Video of incident - http://bcove.me/3p9tfck9
Tuesday night, a Miami police officer pulled over a state trooper near the Homestead extension of Florida’s Turnpike – well outside city limits, and for no apparent reason. On Saturday, a different trooper’s car was smothered with pounds of feces in the driveway of his Miami home.
Fallout from the recent, controversial trooper vs. Miami cop incident appears to have crossed the line from verbal volleying to outright vandalism. Yet missing in action amidst all the retaliatory fervor: top bosses at the Miami Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol, who have refused to talk publicly about the escalating hostility.
Is it time for the leadership to speak out? At least one former Miami police chief thinks so.
“Both organizations need to tell their officers to chill it,” said retired Chief Kenneth Harms, adding that the credibility of law enforcement is being besmirched. “It shouldn’t have grown to this degree. The commanders, people in charge of these obligations, have absolutely the responsibility to the public to explain.”
The latest salvo in the saga occurred Tuesday when Miami Officer Thomas Vokaty, using his lights and siren, pulled the trooper over for reasons that no one will explain.
FHP spokesman Sgt. Mark Wysocky said Miami police would have to answer that.
Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss – still awaiting a response from Acting Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa late Wednesday – said he “won’t speculate on motives.”
A citywide roll call for all Miami police officers was scheduled for 6 a.m. Thursday.
There is no public record to refer to in the latest episode. No ticket was issued. And neither agency filled out an incident report — a decision that runs contrary to standard operating procedures and seems designed to dissuade public review, despite the fact that Miami internal affairs officers were called to the scene.
Javier Ortiz, vice president of Miami’s Fraternal Order of Police, shrugged off questions about the actions of Vokaty, who has been placed him on desk duty while his department investigates.
“Based on the info I’m aware of there was no action taken,’’ Ortiz said. “No use of force, no pulled gun. If there’s something or someone creating a felony or doing something that could harm public safety, [Miami officers] have the right to act.”
While police are allowed to make felony arrests outside their jurisdictions, there is no indication the trooper stopped by Vokaty had committed a felony or was endangering public safety.
Law officers appear to be handling the defacing of Trooper Joe Sanchez’s FHP vehicle with similar kid gloves. The agency chose not to report the vandalism to Miami police, who say they are not investigating either.
“We’re a law enforcement agency. We can investigate our own cases. There’s nothing more to investigate,” said Wysocky.
Sanchez, a three-term Miami commissioner who left the city in 2009 after a failed run for the mayor’s office, wouldn’t discuss the incident that took place early Saturday at his Roads neighborhood home. Wysocky, though, said, “It happened. Someone threw feces on the car.”
According to an FHP offense report, someone dumped about five gallons of human excrement – possibly pulled from port-o-potties – on Sanchez’s FHP vehicle some time between 6:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m., when he wasn’t home.
Super troopers in real life
Tuesday night, a Miami police officer pulled over a state trooper near the Homestead extension of Florida’s Turnpike – well outside city limits, and for no apparent reason. On Saturday, a different trooper’s car was smothered with pounds of feces in the driveway of his Miami home.
Fallout from the recent, controversial trooper vs. Miami cop incident appears to have crossed the line from verbal volleying to outright vandalism. Yet missing in action amidst all the retaliatory fervor: top bosses at the Miami Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol, who have refused to talk publicly about the escalating hostility.
Is it time for the leadership to speak out? At least one former Miami police chief thinks so.
“Both organizations need to tell their officers to chill it,” said retired Chief Kenneth Harms, adding that the credibility of law enforcement is being besmirched. “It shouldn’t have grown to this degree. The commanders, people in charge of these obligations, have absolutely the responsibility to the public to explain.”
The latest salvo in the saga occurred Tuesday when Miami Officer Thomas Vokaty, using his lights and siren, pulled the trooper over for reasons that no one will explain.
FHP spokesman Sgt. Mark Wysocky said Miami police would have to answer that.
Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss – still awaiting a response from Acting Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa late Wednesday – said he “won’t speculate on motives.”
A citywide roll call for all Miami police officers was scheduled for 6 a.m. Thursday.
There is no public record to refer to in the latest episode. No ticket was issued. And neither agency filled out an incident report — a decision that runs contrary to standard operating procedures and seems designed to dissuade public review, despite the fact that Miami internal affairs officers were called to the scene.
Javier Ortiz, vice president of Miami’s Fraternal Order of Police, shrugged off questions about the actions of Vokaty, who has been placed him on desk duty while his department investigates.
“Based on the info I’m aware of there was no action taken,’’ Ortiz said. “No use of force, no pulled gun. If there’s something or someone creating a felony or doing something that could harm public safety, [Miami officers] have the right to act.”
While police are allowed to make felony arrests outside their jurisdictions, there is no indication the trooper stopped by Vokaty had committed a felony or was endangering public safety.
Law officers appear to be handling the defacing of Trooper Joe Sanchez’s FHP vehicle with similar kid gloves. The agency chose not to report the vandalism to Miami police, who say they are not investigating either.
“We’re a law enforcement agency. We can investigate our own cases. There’s nothing more to investigate,” said Wysocky.
Sanchez, a three-term Miami commissioner who left the city in 2009 after a failed run for the mayor’s office, wouldn’t discuss the incident that took place early Saturday at his Roads neighborhood home. Wysocky, though, said, “It happened. Someone threw feces on the car.”
According to an FHP offense report, someone dumped about five gallons of human excrement – possibly pulled from port-o-potties – on Sanchez’s FHP vehicle some time between 6:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m., when he wasn’t home.
Super troopers in real life
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