Showing posts with label Hollywood Police Dept.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hollywood Police Dept.. Show all posts

Thursday, September 30, 2021

The negative changes in Hollywood keep happening, regardless of whether you are paying attention or not...


The negative changes in Hollywood keep happening, regardless of whether you are paying attention or not. 
Unfortunately, all too often, with the current Hollywood Police Dept., if it wasn't for the bad attitude, there'd be no attitude at all. And that seems to extend to their former police officers, too.

At this point, I don't think I need to remind most of you who know me and my background even fairly well that the continuing unsatisfactory performance of the Hollywood Police Dept. -STILL the largest PD in South Florida WITHOUT body cameras in 2021- has been something of a recurring concern to me personally, and is something that I have written many emails, blog posts, and tweets about, after having personally been eyewitness to their handiwork,
Or lack of work.
Or, complete lack of effort.

Including after I was a victim of a crime just 3 blocks from HPD HQ.





















When your neighbor is a hostile ex-cop, don’t count on your city for help
By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org
https://www.floridabulldog.org/.../when-your-neighbor.../


Today's Florida Bulldog article regarding a rogue ex-HPD officer who seemingly has free rein to harass a neighbor in our community with nothing being done by anyone in authority at Hollywood City Hall or elsewhere, and actually worse, elected officials lying to a victim about being willing to help resolve the situation, should cause those of you who are still open-minded that the days of your simply trusting Hollywood's elected officials, of assuming because a current city elected official or top-tier administrator can remember your name in the hallway or at a meeting -back when there were public meetings at the now-closed City Hall- doesn't mean that they are your friend.
They are not your friend.
They never were.

And really, after everything else that has happened in this community the past 18 months that has been uniformly bad for residents, taxpayers and an informed citizenry, the last thing that City Attorney and functionary Doug Gonzalez needs, is a more unflattering yet-true public portrayal of him coming before the public, given how low the opinion of him is, almost universally.

This article depicts him as a disconnected, imperious, and seemingly petty little man who fails to grasp the seriousness of what continues to take place everyday with the blessing of the mayor, city commission and the administration.

In a 60 Minutes version of this story, there are a lot of people in Hollywood currently walking around town with some degree of power and influence whose reputations would be close to ruined once the program aired.
For good cause.
They are exactly what they look like.

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Missing, NOT Forgotten! #NoemiBolivar of #HollywoodFL has now been MISSING for exactly 6 months from her parents, friends and #LDS church congregation who loved and adored her. Missing, NOT Forgotten.

Missing, NOT Forgotten!

As of Wednesday, #NoemiBolivar of #HollywoodFL has been MISSING for exactly 6 months from her parents and friends and #LDS church congregation who loved and adored her. 

People who -EVERY DAY- miss her warm and loving spirit, curious personality, and her great love of nature.


Six months later and there is STILL no mention of her AT ALL on the City of #HollywoodFL's website or on the Hollywood Police Department's website. Nothing! 
Just as there wasn't in the critical early days after her disappearance, which I heavily criticized the HPD for at the time.

I heavily criticized the Hollywood Police Dept. and their lackadaisical approach because it echoed so many bad times in the city's past where the HPD's tardiness, inaction and sheer clumsiness made a proper investigation all but impossible. 
That's their track record!

My thread of February 16th, 2021, referenced above.
https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1361819600795631620

#NoemiBolivar's disappearance on Feb. 11th outraged me and most of the people I know/respect here in #HollywoodFL. Why? 
We saw HPD's usual inadequate and insufficient response, even as volunteers from her #LDS church, did more practical leg work on a daily basis than did HPD.

People are STILL positively 💔 when seeing MISSING fliers of this sweet girl on store windows and phone poles.

Sunday, June 27, 2021

Reminder: One month from today, July 27th, is the 40th anniversary of six-year old Adam Walsh's abduction at the Hollywood Mall Sears Dept. store and his subsequent murder across the street from the Hollywood Police Dept. HQ. Problems with Hollywood Police Dept. will be getting the spotlight here over coming weeks and months.

Reminder: One month from today, July 27th, is the 40th anniversary of six-year old Adam Walsh's abduction at the Hollywood Mall Sears Dept. store and his subsequent murder across the street from the Hollywood Police Dept. HQ.


