So what happens to websites and online documents that are highly critical of local government? What the hell happened to the Miami Dade County Independent Review Panel records online?

The answer should be obvious.  Case in point, the local blog that was turning the City of Miami politicians inside out, Miami for Change.  

Go to the site now and it looks like this...

From what we've heard through the grapevine, Commissioner Marc Sarnoff pulled the right levers and got the blog that had uncovered his nefarious activities shut down.  From the Investigation Miami Blog we get this:

We also got some really creepy information yesterday about a meeting on Monday at the Miami Police Department's Internal Affairs Office.  That meeting was ostensibly held with Marc Sarnoff, Chief Exposito, an assistant chief and head of IA, Al Alvarez.  Alvarez and Sarnoff are very close - Alvarez was Marc and Teresa Sarnoff's police chauffeur for several years. Alvarez reportedly continues to spend hours and hours every week in Sarnoff's office despite having become a member of the brass with his appointment to head of IA.
The information we were given is there was going to be an attempt to shut the blogs down because Sarnoff is really, really, really pissed off about our posts.  But really, I can't imagine that could be done by a two-bit cabal of those "Einsteins."

So much for first amendment rights and freedom of speech huh?

Regardless, for those of you familiar with our blog and one of the many mortgage fraud cases we've written about, the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case, you'll remember we initially learned about the cop that was involved with that case, Jorge Baluja, through records that were available online from the Miami Dade County website.  The records in question were the findings of the Miami Dade County Independent Review Panel that investigated the Blanton Harris traffic accident that Detective Baluja screwed up royally.  Matt Meltzer wrote about the incident on the Miami Beach 411 website.  We also learned last year that due to budget cuts, Miami Dade County was going to cut the funding for the Independent Review Panel.  Doesn't that make sense?  Why not cut out a panel comprised of citizens that investigates complaints against cops and other county officials?  Who the hell needs these trouble makers anyway?  In fact, if we go back to the minutes of one of the meetings of the Independent Review Panel you can see the disdain against the IRP from the Miami Dade County Police Departments top brass...

That's too bad ain't it?  The police Chief is worried about his reputation being tarnished because the Independent Review Panel exposed him and his cronies sweeping an internal affairs case under the rug?  The IRP answers with this...

Right on!  Are you guys nuts?!  The IRP busts you guys and you want there findings taken offline?  Nice work IRP!

All good right?  For once the good guys prevail!  WRONG!  Let's go the the link that lead us to the IRP's report and findings regarding the Blanton Harris traffic incident, what do you get?

OH SNAP!  That can't be right!  What about the minutes of the hearing where the Chief of Police was bitching about his reputation being tarnished?!  

Everythings GONE!  Just like that, someone in the command staff of the MDPD complains and POOF!  Any evidence of their malfeasance disappears!  WTF!  Don't fret though folks, we still have copies of both reports.  Here's the IRP's report and findings regarding the Blanton Harris traffic accident...

IRP Minutes of Blanton Harris traffic accident investigation where MDPD top brass want the report erased fr...

And let's not forget the minutes of the IRP meeting where the Police Chief was bitching about his "tarnished reputation"...

IRP Minutes of Blanton Harris traffic accident investigation where MDPD top brass want the report erased fr...

Although the Miami Dade.gov page says these pages might be "temporarily unavailable", they've been this way for months.  Considering what we've seen recently regarding the Miami for Change blog being taken down, does any of this surprise anyone?