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.
Contrast with our current States Attorney who was described this way by Miami's top cop:
ReplyDelete“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,” said Exposito
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/27/v-fullstory/2916646/criticism-success-define-miami.html#storylink=cpy
Since 1956 we have had 11 presidents: Ike, Kennedy, LBJ, Tricky Dick, Ford, Carter, Ronnie, Bush 1, Slick Willie, Bush2, and Obama. Since 1956 we have had three state attorneys, and had Clinton not convinced Reno to move to DC it is possible that we could have only had 2 state attorneys in Dade/Miami-Dade County since 1956.
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