In what has sadly become a typical storyline in northeast Miami-Dade County, the Miami Herald’s Nadege Green reported a heartbreaking tale of yet another gang-related shooting death of an innocent child in the City of Miami Gardens. As reported in A city, a family fight to end cycle of violence:
“One late August evening, 12-year-old Tequila Forshee was killed in a barrage of bullets while getting her hair braided. She was sitting on the living room floor inside her grandmother’s home.
Just before midnight, four boys rode up to the house on bicycles and fired into the pale yellow walls and windows. The Forshee family and police believe the August shooting may have been gang-related. Tequila was not the target; it was her uncle, who’s only 16.”
The article goes on to explain that in that community, children as young as ten have already learned the names of different gangs and how to recognize the symbols of gang members, such as clothing items. I’m sure these lessons aren’t in the curriculum at school, but they are nevertheless an integral part of the education of Miami Gardens kids.
Gang activity in Miami-Dade County in general is on the rise and is one of the biggest problems faced by both law enforcement and residents who are affected by gang related crimes. We are literally under siege by hardened criminals who are, as the article states, “not old enough to legally drive.”
According to an October, 2011 report by Justice Strategies, Inc. entitled, “The Gangs of Miami-Dade County: Using Research and Practice to Develop an Anti-Gang Strategy,” gangs are clearly identifiable by the types of crimes being committed as well as physical attributes, such as “tattoos, colors, etc.”
The children of Miami Gardens know this.
Former North Miami Beach Detective Jodi Schuster knows this, too. Only too well.
Before she took her 26 years of experience and left for the greener pastures of the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office, Detective Schuster headed up North Miami Beach Police Department’s nationally recognized and awarded Gang Unit. As recently as 2009, our Gang Unit implemented the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Comprehensive Gang Model. Under the administration of former Chief of Police Rafael Hernandez, 53 gang members were arrested in a “multi-agency operation led by the North Miami Beach Police Department.”
The NMBPD Gang Unit gave local and national presentations exhibiting the methods by which they identified gangs, how they infiltrated the rings and ultimately, and systematically, wiped them out. I personally attended two of those presentations over the years. Our Gang Unit was a force to be reckoned with.
Today, our Gang Unit is history.
The gang activity in Miami Gardens is not just their problem. It’s ours as well. In what may be gang related, in July of last year, there was a shootout between two drivers that ended right here at the Kwik Stop on NE 19th Avenue in a fatality. Just last month on September 6th, Tavares Kelly was found in his car dead of a gunshot to his head on NE 6th Avenue in what is still an unsolved murder. I’m not certain if either shooting was related to the work of gang members, but it sure seems likely to me.
In her extensive research, VotersOpinion crime “reporter” Karin Kimball found that 11 of 25 shootings between October 1, 2012 and January 31, 2013 in North Miami Beach were gang related. How many of these shootings could have been prevented if our Gang Unit had still been in place? Hard to say, but I’m guessing many, if not most.
It’s being reported all over Miami-Dade County that while crime rates in general are down, gang related shootings are on the rise, especially in north Miami-Dade County. According to the CBS Miami article, Gang Violence Growing in North Miami-Dade, from April 1, 2012, “Law enforcement sources tell CBS4 News they are bracing a violent summer as tensions among rival gangs continue to increase.”
The loss of our North Miami Beach Gang Unit certainly didn’t help matters then. It’s definitely not helping now.
To make matters worse, our Police Department has recently lost several highly lauded and veteran police officers, including Detective Mike Stein after 16 years (and 13 with the South Miami Police Department before NMB), Officer Armando Sotero after 21 years and Sergeant Donny Reynolds, Jr. after 23 years of service. That’s only three of our officers with a total of 73 years’ police experience among them. They are all going to work for other agencies. Rumor has it that more are on their way out.
Since January 1, 2011, we have lost a total of 25 officers, and so far there have only been two new hires. There were three, but one recently was fired due to incompetence. Apparently, that’s the best we can do these days. Two years ago we had 113 officers, and we’re now down to 85.
More importantly, we lost our most valuable special team – the North Miami Beach Police Department Gang Unit. With gang activity increasing, it was at the worst possible time.
Any way you try to spin it, this just does not make sense. As far as I’m concerned, it sucks to be us.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
When will “the community” finally grow tired of these senseless killings? These are not random acts. People know who did this and other shootings. They are either afraid to speak up or have little trust in the police or both.
Even when the going was good at this agency, it wasn’t easy to find qualified applicants. Out of 100 applications, you might find 2-3 that are qualified enough to proceed past the application and maybe one of those can actually complete the process and make it through field training. Now with the city imposing contracts, suing the pension board, being the only Miami-Dade agency to lay officers off and take away the take home cars. The mayor and council have made working conditions and financial stability too unstable to attract new officers. There’s no other way to explain it expect to say they have completely screwed the police department up. There’s rumor of other NMB officers in the hiring process with other agencies so it’s not looking any better.
