Update: Here are photos of me defending myself after the assault, which were taken by Roberto Koltun of El Nuevo Herald. Here are photos I took that day.
By Carlos Miller
Unfortunately, the Miami Herald is charging me $250 to use the photo on the video for six months, and $375 to use the photo for a year, so I wasn’t able to include it.
So much for journalistic fair use.
The photo I am referring to is the one where I am surrounded by a group of screaming Cuban exiles, accusing me of being a communist because I not only had the gall to talk to Code Pink members, but I went as far as saying that they had the right to protest. I also told them that I had the right to talk to whomever I pleased without their input.
Naturally, all this First Amendment talk
pushed them over the edge.
Photojournalist Roberto Koltun of El Nuevo Herald was three feet from the incident when it broke out. He took several photos. You can even see him briefly in the video.But the photos never ran. It wasn’t his decision. He is a solid journalist with a very impressive career. But these decisions are always made by the top dogs.
Maybe one day I’ll get to see the photos.
The incident that occurred on Saturday is not surprising considering the history of violence in the Miami Cuban exile community. The only reason they didn’t attack Code Pink was because the Cuban exiles were placed behind barricades and yellow police ribbon. But that only seemed to antagonize the few troublemakers that are always involved in these incidents.
By walking behind the barricades, I was stepping into a lion’s cage.
But despite what happened, I will do it again the next time the old guard gathers at Versailles, whether if it’s for Code Pink protesting or Fidel Castro dying for the umpteenth time.
And I will film, photograph and speak to whomever I want, even if they are behind barricades waving a Che Guevara flag (oh, the horror!).
And I if I see this lying sack-of-shit, I will walk up to his face and call him a mentiroso. A mentiroso sin huevos who stated on his website that I was misrepresenting myself as a CNN reporter, which is a complete lie.
Aldo Rosado-Tuero, you claim to be a journalist on your website. But a real journalist would have walked up to me and asked me who I was. Your Cuban counterparts did, so somebody in your crowd has my business card.
You also claim that I was sneakingly taking photos of your “director”, whoever that is. If your director was wearing an Alpha 66 shirt or a Vigilia Mambisa shirt while waving a pro-Posada sign and screaming profanities into a bullhorn, there is a good chance I might have taken his photo.
But the real sneak is you, Rosada-Tuero, because you thought you were being sly when taking photos of me when I wasn’t looking. I knew what you were doing. I just didn’t give a shit.
You see, I’m not a raving, paranoid lunatic. I don’t believe everybody is a spy out to get me.
Speaking of which, Jorge Garcia, you senile fascist. Do I really come across as a “Cuban intelligence agent”? Or did you just tell a newspaper reporter that to slander my name?
Do you realize you come across as a bat-shit crazy Cuban by saying things like that?
And Vincente Diaz. How dare you come to this country for freedom only to threaten my freedom? If you ever try to follow through on your threat of sticking my camera up my ass, I will stick my monopod so far up your ass that you will think you’re back in a Cuban jail cell.
Just because you guys allowed freedom to be taken from you in Cuba doesn’t mean I’m about to do the same here.
You guys are an embarrassment to Miami’s Cuban community. An embarrassment to democracy. And an embarrassment to the younger Cuban-Americans who grew up straddling two cultures and are now old enough to see the truth.
And here’s a wake-up call. The streets of Miami do not belong to the Cubans, despite what that other flag-waving lunatic said in my previous video.
They belong to all of us.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Fernandez, as I mentioned in a
37 responses so far ↓
1 Jack Spicer // Feb 14, 2008 at 6:00 am
They need to decide which flag represents their nation.
2 Rick // Feb 14, 2008 at 7:14 am
You declined to press charges? That will show them, Carlos.
WTF?
.
3 genewitch // Feb 14, 2008 at 7:17 am
interesting video :-/
I skipped past your anger part of the post though. Why didn’t you file charges? Were you not hurt or something? It looked like you got knocked down
4 Calm Bobby // Feb 14, 2008 at 7:29 am
Intense…It’s too bad I can never eat the pastelitos at Versailles because of these lunatics.
5 daniel @ wickets and guayaba // Feb 14, 2008 at 7:46 am
Carlos, Sorry to do this here, but you will see why I had to. I tried to use the “contact” link, but I get a “Easy Tiger, 404 error page”. Also, for some reason your rss feed won’t update anymore. It was fine before, but since about the first of the year or so, it just will not update anymore. I tried un and re subscribing, but no luck. I am using Google reader. Did you change settings or something, and thats why it won’t work? If you need anymore info, let me know.
