Elected officials in Miami-Dade seem to habitually harass journalists on a regular basis. It’s like a virus or something.
And it’s spreading.
From Hialeah’s Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez having me followed by police and throwing me out of public meetings to newly elected Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine deciding who is a journalist and who is not to, now, Sweetwater Commissioner Isolina Maroño, who apparently called the cops on a TV reporter doing her job and asking the right questions.
But what can you expect from the mother of former Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño, who was arrested in August on federal bribery charges and faces jail time for willingly taking part in a scheme where he greased the wheels for bogus grant applications in exchange for $40,000 in kickbacks.
Actually, we have to expect better. And by we, I mean you, the other elected officials and political world people who know better. You know who you are. You look the other way when you should speak up or smile for the photo ops with these known abusers days after you say how brave or fair you think the journalist is and how stupid Levine is or how cowardly Castro can be.
Oh, hell, I’m just going to say it. You are people like Sen. Rene Garcia (R-Hialeah), Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco, even mild-mannered schoolteacher and Miami-Dade Commission Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa and, last but certainly not least, Our “Golden Boy” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. And you will all have to forgive me for singling you out, because you are in good and ample company. But Ladra has simply had it up to here with what is, at best, your lack of leadership when it comes to protection of your constituents’ right to a free press or, at worst, brazen two-facedness.
You have the potential to be really good leaders. You are already there. You just have to lead. And that includes setting a no tolerance standard for violence — verbally, physically or through abuse of their elected authority — toward journalists in Miami-Dade. Because when your colleagues threaten and intimidate the media, they are trying to silence the media. And this isn’t Cuba or Venezuela or Colombia.
Don’t do it for Ladra. Do it for every journalist who has ever been offended or insulted or, yes, a little afraid for her safety simply for trying to get to the truth. Do it for former Miami Herald reporter Bonnie Weston, who was once spat on twice by former Miami Beach commissioner Abe Hirschfeld at a public event. Do it for photographer Carlos Miller, who has been arrested three times — by Miami, Miami Beach and Miami-Dade Police — for taking photos or video as he is constitutionally allowed to do, evidenced by the fact that he is never convicted. Do it for Al Crespo, whose character is maligned each time Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado needs to deflect attention from something, as if the blogger’s past has anything to do with your behavior or decisions, Mr. Mayor. Do it today for Channel 41 AmericaTeve’s Erika Carillo, a dogged investigative reporter who was asking questions about a program (read: scam) where monies from the Sweetwater senior center, run by the suspended Mayor Maroño’s wife, were used to buy two 2014 Chevrolet Tahoe trucks for city employees in other departments, one of whom is also the couple’s goddaughter.
Nooooo, not in Sweetwater! Not where the first family’s tow company is being investigated for fraudulently seizing cars and wads of cash may have disappeared from a secret stash, er, I mean police evidence locker nobody knew about! Nah!
Naturally, Maroño called the cops on Carillo. Maybe she liked the reporter’s car and wanted to get it towed.
Ladra is sure that Erika — who is not afraid of Maroño because she’s taken on Castro Hernandez at times — asked some uncomfortable questions. But they are relevant and fair and, most importantly, constitutionally protected questions. When another reporter called Maroño after she complained to the station, the commissioner said “I don’t know how you dare call me.”
We dare because you are a public, elected official who is pretty much expected to answer relevant questions that reporters ask in this country. It isn’t like in yours, where the only good journalists were “either paid off or just offed” as you once told another TV reporter in a voice mail message.
It would almost seem as if these electeds forgot that they were put there to protect us. They need to be reminded that our government, our country, was built, sorta, not on the first amendment but for the first amendment. For freedom. And the fourth estate was protected by our forefathers because it guarantees democracy. I promise you that wherever you have a seasoned investigative journalist or a pesky gadfly blogger or someone who is both those things bothering electeds with uncomfortable questions, you have a government with more transparency and fewer transgressions.
Everyone should “dare” to call Commissioner Maroño at 305-485-4524 or at her personal number, 305-226-8575 (I think that’s her home number) or at 305-794-4646, which I believe is her cellphone, and remind her of this.
Ladra did. After I introduced myself, Maroño — who, as I have written before, dominates the absentee ballot operation in Sweetwater — – asked me “Why should I talk to you” and said I always put words in her mouth. I don’t, by the way. I don’t want to and I don’t have to. But I guess I am one of those members of the press who are better off bought or buried.
She said she never went to the TV station to stop the story. She went, she said, “to tell the news director that Erika Carrillo is knowingly putting false information into her report.
“She accused my daughter-in-law of stealing money from the senior center when she does not administer those funds,” Maroño said, not realizing that since her former son was the mayor, it really doesn’t matter who pushed the send button on the purchase.
“She said she found the horse,” Maroño said, referring to a police horse that was presumably missing and later found. “That is not true. Everyone knew where the horse was. We had an email from the man saying, ‘Come pick up your horse.'”
About the missing money from the evidence locker and the police investigation into that… well, Maroño says that is a misunderstanding also. “There is an inventory of what is in that room,” she said.
“I have nothing against Erika. She has been to my house. But she put false information into her report. Knowing it was false, she put the information in her report,” the commissioner said. “Some police officers are giving her false information and the mayor doesn’t stop it because he doesn’t care if the city is dragged through the mud.”
I highly doubt that Carrillo, who Ladra worked with on absentee ballot fraud investigations in Hialeah, is knowingly airing false information.
“Are you saying Erika is unethical? Please understand how I may have doubt, Commissioner, you started this conversation saying that I always misquote you. Is it always the press and never you?”
That sorta ended the conversation.
“Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye,” she said, maybe a few more times, and then hung up on me.
But maybe, dear reader, you will have more luck.
I urge people like Carlos Gimenez or State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, who Maroño helped elect in 2012 with her AB operation, or Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, even — people who she will listen to more than Ladra — to call the commissioner and talk some sense into her. She won’t be able to say no to you, Mario.
And I challenge the local authorities, maybe Gimenez or, better yet, the State Attorney’s Office or the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, to look into creating some kind of mandatory oath to abide by the constitution of the United States and respect first amendment rights before anyone can file to run for office. Punishable by removal from the seat should they break their vow. Or really hefty fines, at least, like the ones levied against candidates who malign one another.
And I challenge the local media to come together in defense of Erika and everyone and make them do it.
Hey, maybe this is a project for the Miami-Dade League of Cities.
It’s time to take the Banana Republic back. This is America, whether some of our electeds like it or not.
Because it’s a slippery slope, folks. I’ve been saying it for a while. But then we go back to our business and forget that the first amendment is being violated on a regular basis by Miami-Dade politicians.
And, so, the virus spreads.
Manny Maroño’ mama: latest 305 elected to harass the press added by Ladra on
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