The root of all problems in Miami Dade county...

Before we start today, lets take a look at this quote from Thomas Jefferson regarding term limits where he urged the limitation of tenure...

"...to prevent every danger which might arise to American freedom by continuing too long in office..."

Brilliant and I must say rather obvious for extended terms in office breed cronyism and institutional corruption.  The other day when we began discussing former Miami state attorney Richard Gerstein, I had no idea that Mr. Gerstein was first elected state attorney back in 1956, that's 57 years ago.  Consider for a moment how many presidents have come and gone since 1956, I think this collage of presidential photos will illustrate my point the best... 

In case you missed it, that's eleven presidents since 1956, starting with Ike all the way to our current president.  With each change in presidents we get a change in administration, change in staff, change in policies, etc, for lack of a better term a sort of cleaning of house.  In many instances the change in presidents have brought about reversal of bad policies or practices that have shifted the course of our country, unfortunately in some instances the changes were for the worse as well.

Now, let's take a look at the situation over out the Miami office of the state attorney, once again we'll use a pictorial guide to show just how many state attorneys have been elected to that office since 1956 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president of the United States...

That's right!  Just three state attorneys over the last nearly 60 years!  WTF?!

How does that make any sense?  Whenever you have someone in office for decades, the results are never good, like I said before, institutional corruption, cronyism, incapable employees not dealt with because they may know where some of the skeletons are buried, etc.  Employees sort of like that character from the movie Office Space...

Anyone whose been around the sao for more than five minutes can name at least a few career Reno era prosecutors that fit this bill.  If you have some time to waste, google "Bill Kostrzewski" for a perfect example of one such career prosecutor that has no business being a prosecutor.

Another problem with state attorneys who are around for decades is the political favoritism and cronyism that develops, former City of Miami Police chief said it best...

“The problem I have with her is that she is very aggressive against certain politicians or government workers, yet with others she takes the soft approach. She gives you all the reasons in the world to not go after them,”

Precisely.  We've all noticed that there are some local politicians and business people that no matter how damning the evidence, never seem to get in trouble?  Perfect example, David Rivera or our very own Tomas Regalado who both seem immune from prosecution despite the mountain of evidence of wrong doing against them.

I obviously have my own issues with our state attorney, for what it's worth thought, I'll admit that her office does a decent job of prosecuting the overwhelming majority of cases that go through their hands.  With that said though, there's no reason for any state attorney to be in office for two decades and be in such a powerful position that qualified candidates are afraid to run against her.  So tell me, why the hell haven't we put term limits in place for our state attorneys job?  Doesn't it make sense?  Two terms seems to be more than enough in my opinion?  What do you guys think?

Thank God, our very own state attorney weighs in on the Maquinitas!

Just in the nick of time no less!  With illegal gambling machines (aka maquinitas) popping up all over the place despite the fact that the governor signed legislation into law banning them and clearing making them illegal, what could be better than an opinion from our very own state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, regarding these machines and their legality?

First we'll start with an email from John Tupps to one of our readers from Governor Scott's press office regarding these machines...

Governor Scott was pleased to sign legislation that banned illegal internet cafes across Florida, including Allied Veterans – a multi-state criminal conspiracy. Law enforcement officers must make the determination whether any machine violates the law. Accordingly, you should speak with local law enforcement and the state attorney’s office.

Ok, great!  Logically, the next step would be to reach out to our state attorneys office since at least one municipality, Hialeah, is under the impression that these machines are legal.  With that said, take a look at the response from the state attorneys office...

Since the machines themselves are not illegal, unless and until there is some sort of “payout” for playing them, there would need to be some police undercover work in order to make an arrest for possession of the “maquinitas”.  Hillah Mendez, Legal Counsel for the Hialeah Police Department, contacted our office and we explained this investigative requirement to her.  It is up to the Hialeah Police Department, or any individual police department, to undertake such an investigative effort. Thank you. Tere ChavezMedia RelationsMiami-Dade State Attorney's Office305-547-0885

Oh, OK!  So the machines are not illegal despite all this grandstanding and other bullshit...

