They wanted to honor a Black man killed by police in Miami Beach. Now, they’re suing.
Raymond Herisse was shot 116 times on Memorial Day Weekend in 2011. Eight years later, an artist paid tribute to him with a portrait as part of an effort to promote conversations about race in Miami Beach.
But the city removed the work the day after it went on display. Now, the city is being sued over the decision to remove the work, with the artist and the exhibit’s curators claiming government officials violated the First Amendment.
The lawsuit, filed in Miami federal court Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, accuses Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and City Manager Jimmy Morales of ordering the piece, entitled “Memorial to Raymond Herisse,” to be taken down “because they were offended by the ideas conveyed” in the work, according to court documents.
It seeks damages, a declaration from the court that First Amendment rights were violated and an injunction ordering Miami Beach to display the piece in a space comparable to the exhibit on Lincoln Road.
Miami Beach Chief Deputy City Attorney Aleksandr Boksner issued the following statement about the lawsuit:
“The City has not been served with this lawsuit, and therefore we cannot provide any comment on this pending litigation against the City and its Officials,” Boksner said via email.
Miami Beach has had a long history of mistreating minorities. Housing and hotel discrimination in the first half of the 20th century made it difficult for Blacks to live or stay in the city. Most recently, Miami Beach police have come under fire for what the NAACP decried as “racist” actions during spring break. On Memorial Day, for instance, the city has rolled out roadblocks and extra police for the annual Urban Beach Weekend.
“The way [the city] approaches Black people coming onto the Beach during Memorial Day Weekend is often looked at as a burden,” Octavia Yearwood, who helped curate “ReFrame Miami Beach,” said during a news conference on Tuesday. “So we curated exhibitions and pop-ups that would welcome them.”
Yearwood and fellow curator Jared McGriff created “Reframe Miami Beach,” a city-commissioned art installation, with the intent to encourage conversations about race relations in the city. They tapped two artists to help them, one of whom was was Rodney Jackson, according to the complaint.
Jackson created “Memorial,” a large vinyl piece to debut during Memorial Day Weekend 2019 at an exhibit on Lincoln Road.
But a day after Jackson’s work was mounted, Yearwood received word that it needed to be removed, or the entire exhibit would be closed.
“I myself could not understand it,” Jackson said of why his piece was removed. “I think South Florida, Miami specifically, is so used to young Black males being criminalized on the evening news that the simple image of a young Black male is criminal.”
“This decision only becomes rational when you look at it in the context and the continuum of how Black people have been treated on Miami Beach through history,” McGriff added. “This is not an isolated event where people are policed and monitored and surveiled physically. The same thing occurred in the idea space within our exhibit.”
Miami Beach police shot and killed 22-year-old Herisse on Memorial Day in 2011. At the time, police said his blue Hyundai Sonata was driving erratically down Collins Avenue when officers began shooting. A total of 116 bullets were fired. Sixteen of those bullets hit Herisse and several others hit four bystanders.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office never charged any of the 12 officers involved in the shooting, saying their use of deadly force was justified because Herisse’s driving had endangered lives.
Five years later, Herisse’s mother Marcelline Azor reached a settlement with both Miami Beach and Hialeah, whose officers were involved that day in the shooting. She received $200,000 from Miami Beach, but it’s unclear how much she got from Hialeah. Three of the four shooting victims also settled out of court.
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 1:52 PM.
