The Miami Beach Commission on Wednesday evening agreed to step up the city’s much-criticized urban law enforcement program but held back from dramatically expanding the types of crimes it would address.
A split commission opposed a move that would allow Miami Beach city attorneys to prosecute five state crimes that are normally dealt with by the Miami-Dade prosecutor’s office. These crimes: assault, trespassing, firing a gun, criminal mischief, and indecent exposure.
But four commissioners, including Mayor Dan Gelber, expressed reservations that prosecutor Katherine Fernandez Rundle had no opportunity to join a plan that could dramatically increase the power – and the number of cases – of the town’s small urban law enforcement program. She was not immediately available for comment.
“I think we should give her this place to stay,” said Gelber, who came up with the idea of paying the salaries of prosecutors who only deal with Miami Beach cases.
Commissioner Alex Fernandez feared the city might not be able to cope with the influx of cases. In Miami Beach alone, there were around 400 battery cases last year, according to the commission.
“I don’t know the whole thing. I don’t know that hiring an additional full-time attorney and assistant to do this is enough, ”Fernandez said.
The move was sponsored by Miami Beach Commissioner Steven Meiner, who advocated a law-and-order approach to low-level crime containment in South Beach, though other cities across the country have introduced reforms that have fewer arrests for minor Require offense.
“We let the establishment dictate how we run our city. It’s just a game of delay in my opinion, “said Meiner on Wednesday evening when the measure seemed doomed. “Nothing is done. That makes us look weak. “
The Commission examined Meiner’s actions, as well as several other judicial proposals, which had encountered opposition from civil rights activists and defenders who believe that prosecuting more people for so-called harassment offenses does not work. The measures were proposed as Miami Beach cops are being sued for a Memorial Day arrest under a controversial city ordinance.
“Zero tolerance and the police with broken windows are failed strategies that do nothing but add to the cycles of poverty and criminalization. They don’t make us safer or improve the quality of life for residents, ”said Alana Greer, executive director of the Community Justice Project in Miami.
In an interview with the Herald on Tuesday, Meiner defended the measures as important to local residents who were concerned about rising crime. “They are demanding police visibility and safer roads and control of the crimes we have seen and witnessed,” he said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
Meiners’ previous criminal measures have met with similar criticism.
In May, he supported an ordinance that made it a crime to be within six meters of being warned by officials with “intent to obstruct, provoke or harass”. On Memorial Day weekend, Miami Beach police arrested at least 13 people under the ordinance, all blacks, at least eight of them, who were using their cell phones to record officers.
Two of the cases were immediately closed by Miami-Dade prosecutors, who also brought charges against officials for allegedly raping one of the men. A third case that was dropped was that of Mariyah Maple, who was sprayed with pepper spray by a police officer and arrested under the law while videotaping a traffic stop.
The case was eventually closed. Maple filed a federal lawsuit against the three Miami Beach police officers who helped her arrest last month. She alleges that she was illegally arrested and that she was subjected to excessive force. The lawsuit is pending.
At my behest, the commission also approved a plan to appeal any ordinances dismissed by judges – a move which, according to the Miami-Dade public defender, “will add to the existing backlog in the courts that the courts already have clogged “. A review by the Herald also indicated that the city had not succeeded in any of its previous occupations.
This week, Meiner proposed a number of judicial measures, including one urging Florida lawmakers to amend the state constitution to allow locally elected judges who would allow judges and juries who live only in Miami Beach. The commission rejected the decision on Wednesday night.
“The concepts set out in these resolutions are completely misguided and full of legal and practical impossibilities,” said Jude Faccidomo, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, prior to the meeting. “Put simply, extreme measures are the act of desperate government.”
Stephen Hunter Johnson, chairman of Miami-Dade County’s Black Affairs Advisory Board, called Meiner’s approach “grave” and said Miami Beach should be treated the same as the rest of the county in terms of justice.
“Unfortunately, there is a lot of political standing to earn the nickname ‘tough on crime’,” said Johnson, adding, “It appears that Mr. Meiner is not satisfied with being part of Miami-Dade County.”
Fernandez Rundle, whose office did not respond to a request for his position on the proposals on Tuesday, was absent from the public discussion. However, on Tuesday the county’s most powerful law enforcement officer emailed the commissioners, demanding that the measures be postponed for several weeks.
“I believe that there are joint initiatives we can take that will work faster and more efficiently than some of the larger, more complicated proposals you are proposing, while at the same time respecting the rights of due process,” she wrote.
Mine insisted on taking the action anyway.
He managed to get a plan passed that added a full-time law enforcement attorney as well as a paralegal. The resolution also aims to allow the Miami Beach District Attorney’s Office to resubmit any cases of ordinances that the Miami-Dade District Attorney drops. The state sometimes handles these minor charges when they are related to a misdemeanor or crime.
Also successful: the creation of a “pre-trial diversion” program with Court Options, a non-profit group that has long worked with the prosecutor on similar cases. Mine emphasized that the city does not seek jail time for every small crime. However, he believes that too many habitual abusers get away with breaking the law.
“We have to do more than just make the arrests and release them,” Meiner said.
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 6:00 a.m.
David Ovalle covers crime and courts in Miami. The native San Diego graduated from the University of Southern California and joined the Herald in 2002 as a sports reporter.
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