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.

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.

An opinion from the Ethics Commission, definitely one for the WTF files...

So it looks like someone from over at the City of South Miami requested an opinion from the Miami Dade County Ethics Commission, considering that the opinion was regarding whether or not the city could continue doing business with one of their vendors after the vendor hired the police chief's son, it only stands to reason that the person asking for the opinion was none other than the chief himself, Orlando Martinez de Castro...

Let's take a look at the opinion issued by the ethics commission yesterday...

In response to a Request for Opinion (RQO 12-14), the Ethics Commission determined that the City of South Miami may continue to purchase police equipment from a company that employs the son of the Chief of Police.  Lou’s Police & Security Equipment has been a vendor with the city for more than two years and the purchasing contract was most recently approved on Oct. 1, 2012.  A month later, Christopher Martinez de Castro, son of Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro, was hired by Lou’s as Vice President of International Sales.  Because the son has no direct or indirect financial ownership in the company and will not be involved in the local contract, or profit from it, there is no prohibition from the police department continuing to do business with the firm.

Huh?  So let's get this straight, the City of South Miami does business with Lou's Police & Security Equipment and has done so for several years.  Most recently on October 1, 2012, the City of South Miami approved a purchasing contract with the vendor and then just a month later, the police chief's son gets hired by the vendor that was just awarded the purchasing contract as the "Vice President of International sales?"  While the chief's son may not be "involved in the local contract or profit from it" doesn't giving the chief's son a job after getting a contract from the city sound like a classic example of quid pro quo?  Honestly, WTF?

I don't know what's more surprising, the fact that the City's vendor hired the Chief's son or that all of a sudden the chief is concerned about getting opinions from the ethics commission!