Black City Of Miami Police Back Embattled Chief Art Acevedo

Miami FL

30 September, 2021

9:27 AM

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By Erik Bojnansky, Miami Times Senior Writer, the Miami Times Sep 28, 2021 Three Miami city commissioners have called Police Chief Art Acevedo an egotistical liar, and the head of the Miami chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police claims most police officers want Acevedo to resign or be fired. However, Acevedo still has the support of an organization representing Black police officers within the Miami Police Department. Lt. Ramon Carr, vice president of the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association (MCPDA), said Acevedo, the former police chief of Houston, has been setting the foundations for reform within the MPD since arriving five months ago, including reducing racism and cronyism within the department. "He has a slogan, 'If you lie you die,'" Carr told The Miami Times. "[Acevedo] saying that says he believes in accountability. He is holding supervisors accountable. He is holding each of us accountable for each other." Carr and other MCDPA board members voiced support of Acevedo during a Sept. 27 special meeting on his actions. The meeting was called following a series of personnel moves within the MPD, including the firing of Deputy Police Chief Ronald Papier and his wife, Commander Nerly Papier, for purportedly lying about a traffic accident Nerly was involved in, as well as terminating Luis Camacho, a sergeant-at-arms popular with Commissioners Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Joe Carollo and Manolo Reyes. Acevedo was also slammed after being recorded talking about the "Cuban mafia" during roll call – a term that Fidel Castro used to insult the Cuban exile community in Miami. Acevedo, himself Cuban American, publicly apologized for the remark. The day prior to Monday's meeting, an eight-page memo Acevedo sent to City Manager Art Noriega and Mayor Francis Suarez went public. In it, Acevedo accused Diaz de la Portilla, Carollo and Reyes of interfering with an internal affairs investigation of Camacho for a security breach. Acevedo also claimed that the three commissioners used the budget process to eliminate a deputy chief position filled by former Houston assistant chief Heather Morris, and interfere with other personnel decisions. The memo additionally charged that Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla had a "target list" of businesses they wanted investigated for criminal activity, and that Carollo used a private detective to dig up dirt on opponents who was later arrested for impersonating a police officer and that he – at two separate events – wanted the chief to arrest purported communist "agitators" in the crowd who didn't exist. Acevedo stated he was taking his allegations, as well as his concerns over "several non-fatal use of force incidents" in the MPD, to the proper authorities – the U.S. Department of Justice. In response, Diaz de la Portilla, Carollo and Reyes denounced Acevedo's allegations as lies. "What this man put down is not to believed, it is outrageous. He is trying to smear the reputation of the City of Miami's police department," Carollo charged. Additionally, the commission, by a vote of 4-0, approved two resolutions to hire a pair of investigators to look into the allegations of Acevedo's memos, as well as accusations of impropriety made against him. That investigation will be overseen by city commissioners. Commissioner Jeffrey Watson was granted the power to sign subpoenas when needed. Absent from the meeting was Suarez, who pushed Noriega to hire Acevedo in April following the Houston chief's media appearances in which he advocated for police reform. A spokeswoman for Suarez told the Miami Herald that the mayor was monitoring the meeting from his office. Also not attending: Commission Chairman Ken Russell. (Diaz de la Portilla chaired the special meeting.) Russell told The Miami Times that he skipped the meeting because he felt the session could put the city at "legal risk." "With all due respect to three of my commissioners and their understandable interest in addressing the allegations made against them, I do not believe that today's special meeting should have taken place and I did not attend," Russell stated in a text. "I do believe that these allegations should be investigated and support that process moving forward." Most of the meeting consisted of Carollo reading articles and emails critical of Acevedo's conduct and personnel decisions during his time as chief of the Houston and Austin police departments, and his career with the California Highway Patrol, including a sex harassment lawsuit filed by a former girlfriend and fellow CHP officer in 2004 which claimed that Acevedo showed sexually explicit photographs of her to his supervisors. (The case was reportedly settled out of court.) Carollo even showed clips of a pair of separate fundraisers in Texas that Acevedo danced in – one in which Acevedo slapped his dance partner's butt with a paper and the other where Acevedo dressed up as Elvis. While showing one clip, Carollo commented on Acevedo's pants being too tight around the crouch area. Asked by The Miami Times if he had any comment about what occurred at the special meeting, Acevedo messaged one word: "Speechless." Tommy Reyes, president of Miami FOP Lodge 20 (and no relation to Commissioner Reyes), said 615 out of the MPD's 1,350 officers had no confidence in Acevedo's leadership. In response to whether or not he should be forced out, 614 officers voted yes. "The members of the FOP made it crystal clear with their vote. 79% of our membership want him gone," Tommy Reyes stated in a text to The Miami Times. Carr doubted the accuracy of the FOP polls, pointing out that a glitch allowed someone from Kansas to vote 700 times. Tommy Reyes stated he fixed the error. The leadership of the MCPBA, which represents 300 sworn officers and retirees, told commissioners that they want Acevedo to stay. Sgt. Stanley Jean-Poix, president of the MCPBA, said Acevedo has brought forward an "interview process" and assembled committees to create an actual system for promotions within the MPD. Past chiefs simply "picked and chose who they wanted" to advance, Jean-Poix told city commissioners. Jean-Poix also said Acevedo expressed an interest in diversifying the police ranks, including recruiting more Black officers. Currently, the MPD is 65% Hispanic and 27% Black, Carr said. Samuel Latimore, a former Opa-locka police major and ex-adjunct instructor of law enforcement for Miami Dade College, said he's been pleased with the work Acevedo has done "a great job in the Liberty City and Model City area" by making the officers who patrol their "accountable." "He did what he was brought here to do," Latimore said. Not everyone was happy with Acevedo, or his hiring. Pedro Mora, a security consultant who served on the city's police chief selection committee, said panel members spent several hours interviewing eight potential finalists for the position – only to then have their suggestions ignored when Noriega hired Acevedo, who hadn't even applied for the job. "I don't blame the chief. I blame the city manager," Mora said. "… If there were allegations (against Acevedo) he should have known about it." Daniella Pierre, president of the Miami-Dade NAACP, said she still has concerns over how Suarez and Noriega ignored the process put in place, in which committee members interviewed finalists for police chief following the retirement of previous chief, Jorge Colina. "There was a committee working to try and identity a police chief and then, at the last hour, everyone was told that the city went on a different direction," she said. Whatever the feelings three out of five commissioners have, they don't have the power to fire the police chief. That power rests solely with Noriega. Nevertheless, the commission isn't done yet. It will reconvene on Oct. 1 at 1 p.m. at Miami City Hall – or following an unsafe structures board meeting – to discuss the chief again and the budget. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.