No hurricanes hit South Florida in the late 1980's but something arguably much more destructive slammed into our streets: crack cocaine.
Local police struggled to keep up with the dealers, violence skyrocketed, and practically everyday, drug busts were in the news.
"When crack hit Broward County it was out of control, we would not only arrest the dealers, we went after the buyers, too. We were hitting it from both sides, and we were still losing the war on crack," said retired Broward Sheriff's Captain Ron Cacciatore.
Into the maelstrom stepped a nationally known television showman, determined to show the country what was happening: Geraldo Rivera.
"Down in Broward County, [former sheriff] Nick Navarro was aggressively fighting a really bad epidemic of drug use, drug cowboys, drug corruption; as bad as it may be today it was a hundred times worse then," said Rivera in a satellite interview with NBC Miami.
Rivera is now host of "Geraldo at Large" on Fox News. Back in 1986, he was known for trying to break new ground with live television specials. Rivera and his producer, John Langley, approached BSO with an idea: let us go along on a drug bust, and we'll broadcast it live, nationwide, as it happens.
"Everybody was doing cocaine, almost, it seemed, in South Florida so that was an ideal place for us to go," Langley said.
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"Sheriff Navarro was the first law enforcement official to trust us, so in retrospect, we had an amazing team team that meshed law enforcement with media to bring harsh reality, the grim story of the drug epidemic, to the viewers," said Rivera.
The show went on the air on Dec. 2, 1986. BSO picked a target in Pompano Beach, a house from which they were sure cocaine was being dealt. Millions of people around the nation tuned into Fox that night to watch. Even the bad guys inside the house were watching, so imagine their shock when they realized they were the targets of the first live, televised drug bust!
"There was no editing, there were no retakes," Rivera said. "It was like the wild west, we didn't know where it was going to go or end up, thankfully no one got hurt and justice was done."
Current NBC Miami photojournalist Pedro Cancio was the cameraman who rushed up to the door, right behind the deputies, and brought the action to the nation.
"It was exciting because it was live and you couldn't make a mistake, we were pumped," says Cancio.
The bust itself netted two arrests, several guns, and a large amount of cocaine and money. It was all part of the show called "American Vice: the Doping of a Nation". Critics savaged the show and BSO for mixing law enforcement with entertainment. Navarro defended his decision to participate in the show.
"This was something that we needed to get across to the entire nation and this was our first opportunity," said the late sheriff at the time.
As part of the show, BSO even let Rivera take part in a sting operation in which Rivera actually sold cocaine to a couple of men in a hotel room. It was wired with hidden cameras, and real cops rushed in to arrest the bad guys as soon as the deal was done.
"I burst into the room with my gun and said you just sold cocaine to Geraldo Rivera!," said Cacciatore.
Rivera is still proud of that two-hour special, and takes issue with his critics.
"They suggested that we were in some ways sensationalizing what was happening out there, but I think time has really been a fair arbiter of the work we did," Rivera told NBC Miami.
So what happened to the people arrested in the live bust and in Rivera's sting operation? Four arrests, four convictions. The two men busted in the sting were convicted with Rivera's help, because he testified in court. In the live bust, a former Bahamian police officer, Nelson Scott, served 12 years in Florida prisons and is now in federal prison on unrelated drug charges. Scott's former wife, Minnie Jackson, also served prison time, and currently lives in Orlando. She told NBC Miami she's writing a book about her experiences.
Both Scott and Jackson are footnotes in the creation of reality television. Langley was inspired to create the show "Cops", which he still produces. "Cops" sparked a flood of immitators and ultimately, the entire reality show industry.
"While I don't want to take credit for the housewives of Beverly Hills or Kim Kardashian's exploits," Rivera says, "I think it can be fairly sugested that reality was pioneered back in the days of American Vice."
