Miami police chief is under fire. But he has solid support with a key group — Black cops
Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo faces yet another grilling from city commissioners on Friday — act two in what has already been a bizarre, very Miami bit of political theater pitting a Cuban-American outsider against deeply entrenched Cuban-American elected officials.
There is something else unusual about the clash over the chief’s future that has gone largely unnoticed. Acevedo, brought in from Houston just six months ago, has managed to win strong support from a too-often overlooked segment of the community that has been at odds with police department leadership for decades.
Miami’s Black police union and a handful of community leaders have thrown their support behind the chief for what they see as much-needed reform in a department rife with cronyism. It was only six months ago that the city managed to shed five years of federal oversight for a series of police shootings that left several unarmed Black men dead.
“He’s not afraid of making decisions that are tough. That’s not going to be popular with everyone,” said Lt. Ramon Carr, vice president of the city’s Black police union. “We have an opportunity here to change the culture.”
One of Acevedo’s first moves as chief was to visit the city’s Black police union and ask how he could help recruit young Black officers. He followed that up with an offer to match scholarships awarded to college students eyeing a law enforcement career.
Then, he did something no Miami police chief in memory has done — he became a member of the city’s Black union, the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association. Though the union doesn’t have any bargaining power, it does advocate for its 300-or-so members — just under a quarter of the city’s entire sworn police force.
“His message of transparency and accountability, that’s what the Black officers have always wanted. He’s been nothing but professional with us. He reached out to us and asked about the cause,” said union president Sgt. Stanley Jean-Poix.
It served him well.
Earlier this week as commissioners attacked Acevedo’s brief tenure during a special session that threatened his future in Miami, several Black police officers, residents and community leaders spoke out in support of the chief.
“Today is a waste of time in the city of Miami,” said Tangela Sears, a longtime respected community voice and anti-violence crusader.
“Who among us can throw a stone,” said former Opa-locka police major, criminal justice professor and Liberty City resident Samuel Latimore. “This is what [former North Miami City Manager] Clarence Patterson called a high-tech lynching.”
For the past week most of the focus in Miami has turned to City Hall, where, on Monday, what was expected to be a discussion by commissioners on controversies and miscues by the chief morphed into an inquisition replete with video of gentle pats on the derriere and genital voyeurism.
Acevedo was called to the mat by commissioners angry over his unorthodox hiring, a series of demotions and firings of popular staffers and misstatements that infuriated some of Miami’s Cuban exile community. Acevedo only escalated tensions last weekend when he released an eight-page memo that not only claimed some commissioners were interfering with police work, but compared their actions to Cuba’s communist state.
Monday’s fiasco, led by Commissioner Joe Carollo, was highlighted by a pair of videos shown by the commissioner in which he insinuated Acevedo had overstepped a boundary.
Carollo ordered one video stopped just as the chief was lightly tapping the upper part of a woman’s bottom with some paper. Another video was halted to focus on the outline of the chief’s genitals as he began an impersonation of an Elvis Presley performance, tight white rhinestone-studded outfit and all.
It turned out both long-ago and mostly-forgotten videos were performances during professionally run fundraisers for good causes while the chief was in Texas. The one from 2008 in which the chief brushes the upper part of the woman’s bottom was from a Dancing with the Austin Star fundraiser for the Center for Child Protection. Under darkened lights, the chief wore a police uniform, his cha-cha-cha partner in a sexy sequined dress.
The videos and the insinuation from Carollo that they were problematic, drew jeers from the crowd. Acevedo’s boss, City Manager Art Noriega, whom Carollo was questioning, looked on with what appeared to be frustration and bewilderment.
Commissioners have scheduled another hearing for Friday morning that is expected to continue to focus on Acevedo and city budget issues.
Supporters of Acevedo said Monday’s proceedings were nothing more than blow-back on much-needed reform in a department rife with cronyism. Critics compared Acevedo to a bull in a china shop always searching for a camera or a microphone instead of focusing on crime and policing.
Acevedo, an outspoken leader who gained national notoriety walking with Black Lives Matters protesters two summers ago and hit the national talk show circuit criticizing then-President Donald Trump, has been unusually quiet the past few weeks. He has turned down repeated interview requests and didn’t speak during Monday’s hearing — only appearing from behind a second-floor window looking down on the proceedings.
Thursday, through a police spokesperson, the chief said his bosses had blocked him from responding to this story.
“I am precluded from responding by the city,” he said.
The support thrown Acevedo’s way by the Black police union is significant.
Latimore points to the early August appointment of Maj. Chiquita Thomas-Butler to command the city’s north district, which runs through the heart of Liberty City, as one of the big culture changes Carr was referring to.
The former Opa-locka police major said since being held at gunpoint in broad daylight in his front yard three years ago, he’s taken hundreds of pictures documenting Miami police who have shirked community policing, often parking their vehicles behind businesses for long stretches at a time.
He said that seems to have changed — at least in his community — since Thomas-Butler’s promotion.
“The first thing she talked about was accountability. She spoke to officers and you see more patrolling now. You see a more professional approach,” he said. “She sent a message.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 1:41 PM.
