By Carlos Miller
On July 4th, 2007, a Wackenhut executive dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase filled with taxpayers’ dollars, sprinted through the streets of South Beach while being chased by a giant finger and several sets of eyes.
The giant finger pointed at him in an accusatory manner and the giant eyes never let him out of their site, for they knew damn well he was a thief.
No matter how hard he tried, Mr. Wackenhut could not elude the finger and eyes.
And no matter how discrete he tried to be, he could not avoid the stares of hundreds of South Beach patrons, who were being handed fliers informing them that Wackenhut was being investigated for stealing more than $12.2 million from Miami-Dade County.
That was the first Street Theater Action we conducted against Wackenhut. It wouldn’t be the last.
This week, after a three-year investigation, Miami-Dade County officials determined that Wackenhut overbilled the county for millions in taxpayer dollars.
The thievery was not just limited to the head honchos because NBC6 also revealed this week that Wackenhut security guard Fabriciano Baez was videotaped stealing money from Metrorail fare boxes.
And when Wackenhut guards weren’t stealing money from county residents, they were violating my First Amendment rights by ordering me not to take photos on a platform of a Metromover station.
I even wrote an open letter to Wackenhut President Gary Sanders about that incident, but he never responded.
Perhaps Sanders had been sleeping on the job, as many Wackenhut guards were, as you will in the second Street Theater Action we did, a video I am proud to have produced. He resigned within hours after I had posted the video on the Internet.
Here is the video of the first Street Theater Action, which was produced by a fellow Colombian-American who goes by the youtube username, jcfractal. To see more photos I took that day, click (read more) below.
Click here to see the entire collection of photos from the Wackenhut Action.
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18 responses so far ↓
1 genewitch // May 9, 2008 at 7:46 AM
with a name like wackenhut…
2 b.a.c. // May 9, 2008 at 9:15 AM
Man that is some great citizen action Carlos. How can others find out about this? Was it put on the Miami Indie Media Center site?
3 Carlos Miller // May 9, 2008 at 9:28 AM
b.a.c.,
This action was extremely top secret until it happened. Only a few people knew about it because we wanted to take Wackenhut completely by surprise.
The media was informed of the action that morning, but if you remember the Fourth of July last year, it rained throughout the afternoon, so the action was delayed by a couple of hours. We ended up not seeing any reporters on the scene who were probably busy covering Fourth of July stuff anyway.
Nevertheless, the photos and video were delivered to various Wackenhut executives via email, which was the original intent all along.
And they got so mad that they filed a lawsuit against the organizers that ended up going nowhere.
4 genewitch // May 9, 2008 at 4:13 PM
i was sleepy last night.
Why do the pictures look so strange? is it compression, or did you change the sizes in some strange way? i like the way that everything looks strongly focused and then not, but why does the forground stuff have such jagged edges?
Still like the pictures themselves, of course
5 Carlos Miller // May 9, 2008 at 4:38 PM
genewitch,
Not sure what you mean but you may be referring to the motion in the photos.
I was using a flash but I set the camera to a slightly slower shutter speed in order to capture the motion.
6 Ashley // May 12, 2008 at 9:36 PM
Hi! I got your comment that you also applied for MTF. I found out I didn’t miss the deadline and that I got an interview, so I’m taking the exams this week, sort of squeezed in between being in Miami and going home to Pennsylvania for a week before my interview.
7 geniusofdespair // May 16, 2008 at 8:14 PM
Thanks for the kind words you left on our blog…
I have been following the Wackenhut crap as well…but not like this!!! Love it.
8 Dr. Know // May 20, 2008 at 3:46 AM
Bravo, South Beach!
It’s about time the people took things into their own… eyes?. It’s for damned sure you can’t trust your “public servants” to look out for anything but their own self-serving interests. Being a past resident of FL, and one who wishes he was again, I applaud your efforts to stick it back to the man and his corporate cronies. Damned the topedoes – Full speed ahead!
9 Liz // May 25, 2008 at 1:44 PM
Is that Tyler Bonnen? He’s always been a bit actorly.
10 Leonard // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:44 PM
i would,nt let wackenhut guard my
dog house
11 Just plain ol' me // Aug 28, 2008 at 3:25 AM
I work for Wackenhut, I have for over a year now, out of the Salt Lake City branch. I have never EVER worked for a more disorganized, careless, screwed up company in all my life, There was more organization at my highschool burger flipping job than with this company! This is ONLY a job for me untill I can finish school. I can’t believe the lack of organization in the company even just between my branch and the area office in SLC! It’s amazing how little this company knows, or cares about securiy! I would never EVER hire Wackenhut for any security needs i might have, like Leonard said, “I wouldn’t let Wackenhut guard my dog house!”
