Miami Police Forms Include Offensive “Oriental” Term to Identify Complainants

Using the term “Oriental” to describe a person of Asian or Pacific Islander descent is pretty much a thing of the past. States including Washington and New York have long banned the word from official documents, and the federal government finally followed suit in 2016. That’s because the term has a history of marginalizing Asian immigrants and is considered offensive by many.

College Students Aren’t the Problem, Miami Beach Spring Break Arrests Suggest

Miami Beach began its spring break crackdown late last year, almost four months before the first college kids arrived. In November, police Chief Daniel Oates began sending letters to college administrators and fraternity presidents warning that law-breaking students would be arrested. The city even spent $33,000 on a hard-line law-and-order social media campaign targeting undergrads.

Broward Prosecutors Exonerate Man In 1983 Rape, Murder of College Student

At his sentencing for the 1983 murder of a West Palm Beach college student, Ronald Henry Stewart said he was pleading no contest because it was in his best interest. His attorney pointed out a slew of flaws in the case — a potentially faulty eyewitnesses, the use of jailhouse snitches, and fingerprint evidence that didn’t match Stewart’s prints. But Stewart had previously been convicted of multiple rapes, and he feared being executed if a jury convicted him of killing 20-year-old Regina Harrison.

Miami-Dade Police Reported Undocumented Crime Victim to ICE

In December, 38-year-old Mabel Perez-Ordonez received good news. A letter from Miami-Dade Police stated she’d been the victim of indecent exposure. That meant the Nicaraguan native would be eligible for a U visa — a path to legal status for undocumented crime victims who cooperate with cops. The Hialeah mother…

One Year Later, FIU Bridge Collapse Survivors Recall the Tragedy

It was as if the bridge appeared out of nowhere. Carlos Badillo had driven past Florida International University before, but on March 15, 2018, he noticed something he hadn’t seen just a week earlier. It was a little before 2 p.m., and he was driving east on Tamiami Trail with his wife, Martha Plaza Cevallos. Up ahead, a 174-foot bridge had been erected in front of the Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

Miami-Dade Police Ask for $6.5 Million for New Tasers in No-Bid Contract

Tasers have been promoted to police departments in recent years as a safe way to de-escalate dangerous situations. Yet in reality, the devices are far from nonlethal — a 2017 Reuters investigation turned up 1,081 cases in which someone died after being shocked. Miami’s three largest police departments have also routinely misused Tasers: In 2014, New Times reported that local cops were tasing mentally ill people, the homeless, and children as young as 6.

Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio Removed From Twitter for “Evading Suspension”

When Twitter suspended multiple members of the Proud Boys for violating the site’s policy on “violent extremist groups” last fall, Enrique Tarrio, the Miami-based chairman of the right-wing group, was among those removed. But since Twitter doesn’t have a good way to stop a suspended user from simply making a new account, Tarrio was back on the platform in no time under a new name.