In the coming weeks and months, you will get the chance to read and consider for yourself several critical, fact-filled blog posts here about the Hollywood Police Dept's longstanding deficiencies and consistently unsatisfactory performance.

Not just underwhelming in the past, but very much for the past half-dozen years as well since I moved here from next door Hallandale Beach, where I'd lived the previous twelve years.
Those accounts you read here will NOT be based on one or two individual incidents or a few random episodes that could have happened almost anywhere, but rather numerous examples of the same damn attitude and effort over-and-over here in Hollywood, boiled down from dozens of examples I personally know of involving improper, insufficient, and often apathetic and lackadaisical policing by the HPD.
That includes their less-than-helpful attitudes regarding victims of physical assaults.

I know something about that seeing as how I was assaulted two years ago less than three blocks from the Hollywood Police Dept HQ. And was less than impressed by the reaction I received when I walked to the Police HQ and told them what had taken place minutes before. THAT assault came less than one week after I personally had spoke to Police Chief Chris O'Brien at the tail end of a Civic Association meeting about crime in the city held at the Littman Center. I specifically spoke and asked about the perception among many people who can see what's right in front of them -many of whom were at the Civic Association meeting- that his dept. was simply not doing a good enough job for Hollywood residents. Accounts based on both my personal first-hand experiences and those of MANY people I know and trust in the Greater Hollywood community. People who are otherwise very supportive of most things in Hollywood. But the Police Dept. is NOT one of them, and there's a very good reason for that, as you will soon read. https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1409292846553780228
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Adam_Walsh And yes, if you are a longtime reader of this blog, that includes things as recent as the Missing Persons case involving 22-year old Noemi Bolivar, an autistic woman with the mind of a 16-year old, whose disappearance in February outraged me and most of the people I know in this and neighboring communities, who, from the very beginning, saw the same inadequate and insufficient response by HPD as I had seen so many times in Hallandale Beach when I lived there. Volunteers did more practical leg work than HPD. As you will read soon enough, there are more than a few facts and similarities between the infamous case that took place 40 years ago and the one involving this young woman that took place just four months ago, where the HPD's initial response was, in my opinion, pathetic and shameful in every respect.
Forty years later, I still recall EXACTLY where I was and who I was with when the first media reports came out about Adam Walsh's abduction, and the NUMEROUS false "sightings" of him all over South Florida. That includes where I was at the time, at The Falls Shopping Center. There, at one point, while visiting a friend who had a part-time summer job at a store there -and who'd soon be joining me in Bloomington at Indiana University- throngs of people came running by her store screaming that a boy matching Adam Walsh's description had been seen in the parking lot adjacent to the movie theatres there. It was like a mob scene and something I've never forgotten. We didn't know as we bolted from the store after locking it and ran behind the crowd whether it was true or not. My heart was racing, in my throat, just as my imagination was, since what if it was true? Of course, it was a false report, one of the many hundreds of such reports all throughout Florida that day, but I often thought back and wished that it had been true and he had been rescued safe and sound for his parents. Instead, of course, Adam Walsh's father John completely changed the dynamic of crime reporting and efforts to find missing children thru the program he hosted, as an advocate and champion for victim's rights, America's Most Wanted
“It'll be VERY interesting to see what the City of Hollywood and its often tone deaf Police Dept. decide to do on July 27th, since that will mark the 40th anniversary of six-year old Adam Walsh's tragic abduction at the site of the present day Target, across the street from the current Hollywood Police HQ. John Walsh and his wife Revé's efforts to not let their son be forgotten completely by the public, like so many other cases across the country over previous decades, completely changed society's expectations of what Police Dept's and LEO agencies could and should be doing in the aftermath of such incidents. And, it also permanently changed the dynamic of how the news media -esp. local TV stations- handle and report on Missing Children/People and abduction cases. As I've remarked upon many times in emails and tweets, as well as on my blog, with respect to Noemi Bolivar, it had not always been apparent to the public that the HPD has taken those changes in the public's expectations to heart, since they often seem not to be up to the task required, and do considerably less that what reasonable people might expect from them.”

