The district capo, or the art of intimidation
By Varela
“Álvarez, we who voted for you want you to leave.”
That’s the message on a placard carried by a Miami Voice PAC activist. That local civil action group is asking for the removal of the county’s Godfather and a bunch of his district capos (i.e., commissioners.)
And to that end they collect signatures in the community. Taking an awful risk, as you’ll see later on.
The folks at Miami Voice PAC are discontented voters who watch where their tax money goes and are sick and tired of the political tricks utilized to screw the voter.
Don’t be alarmed. That happens (to greater or lesser degree) in all societies with a representative democracy (in others it’s even worse), where influential crooks win on the basis of money, not of popularity. Later, the community decides to shrug them off because those characters, after being elected, only respond to those who elected them, i.e., the powerful.
But Miami is the Magic City and everything here moves in another dimension.
Here, criminals organize and counterattack to cling to power.
And, as in any Organized Crime with a pyramidal structure, Cosa Nostra-style, the gang the community wants to get rid of is, from top to bottom:
Godfather Carlos Álvarez.
District capos Barbara J. Jordan (District 1), Audrey M. Edmonson (District 3), Bruno A. Barreiro (District 5), Dennis C. Moss (District 9), and Natacha Seijas (District 13).
I identify the districts just in case you, dear reader, would like to sign a recall petition, too. Remember that it’s not to take them to court but to take them out of City Hall. Whatever you can do.
Although, watch out, one of those capos, Don Bruno Barreiro, has a very peculiar method to cling to his district. Intimidation.
Don Bruno buys henchmen to cause fear.
When activists of Miami Voice PAC went to one building to collect signatures against Don Bruno, the old folks living there began to tremble. Then they confessed to the activists that the building’s manager (the super, whatever she’s called) had warned everyone, door to door, that they mustn’t sign anything against Don Bruno.
The old folks were afraid of being evicted. Or being the victims of reprisals (water, power, gas shutdowns, etc.) Still, they signed the petition against Don Bruno Barreiro!
It’s a sad spectacle.
People of advanced age who fear for their lives just because they wish to express their opinion freely in the United States, the champion of liberty in the 21st Century, the nation that even sends troops overseas to preserve liberty in other countries.
And Don Bruno must really be unpopular in his own district if fear doesn’t stop the most fragile citizens.
The fact is, they’re tired of being fooled. Of seeing the prices of medicine, transportation, the most basic public services go up and up.
Meanwhile, the district capos live in mansions acquired for a pittance through trickery. They ride in city-owned cars, use two or three telephones assigned to their offices, eat in luxury restaurants, get expensive haircuts, wear top-brand clothes – all of that charged to City Hall credit cards! (which is the same as saying “paid by the taxpayer,” the same voters who elected them so they might solve the problems of potholes on the streets, garbage collection and broken desks in schools.)
The crime is exposed, with all its implications and aggravating factors. If we want to remove them from their posts, what are we waiting for?
If these district capos don’t go to jail, at the very least they should be thrown on the street and never again allowed to run for public service. Public servants? My eye. They’re district capos! Can’t you see their style?
Don Bruno Barreiro is not new to these techniques. In previous political campaigns, he used the same methods to climb on top. That’s his modus operandi.
Although this time – it’s clear – the county voters wised up.
The incident with the old folks in that building is palpable proof. Fear is being conquered. The district capos are losing strength, pushed back by the angry people.
Let me close with an old and worn leftist expression used by the progressive folks of the 1960s. It’s the only one that fits the occasion perfectly (and you may criticize me, if you wish):
The people united will never be defeated.
