Rafael Herman, a man who never fails to run for mayor of Miami Beach while stirring up more controversy than any chance of being elected, is at it again. Yesterday, the perennial candidate was arrested in an incident that started with him yelling at African-American passengers on a Miami Beach bus to give up their seats so he could sit, and ended with him brandishing a six-foot wooden flag pole while yelling racial slurs.
According to Random Pixels, the incident started around 3 a.m. today. Herman, 67, demanded that black passengers get up so he could sit because he's elderly. When they refused, Herman began verbally abusing the black female bus driver.
The incident escalated to the point that the driver stopped the bus on 41st Street at Indian Creek Drive, and Herman continued his argument with the driver and a male passenger. He then armed himself with a six-foot wooden flag pole and begin waving it. He almost hit the male passenger several times. According to CBS Miami, he was also screaming racial slurs while doing so. Another passenger intervened and stopped the fight.
When police arrived, Herman claimed that "all blacks stick together" and demanded that the male passenger be arrested or he would have the others "killed in 24 hours."
Herman was arrested after being taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.
This is far from the first time Herman has gotten into trouble during an election cycle. In 2009, while Herman was also running for mayor, President Obama was in town. Herman claimed he had been roughed up by a firefighter and then demanded to talk to the Secret Service so the president could see him with blood on his face. He then refused to let officers enter his house unless he could fax the Secret Service.
This is Herman's seventh time running for mayor. Among other claims, he swears he once battled Osama bin Laden in a knife fight.
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