Comments on: Miami Beach police accused of wrongly arresting gay men (and photographers)

By: Jordan

Jordan — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:40:49 +0000

Hopefully the ACLU is successful with this case. As I believe to have heard, they haven’t been having the best track record in Florida, so let’s hope for the best. Another prejudiced wrong doing by the Miami police, how incredibly not surprising .
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By: tony

tony — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:48:46 +0000

ROB: i was thinking the same when i saw some of what the LEO’s were doing. the media cant say that they dont know this is going on, although that is what they may attempt to claim! Coverup, naw cant make that claim yet, but i think its a tad closer to being a possibility then i would prefer. this hate crime thing may bring it to another level., who knows. I was arrested almost a year ago now, and the LEO’s still have my stuff, well what they say was evidence, the division chief, claims that there is still a chance they may refile some of the charges, i say he is full of {St}! Not sure what William Riley/division chief MIAMIBEACH/police, meant by that but I am sure he will make sure that justice is had by all!

By: The Straw Buyer

The Straw Buyer — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:56:24 +0000

What’s worse than these cops though are the biased and corrupt state attorneys/prosecutors that cover up their misdeeds through intimidation and coercion.

By: Tim Post

Tim Post — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:22:43 +0000

Its not just what they are paid, its how much money is invested in training and supervising them. Miami Beach is different, people from all over the world flock there several times a year to get very drunk and party. That calls for a different approach to training, policing, administration and oversight.

I don’t care if you are paying each officer $100k yearly, if you invested only hundreds in their training, well …

When I said budget, I meant the whole picture, not just officer salaries. Thanks for pointing that out, I should have been a bit more specific.
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By: Tim Post

Tim Post — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:16:46 +0000

Awareness is an artifact of the last few years, even though the information has been available to anyone with an IP address for much longer.

There are many police departments, some of them have major issues, Miami Beach PD appears to be one of them. That doesn’t mean that Ashtebulah, Ohio has the same issues.

Miami Beach has some interesting logistics to deal with – people flock there from all over the world several times a year to do nothing but get drunk and party.

Obviously, they are not well equipped to handle this and that has to be fixed.
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By: mepsipax

mepsipax — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:03:00 +0000

Good thing I am not gay…….is what most will say.

Hopefully, they will be prosecuted to the same level of law as anyone else would be. However, we have seen time and again that this will not be the case. Sad.
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By: MacK

MacK — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:39:14 +0000

Tim I’m not sure what you mean by the budget being scary low. I can tell you that most police contrary to what they say are paid rather well for the service (beatings, muggings, harassment, theft, killings) they provide.

Here are the salaries in Fayetteville, NC.
http://police.ci.fayetteville.nc.us/recsalarybenefits.aspx
This does not include the overtime, and separate pay they receive for events like concerts, or high-school ball games.

This is for high-school, or GED education.

Police Officer Step Plan
Effective July, 2008
Full Year(s) of Service Base Salary % Increase
Starting $33,813
1 $35,166
2 $36,572
3 $38,035
4 $39,937
5 $41,934
6 $44,030
7 $45,792
8 $47,623
9 $49,528
10 $51,509
11 $53,570
12 $55,712
13 $57,941

Here is a view of the city statistics notice the median income is well below what the cops are being being paid in the first link.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Fayetteville-North-Carolina.html

Estimated median household income in 2008: $44,086 (it was $36,287 in 2000)
Fayetteville: $44,086
North Carolina: $46,549

Estimated per capita income in 2008: $24,559

I’ll let you find your own demographics for other cities, but I’ll bet the police are almost always paid above the average citizen in any locality.

I’d be even more willing to bet you would have a hell of a time finding this level of salary for education levels in many other fields.

By: The Straw Buyer

The Straw Buyer — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:10:12 +0000

What the hell has happened to law enforcement? Was it always this bad and we just didn’t notice?

By: Tim Post

Tim Post — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:22:48 +0000

I’m glad to see the ACLU get this into court where it belongs. The Miami Beach PD’s consistent disregard for civil rights has turned into an epoch game of `whack a mole` with all of the obvious cases that have been individually addressed over the last few years.

I hope this results in better hiring selection and training. What I looked for and can’t find (Carlos, you may have this already) is the annual budget spent on law enforcement. I’m almost willing to bet its scary low.

This behavior is just too consistent to NOT point to a common underlying cause.
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