Hialeah Police arrest candidate Milly Herrera handing out flyers

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Milly Herrera, a candidate for the Hialeah City Commission, thought she was just campaigning like every other candidate in the U.S.A. Thursday when she stopped by Villa Aida, a senior living facility near City Hall, to hand out campaign flyers.

She found herself under arrest by Hialeah Police — likely under orders by Mayor Carlos Hernandez — handcuffed and carted off to jail between 3 and 4 p.m. for trespassing. No promise to appear for her. Yes to a booking photo and bond.

According to her brother, veteran government attorney Jose “Pepe” Herrera, his sister — who had reported days ago to Univision that she had been followed by police — had an appointment to campaign at the senior housing center (read: absentee ballot dispensary), at 20 W. 6th St., earlier in the afternoon.

“She had permission to be there. Someone told her that her time was up and she went outside. She was talking to people outside when a police officer came up and asked her for ID,” said Herrera, whose license has been suspended and is not acting as her attorney. She was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest without violence after refusing to provide her ID, he added.

Read related: Hialeah’s Carlos Hernandez aims to stack a new Seguro Que Yes slate

But this would not have happened had she been one of the new Seguro Que Yes crop of candidates on the mayor’s slate. See? Herrera, an activist who was among those who fought for the saving of historic Hialeah Park, is running in a four way race for an open seat against Jackie Garcia-Roves, who is Mayor Hernandez’s handpicked choice.

As importantly, Herrera is also an activist that has been critical of the cuts to firefighters salaries (more on that later). Her tactics and messages have resonated with residents and she is a real threat to Garcia-Roves, so she is a real threat to Hernandez.

Make no mistake: This was a message meant to slow her roll.

The candidate’s nephew was at TGK when Herrera was booked and said that the arresting officer picked up her phone when it rang. He told someone on the other end that he had no choice but to arrest her, that he had to follow orders.

“It was a directed arrest,” said Jose-Trelles Herrera, also an attorney, who is representing his aunt.

“The internal polling numbers for candidate Jackie Garcia-Roves must be plummeting when her campaign directed by head thug Mayor Carlos Hernandez directs her opponent’s arrest!

“When your city is run by those who subscribe to the ideology of Nicholas Maduro, Fidel Castro and other third world dictators, what more could you expect,” Jose-Trelles Herrera said.

Ladra has requested the arrest form but will likely not get it until Friday. A source inside the city told Ladra, however, that it says she was told twice not to solicit outside the facility by the property administrator, a Mr. Lopez.

It also says that a commander named Yan Perez then came to the scene and demanded that Herrera provided her ID for an incident report that had to be written. She refused and was then arrested.

Read related: Abuse of power and police in Hialeah

But that’s not going to be the whole story, is it?

This needs to be investigated. That Hialeah Police officer who took her to TGK needs to be questioned under oath and Milly Herrera’s phone records must be documented. The FBI, the FDLE and the federal housing department all ought to open inquiries into this incident — because it is not isolated.

In fact, it is part of a pattern.

There are strict rules against campaigning on Hialeah Housing properties, rules that are complicated — like only between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m. and only if you are invited on the half moon — rules meant only for the challengers of the Seguro Que Yes council and their handpicked replacements. Rules meant to keep opposition at bay.

The mayor’s gang breaks them all the time.

Another candidate, Monica Perez, told a Univision reporter that the city seems to intentionally make it difficult to access voters for anyone who is not a supporter of Mayor Hernandez.

Hialeah is notorious for this. This is not the first time Hernandez plays fast and loose with candidate access to absentee voters. In fact, Ladra — who has herself been given illegal trespass  warnings and escorted from public spaces — witnessed some crazy shenanigans in the 2011 and 2013 elections including the expulsion of two anti-Hernandez candidates from the very same housing facility. Former Councilman Alex Morales and Housing Authority employee and former chief’s son Danny Bolanos were forced to leave while two Hernandez allies and Seguro Que Yes votes — Jose Caragol and  Pablitiquito “Huh” Gonzalez — were allowed to stay.

El Alcaldito has had his then goon and enforcer, Glen Rice, follow and harass critics and candidates with insults and cellphone video. He also had the former police chief and an Internal Affairs detective follow former Mayor Raul Martinez — who ran against him in 2011 — from housing building to housing building, taking notes.

“He wanted me arrested,” Martinez told Ladra late Thursday night, while Herrera was still getting out of jail. “They had drafted a warrant and referred me to the State Attorney’s Office, who laughed at it out loud.

“He’s a thug,” Martinez went on about Hernandez, who he likens to Maduro because they are both stupid and they both abuse their power. “But he’s going crazy. It’s the steroids.”

Hernandez almost had Ladra arrested also in 2011 for exposing his shenanigans, like the absentee ballot fraud throughout Hialeah Housing, retaliation against employees who supported his allies’ opponents and the campaign IHOP breakfast paid for by city funds. She escaped by the skin of her teeth.

Read related: Two candidates expelled by PAC man

But this might be the first time someone actually gets arrested.

It might also be the last. Herrera told Ladra he sent a text message to Sasha Tirador, the mayor’s consultant working on all the slate mates’ campaigns, to pass along to the responsible parties (read: Hernandez): “Whoever is responsible for this, I will go out of my way to make sure the FBI civil rights branch comes down like a ton of bricks on them.”

Tirador told Ladra that she did not know anything more about the arrest incident and that the mayor and his former chief of staff, who is still a lackey, Arnie Alonso, who chairs one of his political action committee, found out when she called them.

She also said that the rules do include making an appointment and having someone invite you to the building cafeteria, or comedor, to talk to groups of people. She’s had to do it for her own clients, she said.

“You are not allowed to go door to door,” Tirador said, adding that she did not know if that was what Herrera was doing.

“Either way, she should not have been arrested.”

Her family had to post her $2,000 bond so she did not have to sleep in jail Thursday night. And she left even more encouraged to win her election and bring balance and justice to Hialeah government.

“I’m just going to let a city behave this way with its residents and senior citizens? No,” Herrera said.

  Carlos Hernandez, Hialeah politics, Jackie Garcia-Roves, Milly Herrera