Johnny Be Good, Part 2

Clean the chief�s mouth out with soap

A A A Comments By Chuck Strouse Thursday, Mar 16 2006

Back on May 8, 2003, things got ugly on Dinner Key. Miami Commissioner Angel González was angry. He demanded more information about city police matters.

Timoney at work March 7

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Chief John Timoney would have to wait, González said.

Timoney's reaction?

He didn't say, "You're bad. Fuck you!" as he did to a protestor at the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit that same year.

He didn't say, "Fuck the Cubans," as he did this past February 12 at a party sponsored by Ocean Drivemagazine.

He didsay, "Fuck Commissioner González."

"I view his behavior as disgraceful conduct unbecoming of a Police Chief," González wrote in a memo to City Manager Joe Arriola obtained this past week by Miami New Times.

Both Timoney and Commissioner González declined to comment about the 2003 memo, but it gives added credence to accounts in New Times of the chief's outburst at the Ocean Drive shindig in February. Timoney, it seems, is prone to public outbursts of profanity — even about his employer.

Comments González's assistant Frank Castañeda: "It's not a hidden fact ... that Commissioner Gonzalez is unhappy with the police chief."

Moreover Timoney made the February 12 statement about Miami's leading immigrant group at 1:00 a.m. with a drink in his hand. This past March 7, he was out on the town again — sloshing around another trago — at a posh Brickell Key condo sales gathering sponsored by developer Jorge Perez and Rolling Stone Mick Jagger's daughter Jade.

There were no reports he used the F-word.

Though Timoney has waged a campaign on TV and in print to deny making the statement about Cubans, Rolando Gutierrez Jr., president of the Miami Police Hispanic Officers Association, has called for the chief's firing over the incident.

Miami Commissioner Tomás Regalado plans to bring up Timoney's comments at the March 23 meeting. "Here in this city run by Cubans, I just want to ask: Does the city manager believe the chief? Does he have confidence in him?"

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