There was a huge amount of blog postings to go through this evening so you'll have to excuse the tardiness of your evening Sift...
A- Coconut Grove Grapevine posts some Grove development plans that were sent in from a CGG reader which sparks a lot of interesting commentary.
B- Images showing some Virginia Key residents, from Nikon Miami.
C- Man or Maniac? comments on the swill NBCMiami is serving up these days.
D- Eye on Miami has some good news for those who want to hold the line.
The governor and cabinet's Final Order said Lowes Big Box Store was found out of compliance and they also limited the precedential adverse impact of the Brown Amendment.E- En Vivo Y En Directo discovers The South Florida Beer Blog. 305 noticed earlier in the week. Cool!
The County is ordered to rescind the Ordinance allowing the Lowe's store on the other side of the Urban Development Boundary within 60 days.
F- Speaking of the devil, SFBB tells us what last Thursday's Sunset Tavern beer tasting event was like.
One of the few complaints I heard about the event was that instead of the tasting going from lightest to darkest, it involved one distributor going through all of their beers and on to the next. Going from a Stone Imperial Russian Stout to Presidente Light was a bit of a step back in the tasting. Also, the glasses were washed after every couple of beers and it was leaving a soap residue on the glasses that you definitely picked up in the beers.G- Mango&Lime has a nice preview of Miami Spice, which starts this Saturday!
...[W]ith the seemingly growing popularity of prix fixe menu events at Miami restaurants, Miami Spice doesn’t seem as special as it once was. Still, I’m always up for making at least one Miami Spice excursion.H-Two great examples of the way some conservatives think, from Incertus and Bark Bark Woof Woof.
I- Blind Mind announces that his hurricane pool has diminished greatly and takes the opportunity to tell us what he thinks of hurricane forecasters.
And once again I am reminded that I shouldve gone to school to become a weatherman and hurricane predictor. It remains the only job in existence where you can eff up year after year and still retain a job. Im convinced that meteorology classes consist of nothing but funneling beers and taking bong hits and then throwing darts at a board that has sections for different weather conditions based on the season.J- Another Collabo Show report, this time from Daily Cocaine. Don't bother with the videos unless you mute first.
K- The Burger Beast is getting noticed.
L- Brickell Life checks out Fort Lauderdale life and visits Primanti Bros. on Oakland Park Boulevard.
Holy burger-rama. It’s like being caught in some kind of burgatory. A place half way between burger heaven and hell where the slightest shift can throw you in either direction. Everything is jammed into this sucker except for the napkin and my drink. It’s a well done patty covered in melted provolone and topped with a mountain of fresh-cut fries, a tangy vinegar-based coleslaw, couple slices of tomato and all sandwiched between to huge thick-cut slices of crazy soft Italian bread. You have to attack this thing with a full frontal assault. It’s an arms out to the side for balance, two-handed mama-jama kind of sandwich that will leave you in a food inducing coma afterwards asking yourself what did you just do.M- Worst Pizza shares some photos from last night's Pizza Tweetup in Boca Raton.
Last night we had an impromptu mini PizzaTweetup event at Nino’s of Boca. Although we were only supposed to have 20 people max show up for the event, we actually ended up with 34.N- Justice Building Blog highlights the improper actions of a Hollywood police officer and makes the jump that this is the way all cops are in Broward. I'm wondering when we can expect JBB to start using just as wide a paintbrush on his fellow Broward barristers?
O- Your South Florida Moment of the Day: monkeys at the Fort Lauderdale Airport Park 'n Ride, according to FTL Today.
While taking the suitcases out of the car...I heard Jeff yell "What's that?!?!?" and pointed to an animal in the middle of the lot. I'm thinking it was your normal neighborhood animal like a raccoon...a squirrel or maybe even a dog. WRONG! Monkeys! A whole family! At first it was alarming...as they started walking in our direction. Were they going to throw poo and steal our luggage? Were they going to bite us? Do they carry rabies? All they did was walk past us and didn't even give us a second look. The van driver said that they have a whole family with some baby monkeys too..
11 comments:
N. If a handful of cops break the law but all the other cops look the other way, then they pretty much all are corrupt.
This is what you don't seem to understand, Rick.
