12 April 2022
Miami Beach, Florida
by David Arthur Walters
I wanted to do some research last Thursday, so I walked towards the little South Shore Library on Alton Road in the exclusive South Pointe neighborhood, where some condos go for many millions of dollars. I stopped for coffee at the BK on the way—I always think of Sharon Stone when I drop by there because she was in a BK ad back in the day.
Several people were sleeping in the restaurant. I wanted to use the bathroom but someone had crapped all over the floor, so I picked up my coffee from the counter, gave the cleaning man a heads up on the bathroom situation, and proceed to walk down Alton to the library with coffee in hand.
I paused by the South Pointe Elementary School to see if the kids had planted anything new in the garden boxes, and then I approached the library. And there he was, screaming his head off as usual, the disturbing man who practically lives up and down the other side of Alton, near Rebecca Towers--a fine senior residence right on the bay, managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Miami Beach.
The unfortunate man has been behaving crazily on that side of Alton for a very long time. I have heard people praying, “Oh Lord, please don't let him come over to this side of the street.” Yet there he was this very morning, threatening to kill a man who was trimming the grass alongside the sidewalk. That wiry little man would have none of it. He stepped back and swung the weed cutter around to brandish the whirling end in the big man's face. And then the man backed way and soon approached the front of the library, which was about to open, and started to grab the belongings of a man waiting there. The owner objected and was duly threatened, resulting in some shouting including obscenities such as, “I will kill you white MF,” and “get the **** away nigger!”
Something had to be done, in my opinion, because the man was clearly out of control and was a danger to others and himself. I called 911. I believe a security guard for the property was doing the same.
The librarian started to unlock the front door. I pointed at the man and yelled at her to lock it back up. Too late, the mad man made it into the library. I went right in, and he was threatening her, raising his fist. Another man and I approached, ready to take him down. I am almost “elderly” and wished I was armed—librarians are not allowed to arm themselves and are told to run in case of trouble. I ordered him to go outside and speak to the police, who had arrived but did not come in. He told the librarian he would come back and take care of her after he got out of jail, and then he went outside, where the two policemen who had arrived chatted with him and let him go.
I approached the officers and asked why they had not arrested the man. “We know him well,” one officer explained in a standoffish official manner.
“But he assaulted several people,” I said. “The assault on the librarian was recorded on video and there were several witnesses.”
“He did not hit anyone. We know him well.”
I wondered how he knew that without speaking to the witnesses.
“Assault is different than battery in Florida, and he clearly threatened several people in a manner they took seriously.”
“We are not here to argue,” he declared, dismissing me. I was not offended because that line is a tool of their trade.
By then the man had gotten across the street and was threatening elderly people trying to board the trolley that had topped in front of the Rebecca. The officers went over there and shooed him away because they knew him well.
Indeed, everyone knows him well, especially people who have been terrorized by his antics and threats of mayhem over the past two years. There are several others like him whom police and residents know very well. You see, despite the good job the police department has done in cleaning up the neighborhood under Chief Clements, there are a few problematic characters whom police know very well.
I called the chief's office. He was naturally in a meeting, so I explained the outrageous proceedings to his assistant and asked her to have him call me. He did not call. I texted him later as well, offering to help if something was preventing the department from getting people known very well off the street. He has not responded by “press time.” As usual, neither has the department's public information officer. He seems to prefer television interviews, and I do not have a camera or a station.
But I did notice one of the officers return to speak with the librarian again, this time in her office, and I hoped he got a copy of the video, although neither he nor the officer were interested in speaking with me or other witnesses because they knew him well.
So why does knowing someone well afford him immunity for assault? Come to find out, there is a good reason for knowing someone well and not arresting them, something the officers could have mentioned when asked instead of saying they are not here to argue, meaning not here to explain themselves and be accountable to the public instead of the city's oligarchy.
In fact, police officers were glad to communicate with the public until the election of local magnate Philip Levine as mayor and his appointment of a celebrity police chief from Colorado. Mr. Levine, a Clinton intimate, decided to run for governor and anointed Dan Gelber, a former prosecutor and state legislator, to succeed him. Gone was the friendly neighborhood policing. The friendly officers were soon gone or their lips were sealed.
Some officers, however, will speak anonymously. And here is the big secret about why some offenders known very well do not get arrested; secret, that is, to those of us who are ignorant.
Officers may not arrest someone for assault without a warrant unless the assault occurs in their presence. In order to get a warrant, they would have to take valuable time to collect evidence and have it sent to the state attorney, who would perhaps gather more evidence and decide if there was cause to have a judge sign a warrant. Assault is, by the way, measly crime committed by irate people all the time, a misdemeanor that can land one in jail for a year, the probability of that being remote. So good luck trying to prosecute the thousands of people, usually men, who regularly threaten to beat up or kill each other and their wives when they get mad but do not lay a hand on anyone.
Well, most of us have heard something about the necessity of obtaining a warrant to arrest someone. That seems to be in accord with constitutional rights. But in Florida there are 22 exceptions to the rule, which career criminal should study well, and there will be more to come. Assault is not one of them. Battery is, and so is Theft.
So a man can threaten to beat up his wife and cannot be arrested unless he makes the threat in the presence of an officer; otherwise a warrant is required; that is, unless he the threat occurs in a licensed public lodging establishment or his wife happens to be a specified public official or working at a mental institution. But if he batters her even absent the presence of an officer, he may be arrested without a warrant.
And if he steals a chicken at the Publix even outside of the presence of a police officer, he may be arrested without a warrant; still, a meat theft ring operated for some time at the South Beach Publix with virtual impunity for failure to prosecute. Security guards are not present in the morning, as is the case at the library whose employees have been terrified especially in the early hours. The BK across the street used to have security, but not in the dangerous, early hours.
I shall ask the Governor for advice about making Assault a warrantless arrest offense. Michael Grieco, our state representative, a former prosecutor who lives in South Pointe, has not yet answered my inquiry in that regard, and neither has the police department.
A few states do require officer presence at time of offense to make an arrest. Many states authorize warrantless arrests for misdemeanors under special circumstances, such as the possibility the offender will harm himself or others or damage property if not immediately arrested or may not be apprehended by the time a warrant is issued. Perhaps Assault could be identified as a “gross misdemeanor” to be treated as a felony. An offender who is “known very well” to the police and to the public he offends might rightly be added to Florida's list of warrantless arrest exceptions.
I shall do the best I can to keep my promise to the chief, to in some way help reduce the threat from certain persons we know very well even though I expect my efforts will fall on deaf ears hence be in vain. I have not seen the man whom we know very well since then, so the police may have used means to remove him, say, to have him Baker Acted or dropped off beside the highway a hundred miles away. But I am not entitled to that information since I am not with a TV station or a major daily paper and have a habit of criticizing procedures; I would have to make a public information request and wait forever for the information at a substantial cost to me. Of course, I shall update this report if I get any information from public officials.
Finally, I suggest to police departments everywhere to be more informative to the public, even to debate specifics to that end. For example, in this case, the officer might say:
“Glad you asked. We know this man very well because our hands are tied. Under Florida law we cannot arrest him without a warrant for this particular misdemeanor. It is highly unlikely if we could get one in this case, and if a warrant was issued, the judge would dismiss the charge or let the man go the next day. If you wish to pursue the matter, contact Donald Trump.”
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