Monday, June 29, 2020

Hollywood residents deserve better than this completely inadequate effort at public engagement on big spending issues, via Hollywood General Obligation Bond Advisory Committee

Below is the letter I sent earlier this afternoon to Armando Linares, the staff liaison to the 15-member City of Hollywood General Obligation Bond Advisory Committee, which includes more than a few friends and acquaintances of mine, and whose first few meetings I attended in-person at Hollywood City Hall, as I've written previously in this space.

The other important agenda item that I reference below on Wednesday's Hollywood City Commission meeting is the Time Certain item at 1:30 p.m. affecting recreational activities on Hollywood beach which my friend Catherine Uden has been spearheading. https://www.instagram.com/p/CBjlsLgHTv9/

More about that tomorrow, Tuesday.

-----------------------
June 29th, 2020
2:00 p.m.

Dear Mr. Linares:


I'm writing to you today in your capacity as the staff liaison to the Hollywood GO Bond Advisory Committee, which meets tonight at 6 p.m.


Due to COVID19, the last public meeting of this group was conducted using Webex, and the appropriate access information about that meeting was included on the city's website prior to the meeting so that any interested Hollywood citizen, including Hollywood civic activists like myself and many of my friends, could properly access the meeting, and see/hear for ourselves the interplay of the members about an important subject of community interest.


But last week, and then again on Saturday afternoon, I specifically went to Hollywood City Hall to personally look at the temporary Sunshine Board at the south main public entrance. My purpose in doing so was to see if the official announcements about tonight's meeting had been changed so they would, in fact, provide the necessary public access information that was NOT included previously on the temporary Sunshine Board or at the city's website.


Here's why, in my opinion, that failure to include that information is both ironic AND problematic.


Tonight's meeting is supposed to include information about the proposed new Hollywood Police HQ, which, as it happens, will also be on the agenda at the City Commission's Thursday Workshop.

A Workshop that comes the day after the City Commission meeting contemplates not just an important POSITIVE change regarding recreational activities at the beach, but also an agenda item, #27, the Public Participation Ordinance that I strongly support. 
This item also has the support -see below- of my friend, Terry Cantrell, the elected head of the Hollywood Lakes Civic Association, the Hollywood Council of Civic Associations, AND, as you know well, the elected head of the GO Bonds Advisory Board itself.

Mr. Linares, leaving aside the fact that I and many other concerned Hollywood citizens believe that not one foot of earth should be touched regarding the establishment of a new Hollywood Police Dept. HQ until AFTER the Hollywood Police Department is equipped with reliable body cameras, on every officer that is in the public realm, I think you can well appreciate how badly it looks if a public meeting of the GO Bonds Advisory Board is held tonight without the public being able to access the meeting, simply because the current pandemic prevents the Board as well as the general public from appearing in-person tonight at Hollywood City Hall.


I think you can also appreciate why I believe that in view of the Public Participation Ordinance, in the future, the GO Bonds Advisory Board agenda needs to include a line marked "Public Comments," since I can tell you from attending most of the previous in-person meetings, the printed  agendas did NOT include that line.


If you are now aware of information that will allow me and/or other members of the Hollywood public to access tonight's meeting -rapidly approaching- please respond as soon as you are able so that I can relay word of this to them so they can see what happens next.

2:55 p.m.
Mr.  Linares, I now see that three-and-a-half hours before tonight's 6 p. m. meeting, at 2:30 p.m., someone at Hollywood City Hall has FINALLY noticed the problem I've written about, and sent an email out about tonight's meeting with the appropriate access information. 

Information that should have been publicly posted... LAST WEEK. 
Wow! 

That 'whatever' attitude towards the public here is a very troubling sign and one that I suspect will not go down well at Wednesday's City Commission meeting.

Sincerely,


David B. Smith

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog

-----

Those of you interested in catching the meeting tonight -expected to go up until 7:30 p.m. or so- can hear what's what via the following URL, event number and password: 

https://hollywoodfl-events.webex.com/hollywoodfl-events/onstage/g.php?MTID=e2c89553c387f5401479f600592a9aa5e 

Event # - 132 922 8842Password: DCM2207629

-------

Mayor and Commission,

On behalf of the Hollywood Council of Civic Assn and all concerned residents of the City, I would like to thank you in advance for approving Item #27, PO-2020-09, the Public Participation Ordinance. This much needed legislation will, once and for all, eliminate a major problem for residents and civic associations. That is, lack of knowledge or information about redevelopment projects in our neighborhoods. With the City embarking on major redevelopment, especially in the recently created Regional Activity Center (RAC,) the requirement for developers and applicants to reach out to the neighborhoods is desperately needed. This ordinance codifies this process.

