In 1979 my old friend who worked for the National Enquirer at the time, told me people wanted the Mafia to take over Miami and clean out a cess pool for Miami was far worse than any other major city she had ever seen in USA. Noted here most of the police are Hispanics and their targets seem to be blacks - now in Cincinnati, Ohio the oh so social in this city now arms up after witnessing the city turning into a war zone.....and the UN wants to disarm America? - all the whites I knew who once loved Miami - have moved onto Melbourne or other areas.....wait until Naples feels threatened? And these people are warned of a "long hot summer".....seems I have heard this threat before. So witness Law and Order, "Non-White" style. And as Geoge Bush said, Keep Your Powder Dry - for as we know the Barbarians are no longer at the gate they reside in the cities. Saba � July 18, 2001 Miami Police Face Series of Inquiries After Shootings By DANA CANEDY The Associated Press In 1996, Ellistine Gaines, in the Miami apartment of her grandfather, Richard Brown, who died in a police raid. In Depth National: Criminal Justice IAMI, July 17 � Stung by accusations of abuse, corruption and cover-ups, the Miami Police Department is under intense scrutiny by federal prosecutors and the department's own investigators, who are reviewing a string of police shootings in recent years. Just last week, Chief Raul Martinez dismissed a 17-year veteran of the police force, saying an internal investigation into a 1997 shooting of an unarmed homeless man concluded that the officer had planted a stolen gun at the scene. Four months ago, a federal grand jury indicted five officers on obstruction-of-justice charges in the 1996 shooting of a 73- year-old man who died in a barrage of 123 bullets. The United States attorney's office is also looking into accusations of use of excessive force, planting evidence and conspiracies to conceal officers' actions. "We are continuing our investigation into a number of suspect police shootings that have occurred over the past several years in South Florida," said Guy Lewis, the United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Chief Martinez said the department was taking steps to regain public trust, but he defended the police force, saying most officers were professionals dedicated to public service. People close to the investigation said the shootings included the 1995 deaths of two 19-year-old black men who were shot in the back as they fled the scene of a robbery, the 1999 shooting of a man who pointed a toy gun at police officers and the possible planting of a gun in the 1999 shooting of a robbery suspect. At the same time, the state attorney for Miami-Dade County, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, announced that her office was reviewing the shooting policies of police departments in the Miami area, including those of Miami and North Miami Beach, where a police shooting of a man in a wheelchair last month prompted protests. Federal authorities have been investigating more than a half-dozen police departments across the country, said Marie Simonetti Rosen, publisher of Law Enforcement News, a publication of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. The Miami department is the second largest of those under scrutiny, after Los Angeles, she said. In the Miami inquiry, investigators are also looking into possible cover-ups by top officials, people who have met with prosecutors said. Ms. Rosen said the situation in Miami was unusual not only for its scope but also because it recalled a large-scale inquiry in the 1980's when the Justice Department reviewed more than a dozen cases involving accusations of police brutality in Miami over several years. That investigation was announced after the acquittal of four white officers in the beating death of a black businessman had touched off three days of riots. The violence left 15 people dead and destroyed scores of businesses on Miami's mostly black northwest side. "Miami is probably just sensitive to this issue in a way that other cities aren't because they were almost one of the first to experience it," Ms. Rosen said. With the recent shootings and subsequent investigations, the wounds from the 1980's have been reopened. Citizens' groups fear an escalation of hostility toward the police if the investigations do not result in charges or if there are more shootings. "We're on the brink of a real hot summer here in Miami," said Nathaniel Wilcox, executive director of People United to Lead the Struggle for Equality, a consortium of more than 50 church and community groups created after the 1980 riots. Last month, the organization held a news conference with other civil rights groups to announce that it was asking the city to create a civilian police review board. Mr. Wilcox said the department had systemic problems of brutality and cover-ups. "We're saying we are not going to sit back and allow this to go on," he said. One case at the center of public attention is the death of Richard Brown, the 73-year-old man. In March 1996, the police entered Mr. Brown's apartment on a drug warrant and sprayed his bedroom with 123 bullets after, they say, he fired on them. Mr. Brown was hit by nine bullets and died in a closet, slumped over a laundry basket. His daughter, Janeka, then 14, hid in a bathroom. The indictments in the Brown case prompted renewed pleas by civic groups for further investigations into other shootings around that period. In addition, some of the shootings under investigation are nearing the statute of limitations for bringing criminal charges in the cases. Citizens' advocates and lawyers who have sued the Police Department say the Brown case reflects a broader problem of police misconduct, usually involving black suspects and Hispanic and non-Hispanic white police officers. The Miami police and some local and state politicians have long had strained relationships with residents in many of the city's black neighborhoods. And civic groups contend that the ever-present tension makes Miami and some other large cities vulnerable to civil unrest anytime there are high-profile clashes between citizens of one race or ethnicity and officers of another. Miami's population is 65.8 percent Hispanic, 19.9 percent black, 11.8 percent non-Hispanic white and 2.5 percent other ethnic groups. In the Police Department, 54.2 percent of officers are Hispanic, 27.6 percent are black, 17.9 percent are non-Hispanic white and 0.45 percent are listed as other ethnic groups, according to department statistics. "It's always the same thing," said Barbara Heyer, the lawyer who represented Mr. Brown's daughter in a civil suit the city settled last year for $2.5 million. "You have throw-down guns that somehow miraculously appear. You have shootings that are questionable, that should have been investigated thoroughly. This department does not hold these officers accountable." Representatives of Miami's police officers disagree. "We think there was an abuse of power by the U.S. attorney's office," said Al Cotera, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Miami. "A lot of it has to do with political pressure applied by certain sectors of the community, certain civil-rights-type groups." Continued 1 | 2 | Next>> Home | Back to National | Search | HelpBack to Top Post a Job on NYTimes.com Click Here to Receive 50% Off Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information
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