Miami Police Chief under political fire for selfies, ‘Cuban mafia’ comment

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Art Acevedo’s brash style choca con los comisionados, days are numbered

There is so much to say about Miami’s new police chief that City Commissioner Joe Carollo wants to have a whole special meeting just about him.

Chief Art Acevedo was under fire even before he made that “Cuban Mafia” comment at roll call that got him into hot water last week. Acevedo apologized, issuing a statement through the department that blamed his cultural ignorance on what he told Ladra was a reference to diversity.

“I was talking about the department tongue in cheek,” Acevedo told Ladra. “I wasn’t talking about the city or the community or anything else. I was talking about the department and the need to be more inclusive.”

He said that he was raised in California and had never heard the reference as something the Castro regime said about the Cuban exile community, which he is a proud member of — his father was a political prisoner — and that he got a “history lesson” from Reyes.

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But, apparently, apologies are not enough for Carollo, who had a discussion item on the police chief for Monday’s meeting, but then said he’d rather discuss just the chief’s behavior at a meeting that was eventually scheduled for Sept. 27.

Not that he waited.

Crazy Joe went on a tear about the chief in a preview of what that meeting might look like.

“I have come to my limit. I am not part of a Cuban Mafia,” Carollo said — even though moments later he warned the chief that he was raised in Chicago, so that’s, like, sending mixed messages.

“I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a new transplant come here and do whatever he wants to do and say and act like he has no bosses here,” Carollo said. “Each one of us has been elected. Each one of us has roots, very deep roots in this community.”

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Part of their issue with Acevedo is the low morale that has followed the firing of several veteran officers and the suspension of officer Luis Camacho, a sergeant at arms relieved of duty after someone leaked photos of Mayor Francis Suarez on vacay in Key West, where he was apparently working as the mayor’s bodyguard.

“The police chief is even trying to get others to agree to this officer getting arrested. They want to open up Pandora’s box and it’s going to be the biggest mistake they ever made,” Carollo said.

It’s pretty likely that there could be a vote of no confidence in the chief at that special meeting, which would be a de facto instruction to the city manager to fire Acevedo, which would also be a slap in the face to Suarez, who paraded the chief around like he was the Michael Jordan of cops.

Suarez, by the way, was sorta silent on the whole discussion on the chief.

“I want every officer to understand you don’t have to live in fear any longer,” Carollo said. “If this has to come to whatever it has to come to, so be it. Our assistant police chiefs, including the one he fired, are better than him.”

Ladra wonders if Acevedo is going to wait to get fired or if he’s going to bolt. It was odd to watch him put up with the browbeating Monday. But, then again, he knows it’s been coming since he first parachuted into Miami in April.

Acevedo, a Cuban American who was plucked from the Houston police department by the mayor, came out of the blue and whacked the commissioners in the head when he was hired. After all, they were interviewing possible replacements and thought they would have a hand in the selection after Chief Jorge Colina retired somewhat early. Acevedo, a national figure who was also president of the chiefs association, never really applied for the job. He simply got it after talking to Mayor Suarez and City Manager Art Noriega.

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Commissioner Manolo Reyes has tried to get a referendum on the ballot that would create a process by which a committee makes a shortlist recommendation to the manager who makes the ultimate choice. That was vetoed by Suarez and there’s no time to override that veto for this upcoming election Nov. 2. Baby X is getting good advice these days.

Meanwhile, Acevedo has been the proverbial bull in the china shop, firing a bunch of lackeys, taking a big step into the public limelight and then, drumroll please, saying something about the Cuban Mafia.

Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who had voted against the referendum — said it was hard to believe that Acevedo didn’t know what he was saying and that, if so, his insensitivity is part of the problem.

“Almost every Cuban is born knowing that.”

Carollo asked Noriega to “give a solemn word to keep the status quo and no massacres, no firing people for no reason” until the meeting to discuss Acevedo. He wants the city manager to ensure “police chief do what he is supposed to be doing and not spend a substantial amount of time doing interviews, not be out there in every event, taking selfies.

“And this constant firing … stop until we can come back.”

  Art Acevedo, Joe Carollo, Miami politics