Five Times Drugs Corrupted Miami-Area Cops

There’s nothing inherently wrong with doing drugs — so long as you’re not in the business of arresting other people who do drugs. This has been the dilemma for Miami-area cops since the city’s cocaine explosion began in the 1970s and ’80s — getting paid to bust people for drugs…

Miami Cop Charged With Snorting Cocaine Inside E11even Nightclub

According to a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade County Court, Miami Police Officer Adrian Santos was thrown out of the downtown Miami nightclub E11even in the early-morning hours of November 18, tossed into the back of a cop car, and given a drug test. He was quickly fired but claims in court he had no idea why.

Florida Prisoners Plan Huge Strike for Civil Rights on MLK Day This Monday

When the summer sun in Florida pushes temperatures past 100 degrees, state prisoners — the vast majority of whom are stuck in jail without air-conditioning on drug charges — feel it. When those inmates work (they were forced, for example, to clean up after Hurricane Irma), they typically don’t get a dime in return. When their mostly poor families send them money for food and necessities, a $4 case of soup costs $17.

Vigilantes Mount a Controversial Effort to Take Back South Beach

Michael DeFilippi peers down a dingy Miami Beach alley a few blocks from Ocean Drive, watching intently as two men in red T-shirts and baseball caps disappear into the early-evening darkness. He’s absolutely, positively convinced they’re drug dealers — has been since hours earlier that November day, when, he says,…

Here Are the 12 People Miami-Area Police Killed in 2017

Most killings by police likely don’t need to happen. They are extremely rare in European countries — only five people were shot dead by law enforcement in the entire United Kingdom in 2017. According to figures recently released by MappingPoliceViolence.org, a national anti-police-brutality activist group, 1,129 people were killed by police officers in the United States in 2017.

For the 20th Year, Miami Begs Idiots Not to Shoot Guns Into the Air on New Year’s

Miami just wants to go one six-month stretch without a bystander getting hit by celebratory gunfire. Is that too much to ask? Every Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve, city and county officials must remind South Florida’s insane, physics-challenged residents that, indeed, when you shoot a gun straight up into the air, those bullets don’t just magically rocket off into the sun.

FIU Study Aims to Find Out Why Few LGBT Hate Crimes Are Reported

Besiki Luka Kutateladze couldn’t believe the statistics: Between 2015 and 2016, the Miami-Dade Police Department — the country’s eighth-largest force — reported just one hate crime. Kutateladze’s interest in the numbers was both professional and personal. For years, he has led research on criminal justice issues. But he and his husband were considering moving from New York to Miami, and just months removed from the Pulse shootings, they wanted to know that they and their four young children would be accepted.

Somalis in South Florida Deported by ICE on “Slave Ship” File Class-Action Suit

In the early-morning hours of December 7, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Louisiana woke up 92 Somali detainees and shackled them by their wrists, waists, and ankles. The Somalis were then loaded onto a chartered airplane that was supposed to return them to Somalia. But then, for reasons the government has not yet explained, the plane landed in Dakar, Senegal. It sat on the ground for 23 hours and then headed back to the United States, landing in Miami.

Miami’s Ten Craziest Crime Stories of 2017

From long-lost cocaine lords found hiding in Orlando to steroid-slinging gym owners to a truly Satanic plot to robocall millions of phones with spam messages, 2017 ended up as a 1. FCC Fines Miami Man $120 Million for Making 96 Million Robocalls in Three Months Yesterday the Federal Communications Commission…

Miami Man in Jail for Weed Wins $730K After Losing Kidney

Pascual Diaz-Plasencia was arrested on misdemeanor drug possession charges June 29, 2012, after police caught him with less than 20 grams of marijuana. Diaz-Plasencia had recently undergone a kidney transplant and had to take a set of pills twice daily to ensure his body didn’t reject the organ.

Florida Men Who Filmed Themselves Abusing Sharks Finally Charged With Crimes

This past July, a group of young Florida bros filmed themselves dragging a live shark behind a boat until the poor thing disintegrated into a bloody pulp. The crew of numbskulls then sent the clip to Miami’s infamous shark hunter, Mark “the Shark” Quartiano, because they thought the famed fisherman would find the footage entertaining.