Police are still investigating the burglary at Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes‘ office at City Hall last week. Monday, someone tried to break into one of the commissioner’s Community Response Team trucks (he has two).
Most don’t think the two crimes are related. The commissioner’s office was ransacked, but nothing seems to have been stolen. The truck was not at City Hall. It was parked at the Coral Gate office. Sources say the video shows what looks like a homeless man, who likely wanted to steal a chainsaw and other tools from inside, try to pry the door open with a shovel.
So it’s just a bizarre coincidence? Not someone looking for something that Reyes has? Are these just acts of vandalism? It seems sorta persistent. Did someone break into the wrong office? Or could the truck break-in be a smokescreen to throw cops off the track in the office break-in?
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Some people think it was an inside job. And Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla is at the top of the suspect list. That’s because Reyes was critical when ADLP took over Ken Russell‘s old office (more on that later). So it was like a “take that.” Or maybe he just forgot which door was his after a liquid lunch? Or does anybody know where Jenny Nillo was at the time?
Maybe someone was trying to plant something in the commissioner’s office. Has anyone thought of that? Now that he seems to have officially resigned from the Three Amigos Club, ADLP and Commissioner Joe Carollo need something to incriminate him into voting with them.
Did Jorge Mas hire someone to get leverage on him for the Miami Freedom Park votes?
Police got fingerprints off the door, but who knows if they are the culprit’s.
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At least one good thing might come out of this: Cameras. There are no cameras outside the Miami commission offices because some electeds decided way back when that they didn’t want there to be evidence of the lobbyists and and special interests who visit.
Reyes, who doesn’t seem impressed by lobbyists and doesn’t have a deadbeat brother hanging off his coattails, wants to put cameras in. He is going to bring it up at Thursday’s city commission meeting. He is sponsoring a resolution that would have the police chief examine the current security measures used inside City Hall and provide an evaluation of the safety and security in the building, including access. He wants an updated security plan to “implement additional surveillance cameras to the exterior and interior of City Hall, at all entry and exit points, and integrate all cameras into the Miami Police Department’s real time crime center within 30 days.”
Ladra would like to add that they live stream it on the city’s website.
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This might be the first real test of the new commission with newly-elected Sabina Covo, who replaces Russell on the dais. Because you just know that ADLP and Carollo are going to be against this “invasion of privacy.” Crazy Joe doesn’t want anyone to see how many times former Commissioner Marc Sarnoff stops by, for example. Diaz de la Portilla doesn’t want people to see that his staff never shows up for work and his baby brother uses his office to raise funds.
So it will be up to Chairwoman Christine King and Covo — who ran on transparency, civility and ending the corruption — to support Reyes on the cameras. And they will — if they have nothing to hide.
Commissioner Manolo Reyes’ break-in could bring cameras to City Hall added by Ladra on
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