Showing posts with label corruption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corruption. Show all posts

Monday, June 25, 2018

Hallandale Beach resolves litigation re 2014 shooting of Howard Bowe by the city's SWAT team, but facts that didn't add up in 2014, still don't in 2018. Beware of SJWs suddenly claiming to be civic activists when they were MIA when it really mattered


Last Wednesday night the City of Hallandale Beach City Commission voted to resolve the litigation involving the city as a result of the 2014 shooting of an African-American Hallandale Beach resident named Howard Bowe by the city Police Dept.'s SWAT unit in a bungled operation that smelled fishy and seemed dodgy from the get-go as far as I and many of my friends in the area were concerned.
Facts just didn't add up.
Didn't add up in 2014, still don't in 2018.

Below is my initial response to the publication on Thursday of Meryl Kornfield's article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
I've posted my tweets and explanatory comments in chronological order so that they make more sense. Especially for those of you who aren't active on Twitter and aren't used to reading comments from the bottom up.

Many of you reading this blog post today were among the 130-plus recipients of my May 28th, 2014 email that I reference in my tweets about the shooting of Howard Bowe in Hallandale Beach, and how the city seemed determined from the very start to do every single thing wrong in its aftermath.

Just think of how differently and better this all could have been handled years ago if someone in a position of leadership at Hallandale Beach City Hall had actually had its citizens and residents long-term best interests at heart.
Shown some savviness, a degree of compassion and some old-fashioned common sense.
Someone like then-Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Renee Morse.
But they didn't.
Just the opposite.

If you've been a longtime Small Business owner or resident of Hallandale Beach or a regular visitor of this fact-based blog you will be all too familiar with the various reasons why expecting Cooper and Morse to act responsibly and speak candidly to the community was never in the cards - it was common knowledge from their track records that they were deceitful to residents and stakeholders in ways that were and are shocking even by the very low ethical and moral standards of conduct common among South Florida's unsavory elected officials and highly-paid bureaucrats.

 To quote myself from a few years ago: For Mayor Cooper, the truth is like water was to the Wicked Witch - something to be avoided at all costs!

When THAT is your default culture at City Hall, as it was at the time, and STRICTLY enforced, 
only very bad things can result.
And they did -over-and-over for over a decade.
Very bad things.

And for those of you who are new to the blog or reading this blog post from a distance and don't know the situation, in 2014, at the time of this shooting, Hallandale Beach, the city that is notable for being the poster child in South Florida for traffic gridlock and over-sized condominium towers and where 70% of its population lives east of US-1/Federal Highway, had a White Jewish female mayor, and an African-American City Manager, City Attorney and Police Chief.

 That reality in 2014, far from an Old Boys Club-type environment, is an inconvenient fact for some people in the community suddenly trying to thrust themselves onto the scene who've never actually done anything selfless for residents and Small Business owners.

South Florida Sun Sentinel 
Family of man killed in police raid to get $425K
South Florida Sun Sentinel 
Meryl Kornfield, Staff writer
June 21, 2018
The Hallandale Beach City Commission voted unanimously to pay the family of a man who died after being shot by a SWAT team carrying out an early-morning search warrant in his home.
Howard Bowe, 34, died 11 days after the May 8, 2014 fatal raid when officers were serving a search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation but instead killed Bowe and his dog.
The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court two years against the city and four police officers involved after the shooting of the father of three, alleging the "military-style raid committed a series of errors resulting in unnecessary confusion and chaos among the officers."
A resolution to pass the $425,000 settlement wasn't mentioned during the Wednesday night City Commission meeting, but the city clerk said it was passed unanimously, 4-0. The city isn't admitting liability by settling, and the officers were already cleared during an internal review.








Attorney Brian Stewart? Ever hear of him? There's a reason you likely haven't.
You haven't for the same reason that nobody who does closely follows or participates in Hallandale Beach politics or government, people who actually attend meetings and have a familiarity with the true facts and civic landscape of this city, like myself and many of my friends had ever seen or heard of him before 2017.
Last year Stewart showed up a few times at HB City Hall when I was there as usual in the back of the Chambers with my notepad, pen and camera, and as seems to be the case whenever I've seen him, he brought along some acolytes to cheer him on when he spoke.

While they were strong at barking out their agitprop on cue and showing everyone their anger, they were not so solid on the facts or the environment, as several well-informed friends and acquaintances told me during and after the meetings, when they walked up to me before I could slip away and get on my way home.
Enough people, mind you, that I could tell before they even said anything that they were genuinely peeved that someone was trying to portray himself as a genuine Hallandale Beach civic activist -yes, like that's a prestigious title, right- not just an attention-seeker.

The facts are that Stewart was someone who at City Hall and at public meetings as well as at informal occasional get-togethers where longtime concerned residents gather -often Panera Bread as a default for lack of enough good choices- was an unknown quantity because he was a no-show.
There's no there there.
Stewart had never actually done anything of note in Hallandale Beach public policy prior to 2017, not least, showing up and asking good hard questions at public places where the public has a chance to evaluate people based on their words an actions and judge who is a work horse and who is a show horse.

