MIAMI BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT CLEANUP REPORT
By David Arthur Walters
January 2, 2013
The Miami Beach Police Department has done a bang up job cleaning up the streets of the South Beach Entertainment District. It is the difference between night and day. Merchants and residents had grown sick and tired of the behavior of the derelicts, vagrants, and panhandlers populating South Beach, many of them on a permanent basis. The pet peeve was taken to the city manager and city commissioner but to little or no avail. One commissioner even said that the tourists appreciated seeing the beach’s “colorful characters,” so to run them off would hurt the tourist industry.
Eventually the police brass had heard enough, and responded to the clamor. If there is one thing cops do far better than city officials, it is respond to calls. The police chiefs are modest, but knowledgeable sources claim that the police chiefs should get 100% credit for the recent improvements, the most resounding achievement thus far being its massive 2012 approach to the greatest public nuisance of all, Urban Week, corralling the crowd and ridding the annual event of criminal fringe elements, affording law-abiding visitors a safe and exciting goodtime.
Not to worry about the homeless, for faith in the liberal screed has not been lost. There are always plenty of beds and food and recovery programs for the homeless. A December 2012 internal police communication states: “When dealing with homeless persons, we always offer shelter. We also offer free bus tickets back to the city or state that they came from. We do not have homeless families living on our streets: they are helped the second we find them. The majority of our homeless population chooses to be homeless and live on the streets. That is their way of life.”
The truly unfortunate will take advantage of the assistance providing that the police department in cooperation with the city’s homeless outreach team show them the way. Too often in the past, police officers might excuse the plethora of desperate people on the streets by blaming the city’s homeless outreach personnel. No doubt they deserved part of the blame along with the city’s negligent commission and top administration.
For example, I called 911 in 2010 to report a possible emergency next to a luxury hotel on Washington Avenue, where a woman had been living for several days on the sidewalk, and in a doorway next door, despite complaints from the hotel management to the police and homeless outreach. She was partially nude, convulsing deliriously in her own waste. The 911 operator told me that the woman had a civil right to recline there, and that I might call the homeless outreach team if I wanted. I had not found the homeless program very effective in the past, and this situation appeared to be an emergency. It was only after I persisted, noting that the woman was probably someone’s mother, sister, and daughter, and might die there due to official negligence, that a patrol officer was sent to the scene.
Destitute individuals who refuse assistance may choose to make the streets their home, swiping a purse or a bite to eat and a drink from the store when the food allowance runs out, getting high, conversing and squatting on sidewalks and at bus stops, relieving themselves here and there, laying themselves down in doorways if not on the beach and in parks, sometimes masturbating publicly in broad daylight, and otherwise enjoying the good life. It is not fair to call them homeless, for they make the street their home. Better to call them houseless because they do not live in houses.
Some of the above are chronic panhandlers. Their hands are generally not out for food, which they can get without cost from the food programs, but for money to support their lifestyle. A few would take a job if offered, but not many. A few of the panhandlers live in subsidized housing on and off the beach, commuting to their favorite area to supplement the dole or social security, or to professionally ply the trade. Their calling is reinforced mainly by tourists who tend to be more vulnerable to pathetic pleas while on vacation, not understanding that their generosity is a disservice to the visited community. Everyone concerned would be better off if the police or homeless outreach team were called, and funds donated to a bona fide charitable organization.
South Beach is not a very good market for panhandlers. Pickings are rather slim. The professional panhandlers one might encounter on South Beach are rarely as successful as their peers in big liberal cities up north, where $50 or more might be gotten in relatively few hours.
I recall the double amputee who pulled himself miserably from car to car while begging on the New York subway system in the summer: he wintered in a nice house he had purchased in Florida for the purpose. The customary way to beg on the subways cars, where beggars had a captive audience, was to recite a litany of misfortunes that reduced one to the begging: one poor fellow retired empty-handed after reciting his list one day, when a cynical passenger shouted that he should just kill himself. A panhandler who commuted to an uptown neighborhood on the West Side appeared to be terribly crippled, barely upheld by two crutches, while working, but he would straighten himself up, fold up the crutches, and jump over the subway turnstile to return home from work. Another man liked to run up to commuters in the morning and ask them for cab fare, saying his wife had been killed and he needed to get to the morgue right away: I said she could wait an hour at least, so he should walk to the morgue instead of disgracing her memory by begging.