6 Ms Calabaza // Feb 14, 2008 at 8:30 am
Carlos,
great video, could be a good doc. Unfortunately, Code Pink knew exactly which buttons to push and did it well. These old coots are actually very dangerous and you’re lucky this guy didn’t panic and shoot you. Be careful. On the other hand, although they have a right to protest don’t think for one minute this was not exactly the kind of reaction Code Pink was looking for. I’d like to see them pull a pro-Nazi demonstration in Boca Raton. Oh, but no one is funding Code Pink to do that . . .
7 Gus Moore // Feb 14, 2008 at 10:04 am
Great video, Carlos. Good subtitles and camera. Way to hold your ground.
Why didn’t you press charges?
8 b.a.c. // Feb 14, 2008 at 2:26 pm
buahahaha.The radical Cubans and their distorted definition of Democracy and Liberty. Looks like the cooks brought the Castro view of Liberty over with them all those years ago.
Your a ballsy guy Carlos and a testament to the blogosphere. I swear I see your name everywhere these days.
9 Duran // Feb 14, 2008 at 2:34 pm
You’ve GOT to submit this to Current (www.current.com). It would totally make it on the air and the video some national attention.
10 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Rick,
I wasn’t hurt nor my cameras damaged. And I really have my hands full with my current legal situation, which has not yet been resolved.
11 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 3:29 pm
genewitch,
No, I wasn’t knocked down. The guy knocked the camera down (it didn’t drop) and I pushed the guy back.
And then we all stared each other down for a few seconds until the cops came.
12 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Ms. C,
Perhaps Code Pink wanted that reaction, but the Cubans are stupid for giving it to them.
13 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Gus,
I’ve been involved in skirmishes before involving my photography.
I shoot a lot of protests or crime scenes, so it comes with the territory.
My main concern is my cameras. Then my own physical safety. Yes, I have strange priorities.
If my cameras are not damaged nor I am injured, then I usually blow it off to part of the job.
Legal situations can be very draining. And in the end, it probably won’t result in anything because there were no injuries or damaged property.
14 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Duran,
I have never heard of http://www.current.com until you mentioned it. I just signed up.
And it looks like I am able to submit a higher quality video than Youtube accepts.
I really hate the deterioration I’ve been getting with the Youtube uploads. I need to figure something out here.
15 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Calm Bobby,
The pastelitos are the same at La Caretta or La Palma because they’re owned by the same family that owns Versailles.
b.a.c.,
Thanks. I really didn’t intend the video to turn out this way, but once the situation escalated, I had no choice but to go with it.
16 Blind Mind // Feb 14, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Carlos, next time bring a semi-automatic and lay waste to these ungrateful scumbags. They do not deserve to be in this country and probably came here illegally anyways, although theyre “allowed” to break the laws.
I agree with Duran, Current TV would be a great forum for your video. I watch that channel quite frequently and its awesome. Channel 107 on Comcast in Dade.
17 Duran // Feb 14, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Do it Carlos, and I’ll start a campaign for it to get greenlit for television!! And you should really watch the channel, it’s probably the best thing on TV (bless you Al Gore).
18 Alex Cabrera // Feb 14, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I’m a big fan of Vimeo for video sharing. You can even do HD video
19 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Duran,
I’m trying to do it now but my Safari keeps crashing on me when I try to upload the file.
I created a 236 MB file, which came out really nice quality-wise as opposed to the 33 MB Youtube file.
But because it’s more than 200 MB, I need to use the advanced method, except that it is not working for me.
And it doesn’t recognize Firefox for whatever reason.
So now I have to spend the next few hours dealing with technical crap, which I really hate.
20 outinforce // Feb 14, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Hey Carlos, you DRAMA QUEEN –
I guess you like to censor the comments of people that don’t agree with you.
Oh, wait, isn’t that what you accuse the Cuban Exiles of doing?
Hypocrite.
21 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 8:49 pm
outofforce,
Are you talking about your other comment?
It’s in the other post, dumb ass.
22 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 8:54 pm
daniel,
Your comment ended up in my spam folder for some reason.
I’ve been having technical issues with plugins and stuff like that lately. I even upgraded to the latest version of WP and it still didn’t improve.
I’m not sure what to do.
23 Ms Calabaza // Feb 14, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Carlos,
you’re absolutely right. That’s my point. What would happen if Code Pink showed up and everyone ignored them and continued enjoying their pastelitos and con leches? But that will never happen.
24 Rick // Feb 14, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Carlos, I hear what you’re saying but, dude, these guys need to be taught a lesson. If the cop asked you if you wanted to press charges then, obviously, there was a crime committed.
I don’t know, man. You’re so righteous most of the time. Here was your chance to take it from A to Z and you punked out at M.
And just think of all the good blogging this could have produced. You could have even filmed your car exploding outside your house as the Mambisa guy ran away down the street. Now that would have been some good sh*t.
