Is Miami Gardens The Nation's Stop and Frisk Capital?

If you’re a black man driving through Florida, steer clear of Miami Gardens. Lawyers call it the stop- and-frisk capital of America.

And they’re probably right.

Between 2008 and 2013, Miami Gardens police officers questioned an astounding 56,922 people who were not arrested. There were 99,980 total stops that did not lead to arrests, and 250 individuals were stopped more than 20 times, according to the TV network Fusion, which exposed racist “stop and frisk” tactics by the Miami Gardens Police Department during its six-month investigation.

The irony of this is that Miami Gardens, a suburb about a half-hour drive from Miami is a brand new city that was incorporated in 2003 to unite the mostly Black and Caribbean populations of various regions in the vicinity. It’s only on its second mayor.

In the city of 110,000 residents that has the largest Black population of any in Florida, police have stopped 8,489 kids and 1,775 senior citizens – one of whom was 99 years old. One Miami Gardens police officer told Fusion that his supervisor ordered him to stop all black males between the ages of 15 and 30.That racially-charged command led to one black man being stopped more than 250 times for no apparent reason.

But apparently Miami Gardens police officers target black folks regardless of age. Officers once wrote a report identifying a five-year-old child as a ‘suspicious person,’ ”according to Fusion.

A five-year-old child?

Really?

“The result is that you have a majority black population that are all being subjected to very heavy-handed police tactics that result in a public record being created either of them being stopped or them being arrested,” Miami Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez told Fusion. “I don’t know anywhere else in the country where that’s happening.”

COMMENTARY: Is Miami Gardens The Stop and Frisk Capital of America?  was originally published on ioneblackamericaweb.staging.go.ione.nyc

Some lawyers have suggested that the FBI investigate the Miami Gardens police department. It’s a good idea. There is more than enough evidence to warrant a federal probe.

Earl Sampson can’t walk the streets of Miami Gardens, Florida – or even sleep in his own bed – without being harassed by the city’s overzealous police officers who are systematically targeting black men. Sampson, 28, has been stopped, questioned, and searched by Miami Gardens police more than 250 times in the last four years.

He has been arrested 62 times for trespassing at the Quickstop convenience store –where he works.

The situation has gotten so dire that Quickstop store owner Alex Saleh filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Miami Gardens police department on Sampson’s behalf, gave Sampson a bedroom in the back of the store to protect him from police, and installed video surveillance cameras to videotape police harassing Sampson.

And there’s more.

“In 2010, a young black man was stopped and questioned by police on the streets of Miami Gardens, Florida,” Fusion reported. “According to the report filled out by the officer, he was “wearing gray sweatpants, a red hoodie and black gloves” giving the police “just cause” to question him. In the report, he was labeled a ‘suspicious person.’ He was an 11-year-old boy on his way to football practice.”

So Miami Gardens police have been exposed by the media for an outrageous racial profiling operation and possible civil rights violations. Now what? The new police chief, Stephen Johnson, is Black. Johnson took over as chief in May so none of the racial profiling and alleged civil rights violations happened on his watch. But how Johnson handles this situation moving forward is critical.

What will Johnson say to black men like Denzel Flowers, a 15-year-old who has been stopped 27 times, often in his neighborhood park in the middle of the day?

“We were all chillin’ in the park,” Flowers, who is now 20, told Fusion. “The police stopped everybody. Told us don’t move and ran everybody’s names.” Flowers has been stopped 27 times and arrested four times – but never convicted of a crime.

“I couldn’t leave my house without being in fear,” Flowers said.

Chief Johnson is only the second police chief of Miami Gardens. Last month, at his first Miami Gardens City Council meeting, Johnson gave out his cell phone number so residents can call him with concerns. He asked, however, that residents not call past 12:30 a.m.

“I would like to become more accessible for the community,” Johnson said. “I want to be out there. I want my command staff to be with me.”

Being accessible to the community is important, but eradicating racial profiling, ending racist stop-and-frisk tactics, and stopping his officers from unnecessarily harassing innocent Black citizens should be Johnson’s first priority.

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COMMENTARY: Is Miami Gardens The Stop and Frisk Capital of America?  was originally published on ioneblackamericaweb.staging.go.ione.nyc