We get it, Department of Justice. You've been pretty busy, between going after Apple for its criminal eBooks and spending $58 million on really important junkets and all.
But it's pushing two-and-a-half years since then-Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito called his cops "predators" on camera and instituted new policies that lead to seven fatal shootings in seven months, including two that killed unarmed men. Yet when pushed by Rep. Federica Wilson this week, the best you can offer is a report is coming "sooner than later?"
See also:
- Gibson Belizaire: Victim or Criminal?
- Federal Judge Leaves Miami on the Hook for Cops Who Fired 130 Rounds and Killed Suspect
The DOJ foot-dragging is just the latest evidence that in Miami, answers come molasses-slow in police shootings. Over in Miami Beach, even a judge's order to release evidence in how officers managed to fire 130 rounds at a driver who didn't shoot back hasn't motivated the police to actually release anything.
In Miami's case, the DOJ's Civil Rights Division stepped in in November 2011 to review MPD's policies after the spate of shootings.
Exposito maintains the killings came as the result of an aggressive push against street gangs. But his take was undermined by a leaked promo for a reality TV show filmed inside Police HQ that caught one cop saying: "We hunt. That's what I like. I like to hunt."
Exposito, meanwhile, was filmed saying, "I wanted to have something where our guys were going out there proactively... like predators."
In Sept. 2011, Exposito lost his job, in part over concerns over the violence.
Now, current chief Manuel Orosa tells the Miami Herald he hasn't heard from DOJ in some time, despite the department's insistence that it's still pursuing its review. As Sheila McNeil -- whose son, Travis, was unarmed when shot to death by a Miami cop during the spree -- says, no one is fighting for answers now.
"I'm on my own," she tells the Herald.
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