Just last week, officers with the Miami Beach Police Department (MBPD) were filmed beating a black woman spring breaker’s head into the street and shooting another man on Ocean Drive.
After locals and visitors have long complained that MBPD habitually bullies black visitors to South Beach, black city leaders and activists are now fed up. As a result, the Miami-Dade County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is demanding City Manager Jimmy Morales and Police Chief Richard Clements to resign accordingly.
Also, they went as far as posting a flyer on the NAACP’s Instagram page that read: “WE’VE HAD ENOUGH!
According to the reports from New Times, the chapter’s president, Ruban Roberts, said the NAACP had a positive relationship with former MBPD Chief Dan Oates, who regularly met with the association and often resists calls from other Miami Beach politicians to arrest most partygoers. On the same note, Robert said he warned those politicians last summer that replacing Oates with Clement might be a bad idea and could spark violent interactions between black visitors and law enforcement. Meanwhile, Roberts confirmed that Clements has not yet met with the NAACP.
In the same report, Roberts questions why MBPD cops under Clements’ leadership would put on riot gear this week when an influx of black tourists arrived.
“There’s no justification other than intimidation for them to wear that gear and for them to have those guns.” Says Roberts.
In addition, the Miami-Dade NAACP is equally calling for Morales to resign because the city manager oversees police decisions.
Roberts added: “Any action the officers take or the chief takes, whether it’s using riot gear or assault rifles and bullets, has to have approval from the mayor and city manager.”
Although he quickly went on to say: I’m not calling Jimmy or the mayor racist, but it has racial overtones when you only do that with one population. You can’t tell me that on the other spring break weeks when you have white college kids come down, the kids don’t also act unruly? Why is that different? There’s only one common denominator.”
To summarize, Roberts and the Miami-Dade NAACP, in addition to asking for leadership changes, are as well requesting that the city create a civilian oversight panel to review complaints against Miami Beach Cops. Besides, a similar panel exists to monitor officers with the Miami Police Department.