Alrighty then, I guess the problems been solved!  Despite our very own governor outlawing these machines statewide and shutting down the businesses that housed them, now our very own state attorneys office has given them her blessing and made them practically immune to prosecution.  Perhaps the machine owners just need to affix one of these stickers to the machines and their problems with law enforcement will be a distant memory...

Doesn't this man look amused?

Check out our friend Elaine de Valle's story on the ever present maquinitas, tomorrow we'll get back to our discussion of former state attorney Richard E. Gerstein.

What a great old ad.

Take a look at this vintage advertisement for Richard E. Gerstein circa 1972 courtesy of our friend Bill Cooke from Random Pixels...

Here's Mr. Gerstein's obit from the NYT back in 1992.take a look at the article as well as this great piece our friend Bill wrote about Mr. Gerstein, specifically these quotes from an old Herald article...

Gerstein's often stormy career in the state attorney's office spanned much of the turbulent 1960s and '70s and was marked by highly publicized battles against South Florida mobsters, gamblers and corrupt politicians... 

...he fought with mixed success to clean up such rackets as greyhound race-fixing, bookmaking, bolita, prostitution and back-alley abortions.  

He successfully went after Miami Beach and Dade County politicians who pocketed money from zoning and other deals, jailed "ambulance-chasing" lawyers and spent years trying to convict Dade Sheriff Tal Buchanan, who was suspected of protecting racketeers in the early 1960s. 

Largely through Gerstein's efforts, the state of Florida took over the licensing and regulation of pari-mutuel wagering, a step that went a long way in eliminating organized crime influence. 

 Interesting to say the least.  We'll discuss the significance of this ad and Mr. Gerstein's legacy tomorrow.

Spanish language TV picks up the Maquinita story...

Or at least I think they did?!  I don't speak or understand Spanish, nor am I able to get the video where channel 41 allegedly discusses the maquinitas that are being found all around town to play on line.  Here's the video embeddedm the discussion starts at around the 17:00 mark...



Video streaming by Ustream

And here's the link to the story just in case the embedded video doesn't show up.  

Ironically the commercials before the video worked just fine for me but the actual video where they discuss the maquinitas refused to work for me for the first few tries, by the third time it worked.  The best part though comes at the 18:43 mark where a cop shows up where the TV crew is filming and looks dumbfounded when the reporter asks him about the illegal gaming machines inside the restaurant...

If I'm not mistaken, I think the cop actually tells the reporter that the machines are legal in Hialeah!

That's enough for now, it's Friday, we'll pick up where we left off next week.

They're ba-ack! Fucking maquinitas are popping up all over the place again!

Can you believe this shit?  After fighting these goddamn machines for years on end and finally thinking we had won, they're back with a fucking vengeance!  Back in March the Florida senate passed a bill outlawing these machines, that doddering old fool of a mayor Tomas Regalado even came out publicly and stated that the maquinitas are illegal...

Despite all of that, despite all of the press conferences, despite all the grandstanding by local pandering politicians, it was all bullshit as they're showing up in all the usual places.  Take a look at some of these photos that one of our readers sent us, mind you, these photos were all taken within the last 48 hours at various locations throughout the City of Hialeah...

In the backs of restaurants, hidden in the back corners of small mom and pop grocery stores, whether out in the open...

Or hidden behind shelves just out of view.  Would you be there?  Could you be there...

For those establishment owners with a modicum of common sense, they try to hide them behind boxes off in a far corner...

Or secret them in a back store room just out of view...

On the other hand, you have those business owner that are so brazen that they not only have them machines out in the open in plain view for anyone to see in storefronts...

With the photos of the machines plastered on their storefronts!

Can you believe this shit?  Despite all the hoopla about the machines officially being made illegal, despite all the media coverage, despite all of the photo ops with bulldozers crushing illegal gaming machines all over the local press, the machines are back, back with a vengeance no less!