I was approached on South Beach’s Washington Avenue last week by a well dressed young man who was holding out a dollar bill. I thought he wanted change, so I stopped and let him engage me, but he said he needed another dollar bill for the bus fare because his new shoes hurt his feet badly and he had lost his wallet. When I refused, he followed me down the street until I pulled out my phone to call the police. A few days prior, another well dressed young man asked me for bus fare at the bus stop, but I knew he had no intentions of getting on the bus. When I said I was surprised to see such a nice looking fellow panhandling, he said he was not panhandling, pulled a conceal-and-carry permit from his wallet, claimed that he was an undercover police officer, and threatened to have me arrested for obstruction. I called the police and he disappeared in a hurry, two squad cars arriving three minutes later.
In some cities, ordinances licensing or permitting panhandling in designated areas specifically outlaw fraudulent begging behavior. However, Miami-Dade County, which includes the City of Miami Beach, does not issue licenses or permits for panhandling. Section 21-31.4 of Miami Dade County Regulations prohibits panhandling that obstructs pedestrian or vehicular traffic, and the ordinance also prohibits begging aggressively, defined as begging with intent to intimidate or in such a way that would cause a reasonable person to feel fearful hence compelled to give a panhandler something of value. Intimidating acts might include touching, following, abusive language, and threatening gestures.
For example, I observed aggressive panhandling last week, from the second floor of a building overlooking the intersection of Washington Avenue and 13th Street. A man approached a man at the bus stop from behind, and nudged him. When the mark turned around, the panhandler behaved as if he were severely handicapped: he contorted his body and collapsed on the sidewalk with his hands clasped in prayer. When the mark refused to give money, and walked away, the hustler stood up, staggered after him, and reached for the man’s pocket. That angered the gentlemen, who put his parcel down and threatened to strike the predator, at which time the panhandler’s accomplice approached from a quarter-block away to protect him. A bystander who had been watching the scene unfold joined the intended victim, and they chased the culprits down the block into an alley.
The first panhandling offense under the Miami Dade County Regulations is punishable with a fine of not more than $100 and not more than 30 days imprisonment. The second and subsequent violations are punishable by a fine of not more than $200 and not more than 60 days imprisonment.
As for the City of Miami Beach, Chapter 74 of the City of Miami Beach Ordinances prohibits panhandling on public property within 20 feet of ATM machines, parking machines, the perimeters of outdoor eating establishments, entrances or exits of food stores selling alcoholic beverages, entrances or exits of financial institutions, and within any busy intersection. Section 1-14 provides for a penalty not exceeding $500 or 60 days imprisonment or both.
Fines and jail sentences might deter chronic panhandlers from plying their trade on Miami Beach. However, fines and sentences are imposed at the discretion of the court, and humanitarian alternatives to prosecution and incarceration may be employed with the consent of the accused. Discretion is tyranny when it works against the safety, health, and morality of the public.
According to Capt. Mark Causey, who acts as police chief for the South District that includes the Entertainment District, judges have been inclined in the past to sentence offenders to time served since their arrest, and that may put them back on the street the same day to be arrested yet again. However, the prosecution has been more aggressive lately, he said, with the cooperation of the police department, in arresting and throwing the book at repeat offenders to keep them off the streets. He named Officer Ysidro Llamoca as his point man and coordinator for the police operation. The assistant state attorney, he said, has been employing the state’s Habitual Misdemeanor Offender Act to keep repeat defendants who commit four or more specified misdemeanors within a year’s period of time behind bars for not less than six months but not exceeding one year for specified state crimes.
Panhandling is not a state crime, but panhandlers are often engaged in one or more of the state specified crimes so the stringent penalties under HMO statute may be invoked for the specified state misdemeanors in addition to bringing charges under the municipal ordinances if the circumstances so warrant. For example, Causey cited the offenses of trespassing after warning, disorderly intoxication, loitering, prowling, narcotics possession, theft, assault, and battery. He said the prosecutions require considerable diligence on the part of the police department in processing the complaint to its conclusion, including making sure police officers show up for the hearings on their own time or on overtime, and persuading witnesses and victims to show up as well. There has been some grousing by the public defenders as a consequence, he notes, but judges have said that the assistant state attorneys are only following the law.
Causey produced a recent example, a female with a habit of making a nuisance of herself on the beach, this time at the Deco Grill on Ocean Drive. Officer Llamoca and Officer Deborah Doty took her into custody for trespassing and panhandling. Llamoca attending the hearings to make sure the case went to trial, and he arranged for the shift manager of the restaurant to attend. The woman was convicted of trespassing. She was ordered to stay away from South Beach for a year. Officers were warned to be on the lookout for her in case she strays south of 18th Street.