What you need to know is that he never showed up when it counted in the past. 
As it happens, Stewart is the guy behind http://blarg.legalmechanics.us/ and its associated Twitter feed, @LawBlarg, https://twitter.com/LawBlarg
At both, it's rather hard not to notice the rather self-congratulatory tone.

Where was Brian Stewart and his Identity Politics friends in 2014 when he and they could have made a positive difference? 
Could have held people like then-HB Mayor Joy Cooper, the city manager, the city attorney and the police chief to account?

It's tough to stroll into the City Chambers and act like an aggrieved Social Justice Warrior (SJW) when three of the most powerful people in the city are actually African-American, and another is 1 of the 4 other City Commissioners, no?
These facts made Hallandale Beach unique in Florida among non-Majority Minority cities.
(But none of them are in office or power now.)

 Those facts, though, never prevented me from publicly criticizing them to their faces over the years in the Chambers or at contentious civic meetings, whether calling them out for their bad judgment or lack of oversight when it was justified, a fact that many people in Hallandale Beach are well aware of, when others were much less eager to do so.




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I strongly urge you to read Radley Balko's article in The Washington Post becase there is some highly-useful information and context there that will shock a lot of newcomers to Hallandale Beach, and give you an excellent idea of how shady things have really been there for decades. 
It also will give longtime residents, i.e. people who think they're longtime because they've been in the area for 10-15 years, something to think about: you should have gotten involved years ago.
Things are the way they are today because you thought you were too busy to hold people in local government to account the way you should've.

In my opinion, it's the very sort of piece we should have seen in the South Florida news media at the time, or since, but never do. 
Yes, not only giving some historical context but holding people in power or who used to hold power to account for their decisions and the logical consequences that followed. 
Yes, you rarely if ever see that now in Miami-based news coverage, as I am forever mentioning and decrying here on this blog.









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Tuesday, March 13, 2018

It's this simple in Hallandale Beach: Good vs. Evil. Who you gonna vote for? Might I suggest a vote for Good in the form of Mike Butler, a proven, well-informed civic activist who sweats the details like few people I know? Give Hallandale Beach a chance to finally be rid of the unethical and dysfunctional stench that was Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew during their reign of ruin

It's this simple in Hallandale Beach: Good vs. Evil. Who you gonna vote for? 
Might I suggest a vote for Good in the form of Mike Butler, a proven well-informed civic activist who sweats the details like few people I know?
Give Hallandale Beach a chance to finally be rid of the unethical and dysfunctional stench that was Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew during their reign of ruin

Above, Mike Butler, the face of Good Government in Hallandale Beach -if you vote him into office. Many of you know that back when Michael and I were spending a LOT more time together working on issues and civic engagement, him via Change Hallandale, in the original fight against the incompatible Diplomat LAC plan -that was eventually rejected by the Broward County Commission- I used to tell Mike that I wished he'd run for mayor.

 Misanthropic, unethicical imbecile Bill Julian yet again plays his familiar role of The Nice Guy Con Man, making promises he can't possibly keep, in part because he is lying to himself about his own public record. Don't fall for the ruse! 

 Bill Julian is a proven bad guy with a grossly misplaced sense of entitlement, and a serial abuser for years of one of society's most basic rules: for YEARS Julian viewed illegally parking in Handicapped Parking and Access spaces as just a perk of his job.







The sign of a con man trying to sell failed past and who wants to personally hold on to power and perks -and pretend that he's relevant. But he isn't. Bill Julian is an imbecile slacker with a giant sense of entitlement and once, while voting to raise his own salary when it wasn't on the public agenda, referred to himself and other HB City Commissioners as being largely akin to large Fortune 500 business exceutives. Really! I couldn't make that up!!!  





Below, the issue that Bill Julian keeps hoping the South Florida news media would ignore -and they do. But I didn't.


Above, the May 16, 2008 photo taken by me, South Beach Hoosier, at the city's then-configuration at North Beach park parking lot, showing then-HB CIty Commissioner Bill Julian's city badge while his car was parked in the one-and-only Handicapped parking space, next to a then-existing restaurant. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

 Quoting myself from 2016:
I've been very busy over the weekend getting my thoughts together for this particular blog post, and the reason is clear. More than just about any other story I've written about here at Hallandale Beach Blog since I started it in 2007, especially one that's dealt specifically with what was taking place in this part of South Florida, in southeast Broward County, the level of public discussion, rancor and outright revulsion about the egregious stupidity and unethical behavior of Hallandale Beach's very own Simpleton, City Commissioner William "Bill" Julian, has reached a point of "no return."

