Miami Commissioner Faces Retraction Demand for Incendiary Remarks at Special Meeting About

Miami Commissioner Faces Retraction Demand for Incendiary Remarks at Special Meeting About Incendiary Remark


The pendulum of police feuds swings both ways in the City of Miami.

On Monday, the Miami City Commission called a special hours-long meeting to chastise recently hired Miami Police Department (MPD) Chief Art Acevedo for joking that his department was run by the "Cuban Mafia," an incendiary quip that offended three Cuban-American commissioners — Joe Carollo, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, and Manolo Reyes, often referred to as the Three Amigos.

During the meeting, Carollo called into question Acevedo's high-profile firings and the new chief's outspokenness about the department's history of letting bad cops slide.

Now it seems Carollo is in trouble for his own outspokenness about the department's history of letting bad cops slide — specifically for making incendiary remarks at Monday's meeting about MPD Capt. Javier Ortiz, one of the MPD's most controversial officers, who in 17 years has racked up 58 citizens' complaints regarding offenses ranging from abuse of force to discourtesy to the public.

It started when Carollo's diatribe against Acevedo expanded to include Ortiz by way of collateral damage. In an attempt to discredit the chief's allegations of rampant excessive force in the police department, Carollo cast Ortiz as Acevedo's crony.

Read more: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-police-captain-javier-ortiz-threatens-commissioner-joe-carollo-with-defamation-suit-13042264