In the present environment of the virus crisis, this ordinance can still function despite our civic groups inability to hold public meetings at City facilities. The process of notification can be simply accomplished via email or Dropbox distributions from the applicant as well as phone and/or Zoom meetings. The applicant can confirm this outreach prior to the application processing in a way suitable to City Staff.

Never again will a civic or neighbor group stand before you or your planning boards and say "We never knew about this project." Thank you!

TERRY CANTRELL
President - Hollywood Council of Civic Assns.

Dave 
David B. Smith 

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Lots of interesting names -and "Usual Suspects"- applying to be named to City of Hollywood's important 15-member General Obligation Bond Oversight Advisory Board today at 3 pm at #HollywoodFL City Hall



Lots of interesting names -and "Usual Suspects"- applying to be named to City of Hollywood's General Obligation Bond Oversight Advisory Board this afternoon at 3 pm at Hollywood City Hall.
Should be interesting listening to folks talk about their qualifications to be on the board.

I will be @ Hollywood City Hall for -and before- GO Bond Advisory Board is selected. 
Come speak to me if you can if you are an applicant.

Can you think outside-of-the-box?  

Do you believe the new Hollywood Police Dept HQ must be next door to their current location on SE corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Park Road on the city-owned golf course, or, are you open to the idea of revisiting the issue? 

Open to taking a longer term view, i.e. actually placing the new Police Dept HQ in the BEST location to be useful and practical for the largest number of Hollywood residents/businesses for the next 30-40 years, and not limit city to only considering one location because the city happens to own the land now? 

Why not consider exchanging the corner parcel now occupied by the HPD HQ for another owned by another party in the city that actually might make more sense long-term for the future, and that can offer room for expansion/adaption to changing technology?
Shouldn't finding the best location for it in the future be more important than getting it built ASAP?

Lots of people I know and respect in Hollywood think so, and they are concerned this point of view is not being properly respected at Hollywood City Hall.
Just saying...

My blog post on this subject will be up tomorrow afternoon.





Friday, August 19, 2016

Controversial and completely-incompatible Chateau Square project in Hallandale Beach deferred until Wed. Sept. 7th; some recent dealings with the Hollywood Police only add to the negative reputation they have in much of the nearby community

I'm re-printing my email of yesterday to Real Estate reporter Brian Bandell of the South Florida Business Journal because it offers me a chance to share with you all some very useful news that I've wanted to share all week, but had put off because I had necessarily planned on doing a number of posts this week on the controversial Chateau Square project, and how I and many other careful observers of this part of Broward County believe it would NEGATIVELY affect the residential and business community of our area if allowed to be constructed exactly as developer Chateau Group wants done.

That is to say, the developer wants this city of under 45,000 people to allow him to construct two forty-story towers on top of a number of floors of retail in a part of Hallandale Beach where the nearest large building within a quarter-mile in any direction is no more than 6-7 stories.
In short, to me, this particular project looks more like something that would be more acceptable or appropriate in the business area of Chevy Chase, Maryland, in suburban Washington, D.C., where similar sized buildings are allowed in their high-density transit-oriented area near various Metro train stations, than it would in small Hallandale Beach, Florida, where the current zoning cap for this particular location is twenty stories. 

Yes, the developer, Chateau Group wants to erect not one but TWO buildings that are TWICE the current height limit under the city's current zoning rules.
And that on top of a few floors of retail
At what is already the busiest intersection in the entire city!

Where the traffic gridlock in this traffic-centric city already has a longstanding home.
Really. 

All photos appearing on this page are by me, South Beach Hoosier, August 2016.
(c) 2016 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Developer Chateau Group has offered this artist rendering to the city, which has a point-of-view looking SE at the SE corner of US-1/Federal Highway to the right and Hallandale Beach Blvd. to the left. 
Did you notice that the rendering actually shows very few cars on the two roads that actually carry the vast majority of the area's traffic? Accident or intentional? 