12 Plain ol' me // Aug 28, 2008 at 3:43 AM
oh, just another little tid-bit, this article was taken from a page promoting Wackenhut:
The Wackenhut Corporation has the toughest standards for hire in the market. The success of our high quality security programs hinge on the parameters these officers must meet in order to be considered for employment, the thorough background checks we conduct, and the extensive training we provide each officer. No other company invests in the infrastructure necessary to create a quality program such as this, and the success we have had in our industrial partnerships validates this in the Houston
http://www.houstonboma.org/en/dir/?52
“toughest hire standards in the market” I walked in, filled out an application and the next day I was headed to SLC for training, no interview, now resume, not a single question asked other than, “are you finished with it?” (my application)
“the extensive training we provide each officer” My “extensive training” consisted of 8 hours of pointless movies and annoying rambling on about fire safety, and uniform care. The next day I had my security officer license, and I was filling out my job papers. (tax forms, ect..) I went home for 2 days, and I was called back to pickup my new uniform, which ripped my second day might I add. I now use my own clothes with the Wackenhut patches sewed on. Not once was I put through any sort of interview, not once was I asked any question about my history, my personallity, ect.. and not once was I allowed any sort of hands on training with any of the items that I carry on my duty belt. Luckly I care about those items and using them correctly so I have gone out and taken classes from a trained law enforcement official, and now I train the “new guys” on how to use pepper spray, batons, ect… This company is a total joke and should be shut down!
13 plain ol' me // Aug 28, 2008 at 3:45 AM
Long story short, Wackenhut is a joke, don’t trust the company, period!
14 Cappy // Jun 16, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Ops the troops at wackenhut san diego making there move and managers are flipped out because the officers are starting a union
15 Mark Jaudon // Nov 24, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Great information, I am “laid off” from Wackenhut after whisteblowing in the workplace. If you or attorneys are interested in
hearing my story in detail, I will be glad to share it. The management at Wackenhut cares only about the bottomline; little or nothing about
security of persons and property. I have a complaint issued with OSHA now. They will
investigate soon, I hope. Wackenhut frauds its
employees and clients by its unfair treatment
and dishonesty in the workplace.
16 SAXTON // Dec 30, 2009 at 6:30 PM
WOW SO SAN DIEGO WACKENHUT aka g4s HAS A UNION AND THE SUPERVISORS ARE OUT TRYING TO FIRE ALL EMPLOYEES THAT ARE IN AND ON THE UNION. ALSO UNION BUSTER GETS TERMED AFTER THE UNION EXPOSES HIS CRIMINAL ACTIVITES, WOW AND GET THIS A SUPERVISOR TELLS AN EMPLOYEE YOUR REVIEW IS BAD BECAUSE YOUR NOT AMERICAN!!!! WOW MANAGEMENT GAVE THAT SUPERVISOR TWO DAYS ON THE BEACH FOR IT AND THEN LET HIM WORK OVERTIME TO MAKE UP FOR THE LOSS IN PAY. WOW AND THIS IS A GOV CONTRACT AND HE'S A VET HMMM C. SAXTON
17 Necromancer23 // Dec 31, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Man the at the Texas Wackenhut office the supervisors are cracking down on sleepers and slackers that don't want to work but i love my job easy money don't knock Wackenhut till you try it there is alot of stuff that you get to see on the inside that normal people would only dream of seeing some of the big name plants and old factory's have some neat stuff on the inside to me they are like a big museum. i do have to say that some of the supers show well lets say favoritism toward certain personnel
18 Daniel // Aug 5, 2010 at 8:26 PM
What happened did you got FIRED from this company , are you still mad at them ? hahahaha
SURPRISE !!!!!..the majority of the security companies in this f… country are all the same , mediocre and useless . careless and only interested in winning contracts to bleed guards as well as clients …ive been working in this mediocre industry for almost 7 years , for different ones : Copstat ( out of business ) Securamerica , Allied Barton etc , etc and all of them are the same shit ..they love to hire ignorant haitians and american negroes as warm bodies just to fill a site and thats all ..they dont offer you NOTHING , just a miserable salary and if you want a medical ensurance ..you GOT to pay for it and teh worst part is that this ” ensurance ” is garbage ..
Is the type of job ideal for a student or someone already retired ..not for make a living ….this is type of job in where the psychological factor play a role : a guy dressed in a fancy uniform to make fell a bunch of stupid assholes SECURED ..none of you had worked as guards …probably you dont know
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