UPDATED: Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and most of his family will not feel the pain that he wants to inflict on the rest of 
us in the county if and when he cuts 255 officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Gimenez lives on the edge of Coconut Grove, across the street from Coral Gables, at a home assessed at just over $1 million in market value. One of his sons — the one who got the job with the Arsht Center contractor after the mayor approved $4 million in repairs — lives in Little Havana in a gated community. Another, the lobbyist with two kids, lives in a $430,000 home on Minorca Avenue in Coral Gables. Only his daughter and her three sons live in the unincorporated area, in a very nice home in West Kendall — Ladra imagines covered by the Miami-Dade Police Hammocks District station, which is not slated to be shut down like the Midwest station is, but will be besieged with pass-the-buck burglary and child abuse cases that they won’t be able to handle.
At least the mayor and his two sons live in areas under the jurisdiction of the Miami and Coral Gables Police departments — which may actually benefit from the county’s forced police purge.
Officers with the least seniority at the Miami-Dade Police Department — already at least 250 men and women short, maybe more depending on who you ask — are already looking for jobs elsewhere. Hollywood and Plantation have already made their interest known, according to sources within the department. Coral Gables is a few officers short and could certainly save some academy and training costs by hiring cops who are already certified and have some experience. And Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff has said he wants to hire 100 of the county cops to cover the city.
That’s the city where Mayor Gimenez lives.
So the mayor’s response times will not suffer from his deplorable attempt to balance his welfare for millionaires budget on the backs of our police officers. They may actually improve. Most of his family will not be at an increased risk. He and his sons and two of five grandchildren will have no interruption or change to their police protection. There will be investigators to follow up on crimes in their neighborhoods.
He’s just screwing the rest of us who live in unincorporated Dade, or what is known as UMSA (for Unincorporated Municipal Services Area). Well, us and his poor daughter who must feel like the black sheep of the family.
What the mayor is proposing is not only illogical and irresponsible, because he would eliminate entire divisions. The division that investigates domestic violence, assisting a tremendously beleaguered DCF with child exploitation and elderly abuse cases? Gone. The tactical narcotics team known as the “jump out boys” because they stop street drug deals in action? Gone. The gang unit? Gone. (More on that later.)
But, hey, they don’t have that many gangs in Coral Gables, right? Or in the Hammocks, for that matter.
It’s also immoral, because the mayor gets to sit safe in his million dollar Miami home while the rest of us feel the impact of his spiteful decision.
Ladra has been told by several sources close to the negotiations that Gimenez doesn’t care if sufficient efficiencies (read: savings) are found to save jobs. He will find other priorities for any new found monies. Heads will roll because he told the commissioners that heads would roll if they restored the 5% the county had taken from workers under the guise of some “group health fund” when it was really to balance the budget on their backs. He doesn’t want to lose credibility again.
Related story: Miami-Dade Police cuts by Mayor Gimenez cause concern
And, after all, Mayor “Tainted Boy” Gimenez and most of his family have nothing to worry about or fear. He said on Jim DeFede’s Today in South Florida show on CBS4 that “there’s going to be pain.”
But not for him.
And Ladra can’t help but think the mayor might try harder to find the rest of the $27 million shortfall in the police department, to negotiate with the PBA in good faith, to work harder to keep the department whole, if it did hurt him or his loved ones the same as it will hurt the rest of us.
Miami-Dade Police cuts won’t hurt Carlos Gimenez & sons added by Ladra on
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