It's hard to say, but you'd be surprised at the large number of Hallandale Beach residents and business owners who mention this fact after they are first presented with a copy of this rendering and asked what their initial thoughts are.
They mention it because they actually live and work here and know the reality of what the city's existing terrible traffic gridlock -even in August, sans snowbirds!- can do to your mood and spirit when you want or need to go somewhere.
It's omnipresent.

Holland & Knight's Debbie Orshefsky is clearly a very smart and capable attorney, as I know from personal experience over the years, but no matter how hard she tries to spin the facts about the traffic to her client's benefit, or tries to mis-characterize the everyday reality of life here, there's no way the centrality of daily traffic upon everyone's life in this city can be minimized or ignored by the five members of the Hallandale Beach City Commission when they vote on this important matter in the coming weeks.
And two of the five Commissioners are running for re-election in November: Bill Julian and Michelle Lazarow.



Above, the southern border of this project would be US-1/Federal highway and Hibiscus Drive, the latter of which is a one block road that ends prematurely because within the past ten years the Hallandale Beach City Commission foolishly allowed Gulfstream Park Race Track and Casino to build their employee dorms right where the road could have been extended to 14th Avenue, behind the exiting Publix super market, and serve as a local traffic only road -with No Trucks- for people on Us-1/Federal Highway heading east towards Golden Islands. 

Instead of showing some foresight and long-range vision, since the road extension has been discussed for decades by City Hall because of the growing traffic gridlock problem, the HB City Commission, including two members of the current City Commission -Mayor Joy Cooper and Comm. Bill Julian- voted to approve the three dorms in their current site, instead of requiring Gulfstream to locate them elsewhere on its massive property, which for those of you who don't know the area, is located across the street from... Hallandale Beach City Hall.

What's directly south of the proposed Chateau Square project? Gulfstream Park Race Track and Casino and the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex.

 Looking west on Hibiscus Drive towards US-1/Federal Highway.

Did you know that yet another large retail and office complex is planned for directly across the street (US-1) from this proposed development in the site of what was formerly the Acquo 124 restaurant?

Not many people do judging by the startled looks I've received the past few weeks from usually observant people hereabouts when I've told them that something called Peninsula 124 is trying to get built there.

Here's the artist rendering of the proposed Peninsula 124 building, which is on a large sign posted outside the now vacant restaurant. 

But with the news I heard Wednesday night at Hallandale Beach City Hall that voting on Chateau Square had been postponed until September 7th, it gives me some time to get something else off my chest.

So below is my email to Brian Bandell, though I did not have the photo of the Hollywood Police squad car in the email. 
----

Just saw your tweet to me.

Tried to call you last night from outside of HB City Hall after the decision was made to defer the agenda item, apparently, per the developer, but the cell phone that had your phone number was the same Samsung phone that was stolen recently in Hollywood, along with my dependable SONY Bloggie camera, not the cell phone I'm using now. :-(

By the way... Police presence on Hollywood beach is getting very problematic and disconcerting.

An award-winning chef and restaurant owner from New Jersey whom I met a few weeks ago and have since become friends with -who's considering opening a location in the SE Broward area- actually had his wallet and cell phone stolen on Hollywood Beach this past Sunday afternoon, even though he was only a few feet out into the water when it happened.

When a Hollywood Policeman FINALLY showed up, he was very matter-of-fact about the theft, and despite the fact that my friend could give a very thorough description of the person who stole it, the Hollywood cop on the scene was very disinterested in getting any details, seemingly more interested in heading on to whatever was the next call that came his way.

The wallet had his NJ drivers license, credit cards and ATM cards, CASH, and most heartbreaking, some photos of his young daughter that were one-of-a-kind, and could not be replaced. 
My friend was positively distraught about that, and understandably so.

The cop even said something along the lines of, "What do you want? There are only two police cars on all of Hollywood Beach, so what do you want me to do?"
#dismissive

In the end, my friend was more upset by the cop's attitude than he was by the robbery, esp. when the cop told him that yes, he was going to have to walk a few miles to where he has been staying, since he couldn't do anything to be of help.
My friend, obviously, being in no position to pay for a cab or use Uber because of the robbery/theft.
By the time I saw him when he got back, he was boiling mad and distraught.

Once he was a bit more calm, I shared some fact-filled stories and anecdotes with him about the recent history of the Hollywood Police and how their current not-so-favorable reputation got the way it is today.