Jul 31, 2009 3:59 pm US/Eastern
DeFede: A Premature Gang Curtain Call
NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (CBS4) ―
The numbers appeared impressive. A fifteen month operation, resulting in 53 arrests breaking up the activities of eight violent street gangs in North Miami Beach.
It even had a cool sounding name: Operation Dead End.
At a press conference Friday, Rafael Hernandez Jr., the chief of the North Miami Beach Police Department, hailed the joint endeavor as a significant step in the battle against the gangs.
"It's going to be much better in the entire community," Hernandez said.
As a sign of just how big an operation this was, the chief was joined at the press conference by the Acting U.S. Attorney, Jeff Sloman, and the special Agent in Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in South Florida, Anthony Mangione. Also present were representatives of the Miami Dade Police Department, the Miami Dade State Attorney's Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Department of Corrections, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
But was this really a major blow to gangs in North Dade?
Looking more closely at the charges, it was obvious the chief was padding his stats. Included in those 53 individuals were two homeless guys, one of whom was arrested for public intoxication. Another of the defendants was detained for not having a valid driver's license. Seven were charged with simple trespassing. There were also individuals arrested for disorderly conduct and for resisting arrest without violence.
Several times during the press conference the chief talked about how violent the drugs gangs are and how their use of assault weapons, such as the AK-47, have led to innocent civilians being killed.
But it is worth noting that in the course of 15 months, police only recovered six guns, and none of them were assault weapons. Obviously, getting six handguns off the street is better than leaving them in the hands of accused drug dealers, but the notion that Operation Dead End made a significant dent in the gangs' ability to perpetrate violence is clearly overstating it.
The press release for the arrests said the operation made an "impact" on eight gangs. But when asked at the press conference what kind of impact, the chief wasn't able to say.
Naturally, if gang members are in jail they are not on the street selling crack, but were any of the gangs dismantled or significantly hurt? Is this a speed bump or an actual dead end for these gangs?
The police refused to identify the gangs by names, saying they didn't want to glorify them and help them recruit new members. As a result, the public has no way to independently verify the accuracy of the claims made by police. The police also wouldn't say the specific neighborhoods these gangs controlled.
Most of the names appeared to be Haitian and an ICE official told me afterward that at least three of the people arrested were now in the pipeline to be deported back to Haiti.
The most surreal moment of the press conference, however, came when the chief, with much fanfare, held up a photograph of a poster from the movie Scarface, which was hanging on the wall of one of the houses they raided.
The chief made a point of saying that it was Tony Montana – the Al Pacino character from the famous movie – that these gang members idolized and sought to emulate with their violent ways.
To which I told the chief: "Either that or they're just really big Pacino fans."
Not surprisingly, it was around this point in the conversation that Chief Hernandez called me "a smart ass."
The chief is right. I was being glib. But it came out of frustration with these sorts of dog-and-pony-show press conferences that appear designed to convey the sense that something more is happening than actually is.
For the better part of two decades, I have been reporting about gangs in South Florida and the havoc that they wreak on the community.
Three years ago, I stood alongside the spot where nine-year-old Sherdavia Jenkins was shot and killed, caught in the cross-fire of rival crack dealers.
Nine years before that I was sitting in the balcony of the Jordan Grove Missionary Baptist Church wiping away tears as I stared down at the tiny coffin of five-year-old Rickia Isaac, who was accidentally gunned down in a drive-by shooting while walking home from the Martin Luther King Day Parade in 1997.
In the past year mass shootings in Liberty City and Overtown have left four people dead and seventeen others injured.
Gangs are one of the most serious threats this community faces. And they deserve serious attention and not theatrics.
I would have rather seen the chief stand up there and say, "We took a small step today. We took down a few bad guys – none of them were major players – but it is a start. A lot more needs to be done."
Don't get me wrong, I am certain a lot of good will come out of these arrests. Thirteen of the 53 people arrested are facing federal drug charges. Anytime a drug case goes into federal court – with its stiff mandatory sentences – there is a strong possibility that some of those defendants will decide to cooperate with authorities. If that happens then these arrests could lead police and prosecutors up the ladder to the real leaders of the gangs.
The fight against gangs is a slow, Sisyphusian, slog. The men and women in the county's gang unit deserve credit; theirs is a dangerous task. And the community should be briefed on events. The public needs to know what the police are doing and the challenges they face.
But Friday's press conference didn't have the feel of street cops being thanked or of a community being talked to honestly; instead it felt like a bunch of bosses taking a bow on stage before the play is even over.
But hey, at least we got that dangerous Scarface poster off the streets.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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