Seriously, yo.
.
25 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Alex,
I just uploaded to Vimeo. Great quality. Much better than Youtube.
http://www.vimeo.com/692133
Duran,
I ended up having to lower the resolution to below 200 MB because it just wasn’t working on Safari, and I learned that is a common problem.
And it doesn’t work on Firefox if you have a Mac.
But I uploaded it, but I am not able to access it. I guess they have to review it first.
26 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Rick,
The Herald just sent me a very low res photo of the incident which shows me pushing the guy back.
I wish you can see the look on his face. He is sprawling backwards and his hands have that helpless grasping for air look.
I will eventually figure out a way to get a decent sized version of this and be able to post it online without getting sued for copyright infringement.
The point is, as soon as he struck down my camera, I pushed him back hard. My hand is almost up to his neck. I did this very spontaneously.
As soon as I did this, I was like, oh shit, what did I do?
But when I saw the look on their faces, I knew they were thinking the same thing. Oh shit, what did we do?
They’re not used to people fighting back.
In the video, that man who was ranting and raving in the beginning. Well, he was the one that started yelling for them to kick me out towards the end.
As soon as I heard this, I confronted him, asking him if he was going to kick me out. And he said no and walked away with his tail between his legs.
He came back when he saw all the other Cubans getting in my face, but he did nothing when it was just me and him.
The same thing with that young guy threatening to stick the camera up my ass. I walked up and confronted him about it. He said something like, I don’t think you’re going to do a balanced job.
I said well let me interview you. And I asked him the hard question about that airliner because that is the whole controversy over Posada. The hard question that many people in this community will not dare speak out loud.
The way I look at it, I already sent my message.
That if they threaten me, I will get in their face rather than back down.
That if they strike at me, I will strike right back.
The other thing is, if I did file charges, then it will be handled by the Miami Dade State Attorney’s Office, who are also handling my arrest case.
I’m hoping to get this thing dropped before we go to trial.
But if they start thinking that there is some type of pattern here, even though in the eyes of the law, I was the victim in the second case, they might just do their best to fight me over the first case.
I really don’t know. It’s just a thought.
But when it all boils down to it, it was really nothing but pushing and shoving. Nobody got hurt. And I got my footage.
And I showed them that I was not going to be intimidated.
And that, to me, is the real victory.
27 Carlos Miller // Feb 14, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Blind Mind,
I actually own two semi-automatic pistols. A Beretta 9mm and a Colt .45.
But I rarely leave the house with them. Almost never.
I prefer to do my shooting with cameras.
28 Vincent // Feb 15, 2008 at 2:08 am
Yeah, those guys are lot like the Mexicans here in Los Angeles. During the Mayday demonstrations, they get way to hot headed.
29 Gabriel J. Lopez-Bernal // Feb 15, 2008 at 11:30 am
Let’s Fund raise then…
30 Manuel A. Tellechea // Feb 15, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Carlos:
You have become the subject of discussion on my blog:
http://reviewofcuban-americanblogs.blogspot.com/2008/02/barack-obama-gets-daniel-ortegas.html
31 Augustin Alles // Feb 15, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Carlos –
You ARE a communist.
32 FerfeLaBat // Feb 15, 2008 at 3:32 pm
You live on the wild side man. Very cool video and great editing. Scary stuff.
33 Blind Mind // Feb 15, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Carlos,
I wrote that comment after becoming angry at all these old geezers talking smack and pushing you around so looking back I think my comment was a tad out of line and written in anger. I agree that shooting with a camera is a far better solution.
Glad you were able to get it on Current TV. Hopefully it will be up soon to vote on and hopefully we can get it to get the greenlight to be on air. Again, I encourage you to check out the channel as there are a lot of stories that people have filmed that are really cool and worldly in perspective.
34 CLJ // Feb 15, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Great footage! These guys obviously don’t have a clue about the US and Freedom of Speech. In fact, they seem to want to do what Castro does: trample on the rights of anyone who disagrees with them.
They should go back to Cuba; they could work for Fidel. They already use his methods.
35 Carlos Miller // Feb 15, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Blind Mind,
I didn’t really take you literally. If I did that, then I might have to start my second blog from jail.
“Defending yourself with a firearm is not a crime.
It’s a Second Amendment right”
I uploaded the video to http://www.current.com, but I don’t know what happens now because it’s not in my profile, and I haven’t heard anything.
36 Dayngr // Feb 26, 2008 at 1:22 am
I think they are all a bunch of instigators. You’re right 100% we all have rights to say what we wish and protest if we want etc. Shame people can’t agree to disagree.
37 Scott // Mar 10, 2008 at 4:36 am
Carlos,
This was awesome, awesome coverage. Fantastic footage!
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