The excuses are unbearable. Looking forward to the new sheriff coming to town. I’m sure he will find outstanding applicants to fit the bill.
Excuses? Everything he said is true. Your obviously blinded by jealousy and hate. Pretty pathetic.
Whenever the mayor is asked about the turmoil within his police department I am told he is fond of saying “I was elected to serve the best interest of 43,000, not just the officers”.
How does cutting the size of your police department from 113 down to just 85 serve the best interests of the 43,000 residents in our city?
How did eliminating the gang unit result in better service to the 43,000 residents?
How are the citizens safer with 28 fewer police officers patrolling their streets?
How is it safer to drive on our streets without a traffic unit there to prevent speeding or drunk driving?
It is true the mayor’s Police Department is cheaper, just as it is true the citizens are now less safe and receive far fewer services then ever. Two years ago you had gang detectives keeping gang members out of your neighborhoods, you had motors officers preventing people from speeding on your block and you had many more police officers patrolling the streets deterring crime and responding to calls for service. Due to the drastic decrease in manpower and the elimination of the take-home car program there are periods of time each and every day when there is not a single police officer anywhere on the streets of North Miami Beach.
How exactly is this working in the best interests of the 43,000 citizens, Mr. Mayor???
Until the 3,000 or so who live behind the guard houses, and the false sense of security they provide, are negatively affected by their tea-bagging actions, the other 40,000 who see and feel the reality of this city on a daily basis will not see any improvement to their safety. But not to worry, sooner or later it will happen, and then it will be the most pressing issue of the day.
Utter propaganda to scare the masses. Very professional if you’re a cop. If you’re a resident, get involved.
Quit whining about the take-away of the take-home car program. It was done by the previous City Manager to protect the lives of our police officers who have a penchant for excessive speed once they are on the way to and from NMB. Its a fact, more police officers in NMB have been killed in their take-home police car outside NMB on their way home from work than have been killed on-duty in NMB.
Just recently, the Broward Sheriff’s Office lost a deputy due to him losing control of his police car and striking a tree on his way home from “the job”. Keeping take-home police cars parked at the station at the end of a shift saves police officer’s lives and allows them to go home to their loved ones alive.
Lol!!! No one cares about the cars anymore Wendy!!! Let it go already!! We don’t take those cars with us when we retire do we, NOOOO!!!! Who cares then. All we ask of you Wendy is that you keep paying your taxes so I can retire in a few years and never drive through your ghetto city again.
That’s the stupidest thing I’ve read out of the many stupid things that have been written here. You truly are ignorant Wendy.
I heard after Tuesday’s night meeting that we are losing a 27 year veteran with the city’s police force to retirement. I don’t know if it has been announced yet, but we will probably hear about it at the next City Council meeting.
Yes and the only reason he is leaving is because of what’s happening around here. Same as the other 3 twenty year veterans that just bailed out of here. It’s funny that with all the crying about the “massive” amounts of money that are supposedly being made by officers in the DROP here you have FOUR guys walking away from their pot of gold. What does that tell you about the state of this place.
27 years? And your point is?
My point is your a crybaby who obviously doesn’t understand the value of having veteran officers and detectives stay with this agency instead of taking their knowledge and experience somewhere else.
What does he care? He lives behind a guard gate in Eastern Shores. What a disgrace.
There will come a time when no guardhouse is going to protect anyone.
And what about the other three? It takes 7 in this town, or at the very least 4 to make things happen. Stop blaming the Mayor because he lives behind a guard house. When the never ending buffet of goodies was served here, don’t forget Marin, Littman, and Kurzman. They lived behind a gate as well.
No child should die from a barrage of bullets. I know we can all agree on that. Council needs to do everything possible to save our police department instead of crushing it. It is only a matter of time that an innocent person will be the victim of gang violence in our city.
So if the Mayor is “serving the best interest of 43,000?” Not counting any officers who have properly identified themselves and may not live here, who are all of these people posting complaints on this and other similar blogs? Were we not counted in that number?
And a new Chief with a fresh perspective, with no ties will fit the bill. The sky is not falling, although some of you posting on this blog will have you think so. Give NMB a chance to recover from poor management, lack of leadership, self serving council people from long ago and the friends and family plan instituted in this city for all hiring.
The sky may not be falling but dead bodies will be falling in our city too (from gang violence) if we don’t have any police officers left. I made the presentation about gang violence 6 months ago but the police numbers continue to fall.
Carl aka Brucey, you sound like the liberals who are giving Obama a pass and still blaming Bush for todays problems.