This problem we have with cops is not as isolated as you make it seem.
And the system always looks out for them because they are cops.
And the few cops who do speak out about the abuses are shunned by their peers and many end up having to resign.
So you end up with all the honest cops keeping their mouths shut to protect themselves, which in turn protects those that do not deserve protection.
And for somebody who works in the system like Justice Building Blog to believe they are pretty much all like that is not something that should easily be dismissed.
It seems that the only people who refuse to see this truth are people who are part of the LEO system, whether they are federal, state or local, or people who are so detached from the system that they do not see what is really going on.
When you have cops just blatantly changing the narrative to protect their own - and laughing about it - and not even concerned that their voices might be recorded on their own recorders, then you have officers who think they can do whatever the hell they want.
And they pretty much can.
I think there are plenty of people who like cops, Carlos. Maintaining the blog that you do, and surrounding yourself with the people you attract and the stories that you tend to gravitate to I know it's hard to see, but there are. And, furthermore, there are a lot of good police officers out there, too.
Like all of us, you have an bias that you carry, Carlos. You look for all the bad that cops do. Other people tend to weigh the good with the bad, others still only look at the good. But you carry a negative bias, Carlos, plain and simple.
But that's not really the problem. The problem is that you don't see it and you deny it. As you know, others besides myself have recognized it, too, so it's not just me saying this.
It's too bad that you can't step back and also weigh the good, Carlos. That will probably come when you really need them, like most of us do at some point in our life, and then you'll find out that they're just people and not ogres out to destroy lives.
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You are just as biased as me, Rick, so you don't get any points by constantly pointing your finger at me and calling me biased.
Everything I write on my blog is true.
My blog serves a purpose. And it's to make people aware of what is actually going on.
I know you would rather me ignore all these incidents, but would that actually be addressing the problem?
The reason I launched my blog is because of my personal experience.
The reason you support cops so strongly is because of your personal experiences.
So that makes us both biased.
And Rick, you've only met me once and we spoke for maybe 15 minutes or so, so you really don't know me.
I'm the kind of guy who respects everybody, including cops, until they disrespect me, and then I show my stubborn side.
I'll be your best friend, I'll be your worst enemy. And that all boils down to whether people respect me or not.
I've met plenty of cops over the years that I've been on a friendly basis with.
The cops I've written about have shown no respect to their fellow civilians, so they get no respect from me.
Besides having a negative bias, Carlos, you have an extremely short memory.
If you recall, I said the cop that ground your face into the ground was wrong that night. I didn't think much of you then and I don't think much of you now, but I said that cop was wrong.
If you recall, I chastised police officers who speed on our highways and streets when they're not on an emergency call. I've said it puts us and their departments at risk.
If you recall, I criticized a Ft. Lauderdale cop who ran over a guy and knocked him out of his shoes. The officer was going in the neighborhood of 90 mph and not on an emergency call.
In the Gates case, I said that the cop should have acted more professionally and waved off the irate Gates.
Bias? I call them as I see them when it comes to cops, Carlos. There's over 800,000 of them in the United States and you focus on less than .5% of them and malign them all.
Now THAT's bias. That might even be hate.
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Your responses are getting so irrelevant and off-topic.
Now you're saying that I hate cops because I write more cop stories on my blog than you do on your bog?
That is the focus of my blog. Not yours.
I document police abuses that have some type of First Amendment violation to them.
I don't give brownie points to cops who can make it through their shift without abusing people's rights because they are doing what they are paid to do.
Your problem Rick is that are unable to depersonalize your contempt for me. You can't do it for Babalu either.
It's very personal with you. Even in this post you mentioned how you didn't think much of me then and you don't think much of me now.
And I remember telling you that day we met how you shouldn't judge people until you've met them and at least get to know them.
That is why I am friends with Babalu - even though I don't agree with, nor read, what they write. But I can sit around and have a few beers with them and we'll be cool because there are a thousand of other things to talk about, other than the things we blog about.
That day I met you, I invited you to join us for beers but you declined.
And I know it will never happen because once you hear I'll be attending a function, then you don't show up or leave early (I'm usually a late arrival).
