Backlash grows over Hispanic Miami police captain’s claim he is black. NAACP wants him fired
The day after the country celebrated the nation’s foremost civil rights leader, fallout from a racially insensitive remark made by Miami’s most controversial cop continued.
The president of the local chapter of the NAACP called Miami Police Capt. Javier Ortiz’s remarks “a huge slap in the face to our community,” argued the captain should be fired and said he was penning a letter to city leaders. And the city’s police chief said he had meetings scheduled with staff in human resources and with city attorneys about how to move forward.
“The city should be made aware that the statement he made is incendiary,” said Rubin Roberts, chairman of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP. “He’s not in any way considerate of black men or women’s plight.”
On Friday, members of Miami’s Community Police Benevolent Association, made up of black police officers, aired grievances in front of commissioners during a meeting. After Ortiz’s name was brought up by union president Stanley Jean-Poix, who mentioned past racially-insensitive social media posts made by Ortiz and how the captain claimed he was black on a promotional exam, Commissioner Keon Hardemon allowed Ortiz to speak.
“I’m a black male. Yes, I am. And I am not Hispanic,” Ortiz, who is Hispanic, said from the lectern. His statement drew confused looks from commissioners and the ire of the black police union. The captain then referred to black men as “negroes” and explained the “one-drop rule” to commissioners, an old racist trope that implied anyone with any degree of black ancestry, was black.
Ortiz, who is usually quick to respond to requests for interviews, had not returned a phone call or texts by early Tuesday afternoon. Over the weekend the police captain said everyone was making a big deal out of nothing and wrote on his Twitter account that “This isn’t news. People love making stereotypes. It’s actually refreshing to be who you are, like an American.”
Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina -- who suspended Ortiz three years ago after a judge placed a restraining order against him for the incessant hassling of a woman who videotaped a cop giving her a ticket -- said he was meeting with human resource officers and attorneys to determine how to respond to Ortiz’s comments. The chief also said Ortiz’s claim that he was black on a promotion exam had no bearing on his score.
“You can’t make a knee-jerk decision. I don’t want to be sued by the FOP [Fraternal Order of Police union],” said Colina. “I know a lot of people are emotional about it. It’s perplexing to me as well.”
The black police union mentioned Ortiz among others during a presentation last week in which it said black officers had been slighted for promotions and treated unfairly over the years by Miami police. It said Ortiz had accrued 60 citizen internal complaints during his career and rise to captain. He was cleared of seven, six were sustained and 24 others were found to be inconclusive. Others were found to be unsupported or withdrawn.
Ortiz, the past president of the city’s FOP, has a well-documented history of making controversial remarks on social media and invoking his right to free speech as a union representative. A civilian police watchdog group is also claiming the captain is taking advantage of off-duty work and putting in for more hours than he actually worked. The Civilian Investigative Panel has passed its findings along to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office for potential criminal misconduct.
In 2016, after a woman posted a video of a Miami-Dade cop stopping her for speeding, Ortiz posted the woman’s business card and told people to call her at work and on her cellphone. He also called her a #COPHater.
Before that he bashed a high-ranking female Muslim Miami police officer for not covering her heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, went after a woman who posted a video of an arrest in Liberty City and announced he stood in support of the Ferguson, Missouri police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown.
He also referred to 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer while playing with a toy gun, as a “thug.” He often mocked the Black Lives Matter movement.
And, Ortiz once took on perhaps the world’s most famous musical superstar, Beyonce.
Four years ago, after her Super Bowl performance of Formation, Ortiz penned a letter to police unions across the country announcing Miami police would boycott the kickoff of the singer’s worldwide tour at Marlins Park in Miami. Ortiz claimed the performance was an anti-police message that paid homage to the Black Panther counter-culture movement of the 1960s.
The letter so unnerved Miami’s Mayor Tomás Regalado that he said he was concerned Ortiz was staining the city’s image. Beyonce eventually addressed the captain’s statement, telling Elle UK magazine if anyone perceived her message as being anti-police, they are mistaken. And Miami police backed down and worked during the show at the ballpark.
On Tuesday, Roberts, the NAACP chair, said it mattered to him little whether Ortiz benefited from classifying himself as black.
“It’s disrespectful and culturally insensitive,” Roberts said. “It doesn’t matter if it helped him or not. I think he needs to be reprimanded or be removed from the force because of his lack of truthfulness.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 1:35 PM.
