said, someone more familiar with the area could help fill in those gaps.
The guy from the ACLU said this kind of thing happens more than we know.
Did the guy from ACLU offer an alternative?
I don't think that it is so much a set up as I think there is a primarily a break down of communication within the community. Earl Sampson is definitely being harassed.
I do think the edited versions of the tapes that were released were there to invoke emotion for a trial by media. That is the part that irritates the hell out of me. I have no patience for Nancy Grace tactics when it comes from either side.
It is Florida so if you are looking for money to be provided for the people,well.....it doesn't really exist.
You won't get anything from this lot. It has nothing to do with compassion. Tho' I doubt that can be drummed up. It is simply not on their agenda.
Strangely enough, it seems to be news to the Mayor.
"According to the Herald, Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, refused to comment on the pending lawsuit, but called the videos "disturbing." All the more so, he said, because Miami Gardens, a city suburb of Miami, is predominantly black and has predominantly black leadership. This includes the city's longtime police chief, Matthew Boyd, who is said to be leaving in January.
“I can’t be a mayor of a city that’s 80 percent black and having officers harass black people for doing nothing,’’ Gilbert told the Herald. “You can’t get arrested for just going to the store.’’
It was a long ago trip to Florida that made me understand the term "wrong side of the tracks", where literally on one side there are nice homes and on the other, dilapidated shacks.
Perhaps this is a city on the "wrong" side?
As is Liberty City. Unaffordable housing and the huge influx of undocumented workers that have displaced the lower skilled workers and, of course, racism will do that.
Even wikipedia gets it.
"Crime grew prevalent in the increasingly poverty-stricken area"
At some point, one has to ask how much police officers are paid?
Take look to Detroit too. they have the lowest paid offices of ANY major metro area.
Another city that found itself on the wrong side of the tracks?
Actually 8 Mile Road.
There is a city in Michigan where the National Guard had to be called in but I can't remember which one.
You might be talking about Flint. It never bounced back from the "Roger and Me" days.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/05/flint_shootings_homicides_lead.html
They weren't actually brought in though.
Maybe it was Flint. I recently met someone from there and he was telling me that the police department shuts down at 8 PM and don't bother calling.
I have met several people in the last few years from different places in Michigan. So, my recall is for shit.
I noticed the Miami Gardens story has hit CNN, we'll see what spills out.
Yep. That might not be a good thing. It usually means a bunch of bullshit commentary but short on facts.
The results are not clear:
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (WSVN) -- An internal investigation is underway after a South Florida business owner is accusing police officers of acting above the law.
City officials said they are trying to solve crime in the neighborhood. "He wasn't making his clients available so we can interview them. He wasn't willing to give us the tapes in any complete form, just the edited version of what he claims of being inappropriate behavior," said City of Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert. "We don't know what happen before. We don't know what happened after."
Read more: http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21012285525655/store-owner-accuses-police-of-profiling-customers-employees/#ixzz2lmIa3onJ
Now, if the guy has been arrested while at work, at least 3 times in one day and by the same officer on that day and has been stopped over 200 times- that right there is harassment and it is wrong. Profiling? No.
19-year-old boy fatally shot in front yard Investigators said the teen received a phone call, walked outside and was shot in the head.
4 injured in Miami Gardens shooting
Four people were taken to the hospital Saturday after at least one gunman opened fire in front of a South Florida home, officials said.
Police said the victims were sitting on the front porch of a residence off of Northwest 188th Street and 30th Court when the suspect or suspects approached them. "An unknown subject [or subjects] walked up to them, opened fire upon them, striking the victims," said Miami Gardens Police Detective Michael Wright.
Another shooting in Miami Gardens, this time an 11-year-old girl
Paul Royal, who would have turned 20 Thursday was a star football player at Carol City High. He was shot over and over again in a car before he reached 19 years old. "What other way to celebrate a birthday than to get this animal off the street," Damion Davis, Royal's father, said.
According to authorities, Kumasi Ford pulled the trigger and killed Royal in July of 2012. More than a year later, on Nov. 4, police said, Ford did the same cruel act to Raymon Mills. Ford shot Mills dead in the victim's driveway on Northwest 32nd Court.
