June 4, 2011 photo of Hallandale Beach Police Dept. HQ, across from HB City Hall, by South Beach Hoosier. On the one-year anniversary of Lynda Meier's disappearance, just as has been the case every single day since she vanished last June 4th, there was no flyer about her on the outside of the HB Police Dept., the City Hall bldg. or the nearby HB Cultural Center. Or anywhere in the entire city. SNAFU!
To those of you all whom have asked or written me about this past weekend being the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of Hallandale Beach resident Lynda Meier -a woman I never met but whose case I have consistently written about in this space- and why I consciously chose not to mention it, despite having a plan in place to do so for weeks if not months, I have an answer for you.
Compare and contrast the competency of efforts and sense of urgency in my beloved Bloomington right now, with the dithering of Hallandale Beach police last year -it's striking!
NY Daily News: Indiana student Lauren Spierer's family makes emotional plea for daughter's safe return
The answer is that in the last few weeks, as the date of June 4th loomed larger and larger, I realized that my original purpose in bringing to light certain key facts about how the story was publicly communicated to the local populace by the Hallandale Beach Police Dept., which is to say, BOTCHED, in a fashion that would be instantly recognizable to anyone who has any sort of understanding of how law enforcement agencies work a disappearance the first 72 hours, much less, by anyone who's ever watched a depiction of how they respond as shown in film or TV, I realized that the South Florida news media's overwhelmingly incurious behavior and lack of follow-through was as big a part of this story as any other.
How could it not be?
But how do you physically show on a blog, the absence of effort by the news media?
Rather late in the process, I decided that rather than do my thing this past weekend, complete with long-promised photos of some things you haven't seen anywhere else, I would wait patiently and bide my time.
I'd observe carefully and write about who, if anyone in the local South Florida press corps reported on the anniversary and whether they stuck to the softball coverage of the story, essentially, acting as stenographers for the HB Police Dept., NOT genuine independent reporters with a desire to move the story forward in ways that we would all recognize from what we have personally observed or seen in the rest of the country when these sort of inexplicable things have happened, not apathetic South Florida.
Apathetic South Florida residents and the corresponding apathetic news media who pretend to delve into issues are a match made in hell for the discerning citizen and well-informed news junkie. A conspiracy of jokers who need to be implored to do the very minimum and who ignore the public, regardless of what sort of BS they feed you about really caring what their readers or viewers think or want in news coverage.
They don't care and they don't want to hear from you either, even if you know something useful they and the public don't know.
I knew going in that if anyone publicly asked the long overdue probing questions to the Hallandale Beach authorities, they'd be a lonely island.
Especially if they publicly challenged the new HB Police Chief, Dwayne Fluornoy, who was prominently featured at the Meier press conferences last year when a Major.
He is someone who has completely underwhelmed me and many other concerned HB residents since he has been in charge, on this and many other issues in the city involving public safety and crime.
I never thought he should get the job and he is now showing just why.
He is someone who has completely underwhelmed me and many other concerned HB residents since he has been in charge, on this and many other issues in the city involving public safety and crime.
I never thought he should get the job and he is now showing just why.
His stubborn refusal to acknowledge reality, and make LONG OVERDUE policy changes that better utilize resources and personnel, instead, maintaining the tired and completely ineffective approach that hasn't worked since I moved here in 2003, is one of the reasons for the large jump in crime here in Hallandale Beach, as well as the HUGE increase in graffiti in well-traveled public areas that are seen by everyone and which are never dealt with.
HGS anyone?
HGS anyone?
Above, the pseudo-story in April about the new HB police chief in the faux-newspaper that HB taxpayers continue to subsidize to the tune of tens of thousand of dollars every year on behalf of Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew and the City Manager's office. Yet it still can't even list simple information correctly, witness the so-called North Beach Community Center's grand opening in January, which it ignored, despite City Manager Mark Antonio saying publicly the week before THAT was how HB City Hall would communicate with the residents in the future. Antonio didn't care that NOBODY reads it!
June 8, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Considering the large percentage of taxpayer money gobbled-up in the city's budget by the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. for personnel costs, there are surprisingly few actual police officers on the street where and when you need them, and hard as it seems to believe, they seem more oblivious to what's right in front of them than ever.
June 8, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Considering the large percentage of taxpayer money gobbled-up in the city's budget by the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. for personnel costs, there are surprisingly few actual police officers on the street where and when you need them, and hard as it seems to believe, they seem more oblivious to what's right in front of them than ever.
Trust me, this WILL be coming out at upcoming city budget meetings.
Yes, all these things and more will be discussed here soon, with specific examples of the general sloth, indifference and obliviousness of both the South Florida news media to the Lynda Meier story-line, and the corresponding lack of effort by the HB Police Dept. -and their fan club of HB Crime Watch, which was then led by present-day HB Comm. Alexander Lewy- to do ANY of the things that are done within 72 hours of a disappearance to get info from the public, which were COMPLETELY MISSING here.
Yes, those long-promised photos of mine showing the empty windows and empty bulletin boards of retail stores and other businesses and the like along U.S.-1, Hallandale Beach Blvd. and State Road A1A that in a normal city, would have had at least one MISSING flyer with Meier's likeness.
Compare and contrast the competency of efforts and sense of urgency in my beloved Bloomington right now, with the dithering of Hallandale Beach police last year -it's striking!
NY Daily News: Indiana student Lauren Spierer's family makes emotional plea for daughter's safe return
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/06/08/2011-06-08_indiana_student_lauren_spierers_family_makes_emotional_plea_for_daughters_safe_r.html
CBS-2/WCBS-TV video: Westchester College Student Lauren Spierer Missing Since Friday
CBS-2/WCBS-TV video: Westchester College Student Lauren Spierer Missing Since Friday
You'll see those photos and other information here soon, once I have given certain reporters, producers and columnists the benefit of the doubt, for many of them, for the very last time.
The longer I live in Hallandale Beach and Broward County and see for myself how things are consistently done in a half-assed and unsatisfactory fashion, the less I give government officials & employees and members of the South Florida news media the benefit of the doubt.
And that change in attitude will be quite apparent in future posts from here on in -no more Mr. Nice Guy.