A point of no return that was never reached by Julian's MANY unethical and foolish words and actions in office of the past ten years, however stupid, sordid and self-serving as they usually were, all of which have been chronicled here with great specificity on the blog, often with self-evident photos to hammer home the facts that Julian, his apologists and Mayor Joy Cooper didn't want to face and deal with in an upfront manner.

Even longtime apologists for this bumbling idiot of a small-town pol, a man who even his small circle of friends have long acknowledged, lacks even the most basic short-term AND long-term vision for this growing ocean-side community that nearly everyone here believes ought to be -and managed- SO MUCH BETTER than it has been and is now, have reached their personal breaking point: a line in the sand!

That's something that I know about for a fact because so many friends and acquaintances of mine, as well as more than a few people who by no definition of the word could ever be described as "friendly" towards me in the past -ever- have decided to contact me over the past few days to express their own personal sense of betrayal, anger and befuddlement.

This includes people who have long tolerated Bill Julian's longtime record of foolishness, critically poor and faulty judgment on issues and votes, and his MANY YEARS of being of clearly being largely unprepared to participate effectively and competently at public city meetings in a way that would even come close to what Hallandale Beach's residents and Small Business owners expect, especially for someone who has been in office for so long.
They have all told me -and you today via me on this blog- that they have had "ENOUGH!"
Enough is enough - "Julian needs to go!"

Below are some self-evident facts and well-chosen thoughts of mine about Bill Julian's latest ethics and legal scandal that has ensnared the city.
Longtime residents and businesses in this area have long known that Julian is no stranger to either foolish words or boneheaded actions, which, individually and collectively, have made helped make this ocean-side city a longtime running joke among well-informed and politically-active South Florida residents and members of the local news media.

Bill Julian is no stranger to unethical actions that have cast large doubts on his core competency, ability to process basic information, or use and demonstrate critical judgment.
In short, his basic fitness for office.
The least we should be able to expect from a public official.

The local press corps has told me as much, which explains why so often stories of more than some public interest that happen here that would in ordinary times be covered on local Miami TV newscasts if they happened in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Palmetto Bay or Pembroke Pines, but are ignored because they occur here. 
For their part, the reporters take the point of view that things happen in Hallandale Beach -and are not covered adequately- because "that's just Hallandale Beach being Hallandale Beach."
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that sentiment or one similar to it said to me in person or via email or phone call, I'd have quite a tidy sum to invest.

 Read the rest of this post at:
August 29, 2016 #SoFL #ethics - Proving that the past is prologue, yet again, here comes ethically-challenged Commissioner Bill Julian to once again personally make Hallandale Beach a laughingstock. But this time, a NATIONAL laughingstock. Surprise! It involves votes on real estate development and favors in return. Here's the latest on the matter, along with a stark reminder of Bill Julian's previous unethical actions
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/sofl-ethics-proving-that-past-is.html

 October 27, 2012 Why would you even consider voting for such a despicable person as Bill Julian for the Hallandale Beach City Commission? Besides Julian's creepy habit while an elected official of illegally parking in Handicapped Parking spaces for YEARS, when you add his truly terrible judgment and penchant for saying and doing the wrong thing, why would you even consider giving him a voice in deciding this city's future?; @SandersHB
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-would-you-even-consider-voting-for.html

 October 29, 2010 So very creepy! Why does Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Bill Julian hate the physically disabled so much? His despicable track record tells the tale!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/so-very-creepy-why-does-hallandale.html

October 31, 2010 Stone-cold fact: Bill Julian, serial scofflaw, for years has parked in handicapped/access parking spaces so he can hang out at a beach bar for hours
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/stone-cold-fact-bill-julian-serial.html

Above and below, photos from last month's candidates forum at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center and moderated by the Sun-Sentinel's myopic Opinion Page editor Rosemary O'Hara, not one of my favorite persons by any stretch of the imagination.
It was SO embarrassing to anyone with even a passing familiarity to the facts and history of this city the past 15 years that I actually chose not to write about what was said and by whom because it could someday coome back to haunt the... guilty.

Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp anti-reform and transparency forces who dominated Hallandale Beach for well over a decade -Joy Cooper along with her rotating minions Dotty Ross, Bill Julian, Alex Lewy and Anthony Sanders- have long regarded the institution that resulted from Broward County voters's disgust with Broward's well-known pay-to-play political culture, the Office of the Broward Inspector General, as something to be ignored or treated like an unnecessary anachronism. 
Strict honesty and fidelity to the spirit as well as the letter of the law was regarded as ridiculous. There wasn't enough wiggle room for them to cut their deals.

Thru their words and actions they made clear that they saw rigid adherence to the new ethics rules as problematic because it made it difficult for them to plausibly argue that it lacked “nuance.”
And now, if Hallandale beach voters choose to reject Bill Julian for a third time and make Mike Butler a City Commissioner, they can throw dirt on the political careers of these people who have done so much harm to the city and its future.
Just do it! 




Dave 
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