What makes matters worse though is that one of loyal readers, who happens to be a public servant, sent the photos you see here over to the feds in an effort to stop what ostensibly looks like, smells like and certainly feels like illegal activity.  What the feds did with that information though is borderline scandalous, what's that old saying?

"the cover up is worse than the crime?"  

We'll discuss in depth tomorrow, in the mean time, if any of you guys spot more of these maquinitas, take photos and send them to me!

Karma, reflecting on last week's events...

As we all know, last Thursday the City of South Miami commission adopted a resolution that stated that former police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's employment contract was voided when he took on the position of acting city manager.  A couple of hours later city manager, Steven Alexander, issued a memorandum appointing Major Rene Landa acting police chief since he concluded that he "had no police chief in place".

Shortly after the commission meeting, de Castro's son, Christopher Martinez de Castro, confronted me and accused me of "writing bullshit about his family, wrecking his family, putting his family through hell, etc" and ultimately concluded his tirade by calling me a "bitch ass nigger" then tried to physically attack me.  That's all well and good, its understandable that the friends and family of the de Castro clan would be upset, after all their patriarch just lost a formidable position within the community as well as six figure salary, in part because of my actions.  

This must be a traumatizing experience for the former chief and his family, I can only imagine.  Somehow though, I know what it feels like to be publicly humiliated and accused of all sorts of wrong doing, I know the shame that is visited upon a family after being written about in the local media for your alleged nefarious deed.  I suspect that the three tellers that were framed for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from de Castro's wife's tag agency have some idea of what this feels like as well, accused of wrongdoing, humiliated in public, thrown out on the street with no job, etc.  How about Warren Papove?  I suspect he knows how it feels?  Taken away from his home and thrown into detention for months on end then deported, for what?  Some bullshit immigration charge trumped up by some bogus code enforcement violation that the former chief de Castro dreamed up?

I could go on and on with stories of people getting screwed by former chief de Castro, the one distinction that Mr de Castro enjoys when compared to these other folks is that he wasn't falsely arrested, striped of his rights then had to fight the criminal court system for months if not years to clear his name.  Next time the members of the de Castro clan are sitting around thinking about how unjust everything that has happened to them is and what an asshole I am for writing about their misdeeds, think about the people that you've fucked over and just how bad you've altered the course of their lives.  

Consider that the girls from the Airways Auto Tag case were/are facing 190 years in prison for the crimes that you've accused them of committing, consider how you racially profiled and victimized prominent attorney Joe Klock's law clerk countless times for no other reason than his skin color, consider the different city employees, constituents and former elected officials whose lives were shattered because of your political machinations.  Take a moment while you're stewing over what happened to you over the last year or so culminating with the loss of your beloved job as chief and think about the people I've mentioned and the countless numbers of people I haven't mentioned and contemplate what you've done to them before you lash out at me or any of your other critics.  Only then can you come to peace with yourself and your actions.

It's official, Orlando Martinez de Castro is no longer the Chief of Police of the City of South Miami.

I heard the news last night just as I was getting out of the the shower after work...

While mainstream media was all over the place in their reporting of the circumstances which brought about the demise of embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro, I thought it best to get something official from the city regarding de Castro's termination.  I reached out to my sources in the police department and got this memorandum that was distributed throughout the city by City Manager Steven Alexander...

  City of South Miami City Manager Steven Alexander Relieves Orlando Martinez de Castro From Duty

WTF!?  This bit is priceless...

These facts made it clear, that in my capacity as City Manager, I had no alternative but to find that I had no Chief of Police in place.

What about that guy down the hall sitting in the chief's office?

With that said, City Manager Alexander appoints Major Rene Landa the interim police chief.  As I'm told, yesterday the chief's photo was taken down from the walls of City Hall and one of our commenters stated that there were a couple of other members of his command staff that were packing their belongings.  I haven't confirmed any of that yet, we'll report back when we do.

That's enough for today.  I know we haven't heard the end of Orlando Martinez de Castro, I'm sure he's gonna be giving us tons of new material to write about over the next several months.  Now we'll turn our energies towards finally blowing what's left of the Airways Auto Tag agency case out of the water.  Till then...

