Bye, bye, Chief Acevedo: Did you really think the truth would set you free in Miami?
Miami politics is like a three ring circus. One ring holds the clowns — known as the mayor and commissioners. In the second one finds the lions and tigers, represented by special interests and their lobbyists who hover like vultures over the clowns who put on a show used to fool voters found in the third ring. The dance between the clowns and the felines is used to convince voters that they care — an act meant to fool them.
Francis Suarez, the pretty-boy mayor some in the media refer to as Miami’s porcelain doll, six months ago announced, with much fanfare, that he was bringing in the Michael Jordan of police chiefs, then Houston’s outspoken chief of police, 57-year-old Art Acevedo, to serve as the city’s lion tamer. This past week Miami’s version of Ringling Brothers is in complete disarray, and our own porcelain doll — who, according to sources, reacts hysterically to bad press — was nowhere to be found to defend his Michael Jordan of police chiefs whose character was meticulously being destroyed by clowns acting like hyenas, and led by an unstable commissioner known as ‘Crazy’ Joe.
Chief Acevedo has now been suspended by City Manager Art Noriega. Later this week the chief will be fired by ‘Crazy’ Joe and his cohorts. What ultimately led to this moment was the fact, as we reported in September, that Chief Acevedo had the temerity this past summer of stating that “Miami is run by the Cuban mafia.”
The problem with the statement is that it’s true. But as we’ve shown over the years at Progreso Weekly, and before that with Francisco Aruca’s radio programs, the truth in Miami is not always convenient. Especially when it runs against the wishes and special interests of members of that mafia Acevedo referred to, some who sit on the commission dais whose members will soon vote to get rid of him.
As for Chief Acevedo, there are rumors that he won’t go quietly. He has stated that he has turned over information to federal authorities. He claims that members of the commission have been interfering with department investigations.
And the show goes on…
https://progresoweekly.us/miami-is-run-by-the-cuban-mafia/
Thoughts on the eventual firing
Chief Acevedo was brought in (supposedly) to clean up a police department known nationally for spates of corruption and an uneven relationship with some members of the community — mostly Black members. I, personally, welcomed the fact that he was not liked by certain commissioners (the Cuban Americans) and was criticized by the police union.
I welcomed the idea of a chief of police with the balls to take the establishment head on.
Apparently, in the six months he was here, Acevedo ruffled too many feathers. First, as chief, Acevedo could not be controlled by certain commissioners — specifically ‘Crazy’ Joe Carollo and Alex Díaz de la Portilla — whose interests are in satisfying their enablers (the lobbyists) and corrupting influencers who help fill their needs. For these two, especially, and since day one, the chief had to go. Acevedo made it easy for them by bringing up the Cuba issue that in Miami is used by politicians as sleight of hand magic to steer voters’ eyesight away from their wrongdoings.
Then there’s Mayor Suarez, a manufactured politician with a strong PR machine behind him. His true colors were in full display this week as he hid in horror not eager to face the circus that surrounded who he had compared to Michael Jordan. Instead of standing by his hire, or at least coming out publicly and admitting his mistake, Mayor Suarez’ porcelain-like ego cracked under pressure and he finally faced the public earlier this week and pointed fingers at anyone in the vicinity — except himself.
During a well-orchestrated press conference where reporters with real and important questions were shunned, Mayor Suarez said, “This is not about fault.
“I and every elected official had the expectation and the hope that this would work out.”
After a brief interaction with a limited and censored public and press, little Francis ran back into his office, and according to sources, pouted and complained the rest of the day.
In the end, Miami will remain the same. We have a mayor whose delicate ego is not used to criticism, and whose interests lie in pleasing techie billionaires who hire him to peacock for them and pay him six- and seven-figure salaries. Billionaires who buy 20 and 30 and 40 million homes as if buying lemonade on a hot day at the corner strip mall. The same people, who with the help of politicians like Francis Suarez, have made Miami one of the most unequal cities in the country. A place where persons who try to scrape by at minimum wage live minutes away and separated by a bay or an interstate highway from others who won’t think twice about spending $5,000 on a dinner with friends.
Then you have commissioners who will stoop as low as possible to control the levers of power that allow them to live better than most — at the expense of constituents they swore to serve and who really serve as pawns in a game of political monopoly stacked totally in the politicians’ favor.
And finally we come to the Miami police department who found themselves faced with a chief who six months ago arrived in a city he promised to help clean up. But the clean-up included members of the department itself. So without giving him an iota of a chance, they set their sights on assuring his departure. The sooner, the better.
