Sunday, February 13, 2011

Police shootings in Miami

After the seventh deadly shooting in the past year involving Miami police, community leaders are calling for a federal investigation of the police department. . . .

Travis McNeil and Kareem Williams spent Thursday night tossing back drinks at Little River’s Take One Cocktail Lounge, an establishment of notorious repute where only a few weeks earlier a North Miami Beach police officer shot and wounded a man.

About an hour before midnight the two drove away and were followed by Miami police officers. A few minutes later, McNeil was shot dead, the seventh black man killed by a police bullet in Miami’s inner city during the past year.

. . . The shooting brought instant criticism from Miami Commissioner Richard P. Dunn II, an Exposito critic who has campaigned for the chief’s removal. It also drew the ire of the local chapter of the NAACP.

. . . Bishop Victor Curry, president of the Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP, said he has calls in to U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson and NAACP National President Benjamin Todd Jealous. He’s asking Wilson to write a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate, and would like the national NAACP to do the same. Curry said he’s also going to contact the state’s attorney general. He’s planning a press conference for Tuesday.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/11/2061599_p2/police-involved-shooting-leaves.html

Of course, none of the local "community leaders" mention the inconvenient truth:
McNeil boasted a criminal history that included 36 arrests since 1995, records show. In 2007, he was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison for fleeing and eluding police and selling cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school.

He was released in February 2008, but by August of that year, his probation was revoked when he was arrested for driving with a suspended license as a habitual traffic offender. McNeil served another 364 days in county jail.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/11/2061599_p2/police-involved-shooting-leaves.html

This shooting didn't involve a solid citizen on his way home from work.

This shooting involved a habitual repeat offender.

How do all these "community leaders" think life ends for a man with 36 arrests and several prison stays in 15 years?

The "community" would be better served if the "community leaders" stopped protesting tough law enforcement and started protesting crime incubators in the "community", such as the bar where these shootings occur.

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