Officer Llamoca’s diligence may encourage merchants who have given up on filing complaints. For example, a man came into Jimmy’s pizzeria during Urban Week three years ago and urinated on the floor. A female police officer noticed the puddle of urine when she exited the lavatory. She encouraged Jimmy to make a complaint and to show up in court. Just before the man’s case was called, Jimmy said, the clerk beckoned to the police officer to come forward, whispered in her ear, and then the officer left the courtroom. The case was dismissed when it was called, he said, because the officer was not present. He attributed the event to racism since the judge was of the same race as the defendant. Whether his understanding of what happened was correct or not, there are enough such stories told that merchants and their managers and employees may prefer not to be involved. Jimmy just says that it is a waste of time and money to complain, especially when business is good.
Notwithstanding our observations of violations by offenders who have not yet learned their lessons, it seems that there are far few nuisances on the streets since the recent crackdown. The situation is apparently not half as bad as it was. But our observations are merely anecdotal. Therefore I contacted Chief Raymond Martinez for hard statistics on panhandling arrests over the past three years. A report was quickly generated by the department’s technical services division, showing that there were only 17 panhandling arrests in 2011, and 131 panhandling arrests in 2012, figures indicative of a major crackdown on panhandling. The search was performed for the period 12/17/09 thru 12/17/2012. The department had started entering data into a new system (New World) in September 2009. There may have been only a single panhandling arrest between then and the end of 2010, but that number is inconclusive due to uncertainty as to the methodology employed.
I followed up a previous request with Assistant Chief Mark Overton, for the provision of regular periodic reports of crimes besides the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (Part I) of 8 major crimes, namely detailed information on 22 other crime categories.
According to the Department of Justice, the FBI's UCR program, which began in 1929, collects information on the following crimes reported to law enforcement authorities: homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson (Part I). That is the only report the public has access to for the City of Miami Beach. Arrests are reported for 21additional crime categories (Part II). The UCR data are compiled from monthly law enforcement reports or individual crime incident records transmitted directly to the FBI or to centralized state agencies that then report to the FBI. Starting in 2004, after a five-year design effort, the UCR Program was converted to the more comprehensive and detailed National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS provides detailed information about each criminal incident in 22 broad categories of offenses. According to the FBI, the failure of a state to participate in that system does not preclude municipalities from participating.
Overton said he had researched the possibility of implementing NIBRS. Florida is one of less than a handful of states that have not bought into the program. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency that oversees crime reporting in the state, did not respond to my requests for an explanation why our sunny state is uncooperative in respect to NIBRS.
Overton indicated that the city had better wait for the broad institution of incident-based reporting rather than trying to go it alone.
“The problem is that the state will not accept NIBRS,” he said. “The State of Florida only accepts UCR (Part I). Therefore, if a few agencies decide to go to NIBRS they would not be in compliance with the UCR requested by the state and lose grant and state funding opportunities. Any push for a change to this would have to come from Unified Sheriffs, Police Chiefs, Fraternal Order of Policemen, and Policemen’s Benevolent Associations. I honestly do not see the type of interest required for such an endeavor.”
Some authorities claim that detailed reporting on crimes not on the index of eight major crimes is not really helpful. Not helpful to whom? The MBPD brass expresses faith in the Broken Windows theory that all laws should be enforced, and that misdemeanors, if tolerated, will lead to rises in felony offenses. And the city administration claims it hews to the doctrine of transparency, which would leave experts and the general public to interpret statistics as they see fit.
True, crime statistics can be interpreted in misleading ways. For example, if officers are deployed to crack down on narcotics offenses on a proactive basis, it will seem that the community is the subject of a narcotics crime wave, a category connected with a slew of other crimes including murder. The publicity might not be good for tourism. According to the statistics we have received on panhandling, Miami Beach is suffering a panhandling crime wave, but we should see the numbers arrested drop because the word is getting out about the tough enforcement, and the results are clearly visible on the streets. If it drops and we see panhandling rise, then the ordinances are not being enforced. All this information the MBPD must have, otherwise it would not be managing its business. Why not share the information with the public?
The suggestion was put to Overton that nothing should prevent MBPD from using the data it already routinely collects to generate monthly activity reports on police activities of concern to brass, the city administration and commission, as well as the general public, as part of becoming “the leader in accountability instead of another camel in the caravan.” Camels, if lined up in a circle, will follow each other indefinitely in that formation.
Finally, now that Miami Beach is enjoying a crackdown on misdemeanors, we should remember that if people refrain from calling in complaints about petty nuisances and misdemeanors, the bureaucracy may grow lazy until the disrespect for law and order mounts to a tipping point and the city goes to hell in a hand basket. Or it may unwittingly arrive there gradually, just as a frog does not jump out of the water gradually heated to the boiling point. Therefore do not hesitate to call the police.
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