Read more: http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21012277815259/police-crack-down-on-murder-investigations/#ixzz2lmN8PNzV
Miami Gardens Police Find Two People Shot In Car
Now, from what I have read, the drive by shooting that killed the 12 year old girl has not been solved. The culture of silence. If talking will get your ass shot then that is a problem. So, you have a population that is terrorized into silence. I get that and I understand that. Same population wanted something done.
This is not the result of the failed drug war policy. 40 Thieves didn't have a failed drug policy and terrorized the public for 25 years. Don't tell me that this is racial profiling in a mostly African American population.
So, what is the solution? Solve the problem. I hear a lot of people jump up and down and get self righteous about this shit but can't provide any solutions. Jobs and education or the economy. Nice vague answers that go nowhere or require more time then what is available to solve the problem. I don't want to hear it. What that tells me is that it's ok to shoot 12 year old girls that are inside the house. So, if the attorney said yep this is harassment then I would say absolutely. I doubt very seriously that the DOJ is gong to take over the police force on his bullshit. And to that I say: Stop exploiting this shit. Really. Failure to address this shit gives the right wing asstardian fuckers ammunition. That attorney doesn't get paid to solve the problem.
And don't be a dickhead and sit outside of a convenience store and drink and then wonder why the cops are questioning you. That indicates that the community doesn't have a relationship with the community.
Now, wanna see some racist jacked up crap?
Christian school to bullied African-American girl: Straighten your natural hair or get out
Nothing like makin' 'em feel bad about themselves at an early age.
After all, wasn't Jesus always perfectly coiffed?
It gets them prepared for stuff like this.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/28/college-student-jailed-for-three-nights-over-mistaken-identity/
I saw that. Isn't that grand? Three nights.
I'm sure they expect such things NOT to affect their school work.
Don't all students get locked up over such things?
Of course it won't affect school work. Or job [/scarcasm]
What job?
He's been in jail.
That's what I am talking 'bout.
Not Florida, but this one slipped on by.
"He says he spent more than 400 days in solitary confinement, was deprived of meals, and was assaulted and beaten both by officers and fellow inmates. Browder attempted suicide at least six times."
http://www.alternet.org/16-year-old-jailed-rikers-3-years-without-trial
Bloomberg's legacy?
Why was he taken to Riker's Island at 16? I thought that was for adults only. What age are you considered an adult in New York?
Never mind. It's 16. It might explain why he was in solitary-unless there is an entire area that is completely separated from adults.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/nyregion/renewed-push-to-raise-age-of-being-tried-as-adult.html?_r=0
I have no idea how they work that.
All I can do is wish this young man the finest lawyer in New York.
I got it. They have an entire wing. I haven't finished this yet. http://nymag.com/news/features/70978/
"Browder says he spent more than 400 days in solitary confinement, was deprived of meals, and was assaulted and beaten both by officers and fellow inmates. Browder attempted suicide at least six times. Last month he filed a lawsuit last month against the city and several agencies. The Bronx District Attorney’s office has declined to comment."
You can never really put a price on what they did to him.
[-] 1 points by shooz (24985) 0 minutes ago
Is there anyone from New York in the house?
For all the talk about community, it's getting harder to get the local information we need to form accurate opinions.
I slowed down posting about Detroit, because no one responded in a positive fashion, if at all. And to me?
It's an endorsement of tyranny. ↥twinkle ↧stinkle permalink
I don't mind following Detroit at all. In fact, you can find paralles in other states where there is a lack of transparency and a hide and seek game of locating good bloggers.
You're one the few, and I thank you for that...............:)
It's a crying shame, no one else can see the parallels.
I understand that. I want to know if the staff is privatized and recent budget cuts and details like profit incentive. I want more information.
Is there anyone from New York in the house?
For all the talk about community, it's getting harder to get the local information we need to form accurate opinions.
I slowed down posting about Detroit, because no one responded in a positive fashion, if at all. And to me?
It's an endorsement of tyranny.