Coming soon to a mailbox near you: Chaos at the Copa.
It didn’t take very long for Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid, who is running for Miami-Dade mayor against La Alcaldesa Daniella Levine Cava, to blast the incumbent for the lack of planning for security measures at the Hard Rock Stadium Sunday.
“Miami-Dade & Daniella Levine Cava weren’t ready for Copa America,” Cid posted on X, formerly Twitter, just before 9 p.m. — even before the delayed game had started. He included internet photos of attendees who had rushed the gates and some who had been kept behind even with tickets.
“How are we supposed to trust them with the World Cup? Leadership matters, and Levine Cava is too busy traveling the world and dancing at Galas. We’ll change that in August when we make a Miami-Dade that works for ALL of us.”
Former Miami Commissioner Joe Sanchez, who is running for sheriff in the GOP primary to challenge the presumptive Democratic choice, James Reyes, said that Reyes should either resign or step down and take a leave of absence while he campaigns, which has been a Sanchez staple during his campaign.
“The scenes at Hard Rock Stadium tonight are chaotic and embarrassing to our community,” Sanchez said in his statement, in which he called on Levine Cava to ask Reyes to take a leave of absence or his resignation, “so that a competent officer can take over that important role and focus their time and energy on keeping our community safe and not pretending to be a politician.
“This very dangerous situation is a result of lack of leadership and strategic planning. It’s clear that having a Director of Public Safety spending most of his time campaigning, instead of focusing on the safety of the residents of Miami-Dade, our visitors and the men and women of our law enforcement agencies, is backfiring on our community.”
Read related: KFHA forum for Miami-Dade sheriff candidates helps narrow down the field
The message might backfire on him. The James Reyes team issued their own response, again hanging the Marlins Stadium debacle albatross around Trooper Joe’s neck.
“It’s richly ironic that the deciding vote in the disastrous stadium deal that fleeced taxpayers is politicizing public safety when he still owes Miami-Dade voters an apology for his reckless vote record,” tweeted Kayla vanWieringen, senior advisor to the Reyes campaign.
But former Miami-Dade Police Maj. Ignacio “Iggy” Alvarez, who is running for Miami-Dade sheriff, also used the Copa mess to blast Reyes, the presumptive Democrat choice for the new constitutional position, approved by voters in 2018.
“The security disaster we witnessed last night at the Copa America finals is a glaring example of why we need a qualified leader to head the sheriff’s office from Day One,” he wrote in a post on social media. “This lapse in security, coming just 24 hours after the attempted assassination of President Trump, is inexcusable. The current mayor, who acts a the defacto sheriff, and her chief of public safety, James Reyes, failed to property plan for this event, putting 60,000+ attendees at risk.”
But Alvarez also took the opportunity to ding Sánchez, considered by many the frontrunner in the crowded Republican field.
“Trooper Joe Sanchez, who has spent his career writing tickets, lacks the necessary experience and leadership to provide a qualified opinion on such critical matters,” he statement said. “It is not enough to speculate about what one would do ‘if’ in office; we need someone who has the proven capability and experience to lead effectively.”
Read related: ‘Anyone but Joe’ is the mantra among Miami-Dade Sheriff GOP candidates
In a statement phrased similar to Reyes’, Levine Cava’s campaign spokesperson, Claire VanSusteren also called Cid’s comments “reckless political attacks.”
“Manny Cid’s opportunism knows no bounds, turning his back on residents while the mayor focused on public safety measures to restore public order after tens of thousands of unticketed individuals rushed the gate and fought officers working to keep fans safe,” the statement from VanSusteren reads. “An attack on the mayor this evening is an attack on the law enforcement officers who are working tirelessly to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all those at the game.”
Then she gratuitously adds “This is yet another example of why voters in Miami Lakes have decidedly rejected Manny Cid’s reckless leadership and Miami-Dade residents will join him in rejecting him again this August.”
She was referring to Cid’s failed bond referendum for Optimist Park in 2022 that would have raised $19.5 million in property taxes — which almost 60% of voters defeated.
Well, Ladra doesn’t know about that. Cid could be a real threat to DLC for many reasons — the chaos at the Copa being just the latest. And both La Alcaldesa — who hosted a watching party with Sen. Annette Taddeo and a few hundreds fans at a campaign event at the Trail Theater — and the chief have to do better than the joint statement that he and Levine Cava issued late Sunday, distancing themselves from responsibility.
“We are outraged by the unprecedented events at tonight’s Copa America finals. The Copa America final is organized by CONMEBOL, and Miami-Dade Police Department provides security support, along with other law enforcement agencies,” the joint statement reads. “Tonight, MDPD assigned over 550 officers, including our Priority Response Team, to the stadium ad is using all possible resources to continue and ensure a safe experience for all attendees.”
But, a day earlier, the county had sent 45 officers from the Rapid Response Team (is that the same thing?) to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, which seems like short shrift in light of the reported assassination attempt on former president and presumed nominee Donald Trump.
Could 45 experienced officers have made a difference?
Las malas lenguas say that it may have made a difference that this was the first such major event handled by the new MDPD Director Stephanie Daniels, who was named the head of the agency late last year. Assistant Director Edgardo Caneva of the MDPD’s Strategic Response Division was reportedly not in charge early on, but was called in after things were already out of control.
Read related: Ken Griffin gives half mil to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava
On Monday, Miami-Dade Commissioner JC Bermudez chimed in with his own critique. “Our recent failure to anticipate and manage a significant event has unfortunately put us on the international state for the wrong reasons,” he posted. “Watching these events unfold, it became clear that we could have done more.”
He has also requested a meeting with the mayor and Chairman Oliver Gilbert to go over the “security breach” and how to address the issues before the World Cup in two years.
Naturally, there’s a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking on the fútbol spectacle in light of Miami being host to some of the World Cup 2026 matches. The joint statement from the chief and the mayor indicates that they are aware of that.
“Let’s be clear: This situation should never have taken place and cannot happen again,” it reads. “We will work with stadium leadership to ensure that a full review of tonight’s events takes place immediately to evaluate the full chain of events, in order to put in place needed protocols and policies for all future games.”
The two frontrunners on the top of the local 2024 ballot are also clear on another thing: It’s going to become campaign fodder.
Chaos at the Copa America final = new fodder for Miami-Dade campaigns added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