“To make matters worse, our Police Department has recently lost several highly lauded and veteran police officers, including Detective Mike Stein after 16 years (and 13 with the South Miami Police Department before NMB), Officer Armando Sotero after 21 years and Sergeant Donny Reynolds, Jr. after 23 years of service. That’s only three of our officers with a total of 73 years’ police experience among them. They are all going to work for other agencies. Rumor has it that more are on their way out.”
I have enjoyed your blog until now. You always seem to be intelligent in your writing, but just your quote above lacks serious thought. 16, 21 and 23 years of service. I believe that most of these officers were in the DROP and on their way out for greener pastures (starting a new beat in a new department) to begin a new pension for the ultimate retirement at age 63 or younger. Who could blame them, I’m not. Stephanie, these officers were going to leave in the next few years regardless. Would you repeat the same mantra then? Everyone it seems from the NMBPD will have you believe that in no uncertain terms, will there be a possible positive outcome for North Miami Beach and you are falling for this. Shame on you. You should know better being so involved in the city for the last few years. You believed in the Mayor and the council, you supported 5 of them, maybe 6 and now you back the very ones that nick named you STAPH. It certainly is important to back up the officers that protect the people of NMB, but there is clearly many sides to the story that has pumped you up on this subject. Why don’t you be fair and recognize the years that it took to finally have a government that must take the necessary and difficult actions they are having to make so that the present and future of North Miami Beach is intact. Who’s city is this anyway?
Nice try, but your attempts to goad me into an argument is just not going to work. How very Alinsky of you. Hate to burst your bubble, but I “back” nothing and no one but the truth.
STAPH was a really cool nickname, but they had me at “Lunatic Blogger.”
Carl aka Brucey, your an expert on pensions, constitutional law, take home car programs, DROP programs, and now your an expert on whats news worthy in Stepahanie’s blogs. I guess you’d do anything to protect your boy George no matter how bad a decision he makes.
Sorry, wrong poster! Just like some of us think it’s one officer or one pro NMBPD resident that posts here using different aliases, there is certainly more than one citizen of NMB that cares for the present and future maintainability of this city that posts here as well. I’ll have you know, I am pro NMBPD, can’t imagine there being a law abiding citizen that isn’t. We just can’t afford to go down this critically unsustainable path any longer. There are an abundance of good police officers out there to hire, if you’re not happy here with the new trend in your pensions no one is keeping you here. And BTW, don’t think the grass is greener somewhere else. In fact most likely you will stay here, because for many,the great ride you had and the less of a ride you will have now, still makes you way ahead of what other officers have gotten in other cities.
Carl you wrote “We just can’t afford to go down this critically unsustainable path any longer”.
What path is that exactly, please explain?
Carl you wrote “There are an abundance of good police officers out there to hire”.
How can we attract this abundance supply of good police officers when this is the only city in Miami-Dade that has layed off cops and removed take home cars, imposed a contract, steals their 185 monies, steals their pension contribution. I’m sure in your profession Carl you would choose the financially stable employer over the employer that has layed off employees and is currently involved in lawsuits with ALL of it’s employees over benefits and pension issues. But then again, maybe i’m giving you too much credit.
Carl you wrote “if you’re not happy here with the new trend in your pensions no one is keeping you here”.
Carl, no one is keeping you here either. If your so unhappy with giving me 60% of my salary after working 20 years then maybe you should move to Pembroke Pines. But wait, their officers get 80% of their salary after 20 years of service, hmmm, that won’t work for you. How about Davie, but wait, their officers get 75% of their salary after working 23 years. Hmmm, how about Sunrise. Damnit!! Their officers get 80% of their salary after working 20 years. I can go on and on and on and on Carl. Your gonna be a miserable SOB anywhere you move by your standards on how police officers should be compensated. And for me, I only have a few years left, so keep paying your taxes because you have my pension to fund.
When you get a chance Carl, read Stephanie’s blog “A deals a deal”. Educate yourself a least a little bit. Or even better, come to the police department and offer your services to our Chief. We need to hire police officers and you seem to know where this abundance supply is hidden that we haven’t been able to find for over a year.
When Aventura became a City 17 years ago, NMB losts many of it’s finest police officers then even though the gravy-train was in full payout mode. Cops weren’t complaining about a lack of take-home cars, low pay, their DROP or anything else. They simply saw the opportunity to make even more by jumping ship to Aventura. Now certain police officers are attempting to tell everyone they are leaving because of the Mayor and Council voting to cut back their gravy train.
Woody who’s on first?? Trying to educate you on any of your comments and misconceptions is like trying to teach my dog to wipe his after he takes a s#%t. You’ll never get it!!!! Sit down little man and go back to playing with your boy buzz.
I’m pretty up on pop culture terminology, but I just gotta ask … A boy buzz? Huh?
He probably means buzz lightyear, he calls himself Woody (Toy Story) 😉
A “gravy train” that was paid for out of our salaries. 11.1 % to be exact “woody”. And by the way there was no drop back then so before posting get your facts straight.