Ex Police chief's son calls me a nigger and the outcome of last night's City of South Miami commission meeting.

No surprises there.  As we mentioned yesterday, the City of South Miami commission convened a special meeting last night to vote on adopting a resolution to terminate his 5-year employment agreement with the city.  There were several impassioned pleas from the chief's supporters including but not limited to threats to the commissioners who voted against the chief, despite the obviously stacked audience in favor of the chief and the tense atmosphere during the meeting as well as the hysterical high faggotry exhibited by some members of the commission, things went off without a hitch.  While the outcome of the vote wasn't guaranteed, by meeting's end the commission did vote three to two to adopt the resolution and in essence to void City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's employment contract.

Anticipating an entertaining commission meeting, I decided to go to trek down to City Hall after work and watch the proceedings first hand.  When I got there it was obvious that there were several plain clothes police officers in attendance as well as a few uniformed officers that were all milling around the back of the commission chambers.  I decided that I wanted to avoid any potential confrontation, so I went down and sat up front in the third row, third seat from the aisle on the right side where there was no one around me.  All well and good till about four minutes into the meeting when some guy comes and sits down right next to me.  I could tell by his overall demeanor and the fact that he chose to sit right next to me despite the empty chairs all around us, his intent was to clearly intimidate me or provoke me into some sort of a confrontation.  Here's a photo of my new friend...

Christopher Martinez de Castro

Obviously this was someone from the Martinez de Castro clan so I chose not to engage him.  During the meeting my new found friend to my left kept taking photos of me all the while huffing and puffing throughout the meeting, all good, whatever.  After the conclusion of the meeting I guess Mr. Piss and Vinegar's intent was to provoke me and create a scene when I was going to leave to walk up the isle to the exit, regardless, I wasn't going to exit the way he had thought as I had a couple of friends waiting for me in the back corner of the commission chambers.  So upon the meetings conclusion, I exited to my right which thwarted this man's plans and met with my friends that were waiting for me.  We talked for a few minutes then headed towards the exit only to have Mr. Piss and Vinegar block the exit from the chambers.  I found this rather amusing as there were several people milling about the door, including but not limited to city police officers both in uniform and in plain clothes, several city residents as well as some folks from the Miami Dade County Commission on Ethics if I'm not mistaken.  With that said, this guy began a verbal tirade against me, calling me a lying motherfucker among other things then alleged that I was a coward that wrote bullshit about his family.  After rambling insults for a little while, rage face then amped it up a couple of notches and started lunging at me telling me that he's gonna take care of me, to watch my back and I'm gonna get mine for what I've done to his family, etc.  

Whatever the fuck ever.  I was rather amused by this interaction and decided that it was my turn to speak at which point I told him "I'm the one who's destroying your family?  What about the three innocent girls that your family framed and sent to jail?  What about them?"  At this point this man who was mere inches from my chest, lunged at me in an effort to attack me at which time he was pulled off me by a plain clothes cop while a uniformed cop simultaneously jumped in between us and pushed him away.  Someone behind me then told me that this was one of Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's sons.  While he was being pulled away from me, in front of a crowded commission chamber with ostensibly a member of just about every race and color that populates our region in attendance, Mr. de Castro's son then started hurling racial insults towards me culminating in "you'll see, you're gonna get your's YOU BITCH ASS NIGGER"!  

WTF!?   

In case you didn't get that, here's a visual aide to help you contemplate what Chief Martinez de Castro's son called me in front of a room full of City employees and constituents...

Honestly, are you fucking serious?  In this day and age, how could the chief's son, Christopher Martinez de Castro, hurl this kind of racial slur against me or anyone else for that matter?  For fucks sake you asshat, your fucking father is a public servant in a town with a sizable black population, even worse, you decided to call me a "BITCH ASS NIGGER" in front of several black people!

Shame on you, Mr. de Castro, while your intent was to clearly insult and demean me all you managed to accomplish is making yourself look like a lowlife idiot while embarrassing both yourself and your family.  Nice work, I couldn't have done a better job myself.