You don't have the fortitude to face your internet foes and walk up to them, shake their hand and share a beer with them.
But that's your problem, not mine.
Actually, I'm saying you have a negative bias against cops because you have dedicated a significant portion of your live to documenting only the bad things that they do and never, ever mentioning the good.
I don't associate with people I don't like or trust. I'm glad that you have the time to integrate those people into your schedule.
I don't.
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That's the point I was making. Not to judge a book by its cover.
Some of us are able to do that. Some of us are not.
I don't trust cops as an institution. But I am willing to get to know them on an individual basis to see what they're all about. Then I make a judgment.
I dedicate so much time to what I do because it's a very important subject to me. We each have our obsessions that drives us.
Mine is to expose an ongoing pattern of abuse that I see being done on the taxpayer's dime.
You see, Rick, it bothers the hell out of me that my money is being used to fund bullies who tell me I am not allowed to do something I know I am completely entitled to do.
I am not an idiot. I know my rights.
I'm not expecting to break the law or commit crime and get away with it.
I am just demanding that I am allowed to do what the law and Constitution allow me to do.
Is that too much to ask for?
For you, it obviously is. And most people are obviously willing to give up their rights in order to not rock the boat or piss off the man in charge.
But I've never been one to follow the masses. I've never been a sheep. I've always marched to the beat of my own drum.
So if I piss off a few people doing what I do, then so be it. I am not breaking the law.
And here's a little irony for you. Last night, about an hour after I left the first comment on this thread, a man named Mark Dougan left a comment on my blog.
Dougan is the former Palm Beach Sheriff Deputy who reported Sgt. Brent Raban for bragging about abusing suspects on his FB page.
Raban - who has connections - ended up demoted. Two other deputies - who didn't have connections - got fired.
And Dougan ended up getting harassed to the point where he had to resign. He is now a LEO in Maine.
The first link is his comment. The second link is his website where he explains everything and even has posted official documents concerning his case.
I've been exchanging emails with him and I'll be writing about him later because I believe he is a good cop. But I have a feeling this won't fall into your category of a "good cop."
http://carlosmiller.com/2009/07/28/its-not-crime-fighting-its-dealing-out-punishment/#comment-13869
http://www.jmdougan.com/
You two better cool it before Shaq shows up.
Carlos: Bad cops need to be weeded out and disciplined. Good cops need to be recognized.
You got half of it down. Work on the other half, please.
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Rick and Carlos, you two are cordially invited to a beer on Thursday at that big white joint up in DC. My treat, of course.
Rick,
So you would prefer that I write more positive pieces to balance out the negative pieces?
I actually wrote one the other day that ended up getting picked up by the NY Times blog about two NYPD cops who came to the defense of a photographer who was being harassed by a civilian.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/behind-carrie-samantha-miranda-and-charlotte/
And I've written others in the past. I can pull them up for you if would like.
But my site does focus on the negative because it is one of the few places on the internet that gathers all these stories under one roof.
We hear about them every day. And we hear the same "just a few bad apples" excuse to justify these incidents.
But when you start putting them together as I have been doing, you begin to see a pattern.
That there is a serious problem within our police departments.
And no, not all cops are bad. In fact, most are able to do their jobs in a professional manner.
But until those cops start demanding that their fellow cops start doing the same, then the problem will continue.
I would love to get to the point where I have nothing to write about because there is nothing going on.
I would love to get to the point where I can be out taking photos in public, even of cops, and not fear getting arrested.
But I don't see that happening anytime soon.
In the mean time, I will do my part to raise awareness of this issue.
The truth is, I am only reporting a fraction of what is really being reported out there on various mainstream media sources. I don't have the time nor energy to report it all.
Here's the latest. A grandfather and pregnant woman get tased while attending a backyard Baptism.
The man is charged with public intoxication even though he was standing on his own private property.
But police say he acted "disorderly". Of course they're using that term. Do they ever not use that term?
So many Americans, including several on this site, will say he deserved to be Tased.
But those people are not familiar with the Fourth Amendment.
http://carlosmiller.com/2009/07/29/grandather-and-pregnant-woman-tasered-at-baptism-party-in-virginia/
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