Regardless of Christopher Martinez de Castro's outburst and racial slurs, I was told that shortly after the commission meeting, City Manager Steven Alexander relieved Orlando Martinez de Castro from his duties as police chief and appointed City of South Miami PD Major Rene Landa acting chief.  I'll update as soon as I have confirmation.

THE PARTY'S OVER!

The party's over, or so it seems for embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro.  Yesterday I was forwarded this proposed resolution that is to be heard before the city commission this evening at 7 pm.  

In an nutshell basically what the city is saying is that since Mr. de Castro accepted the job of "acting city manager" for a total of 45 days simultaneously during his tenure as police chief, that in doing so he voided his employment contract for the position of the chief with the city.  Take a look at the proposed resolution for yourselves...

  Orlando Martinez de Castro Resolution to void employment contract

According to the state of Florida's constitution,  Article II, Section 5(a) states: 

“No person shall hold at the same time more than one office under the government of the state and the counties and municipalities therein”

Therefore according to the Florida attorney general's opinion (AGO 2013-08) ...

...that appointment of a police chief to the office of Acting City Manager for any duration, even temporary, violates the dual office-holding prohibition in Section 5(a), Article II of the Florida Constitution...

and...

...the Supreme Court of Florida set forth the general rule: “The acceptance of an incompatible office by one already holding office operates as a resignation of the first”

In other words who ever is proposing this resolution is telling embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro to...

We're waiting with bated breath and will report back as soon as there's anything new.

A unique distinction for the City of South Miami PD...

One of our readers took the time to send us this rather disturbing graphic which illustrates the changes in Miami Dade county municipal police department crime clearance rates.  The map was prepared with statistics compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, take a look for yourselves...

  South Miami Police Department Crime Clearance Rates

In case you missed it, the police department with the lowest crime clearance rates in all of Miami Dade county is none other than the pd run by embattled police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro...

If the statistics are to be believed then that means that only 5.6% of the crimes committed in the City of South Miami are solved and subsequently cleared!  Even worse, the statistics also indicate that there has been a 14.5% drop in clearance rates over the last two years in South Miami!  Way to go chief!  I'ts hard to fathom that even a crime ridden city like Opa Locka or Miami Gardens both of which have some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the entire state, if not the country, have pd's that have a better crime clearance rate than a sleepy little town like South Miami.  WTF?!

On another note, I'm also hearing that old chiefy has gone ahead and sued the mayor, if any of our readers have a copy of the lawsuit and would like to save me a trip down to the court house, please forward me a copy so we can post it up and discuss.

The benefits of having a police chief as a friend...

A few weeks back we discussed how embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, abused the federal NCIC database to look up people for apparently no good reason.  Specifically we mentioned to people that the chief looked up, one of which was prominent attorney Joe Klock...

Mr. Klock didn't respond to our request for a comment, but shortly after we made our blog post, Mr. Klock responded to the New Times when they covered our story and said...

This is an invasion of privacy and a violation of a person's Fourth Amendment rights," Stoddard says. "When the chief of police is doing this, we have a serious problem."
Adds Klock: "I think the police chief believes he is above the law and he can do anything he wants. The people who continue to employ him can solve the problem by firing him."

Very well.  Now let's move on to the second person that the chief looked up, leader of the nonprofit Cuban exile organization Brothers to the Rescue, Jose Basulto...

Rather than get ignored with an email request for a comment, I decided to call Mr. Basulto and see what he thought of the chief running his name through the NCIC system,  I certainly wasn't expecting the response that I got!  When I got Mr. Basulto on the phone he told me that Mr de Castro was a good friend and that he used the NCIC system to look him up as a favor to see if there were anything going on that he should know about!

WTF?!  Really?  A friend asks a fucking police chief to run his criminal background to see if there's anything that he needs to be made aware of?!

No shit!  I won't even get into how outrageous this situation is, I'll leave it up to you guys to deal with it in the comments section...