An uncomfortable dynamic is forming over recent fatal shootings by Miami police, with the relatives of the victims and community activists who think the shootings are an outrage on one side and on the other, the police union whose president says they aren't "bad" shootings.
Smack in the middle is the new blue ribbon panel, which met Monday night for the first time, charged with trying to figure out how to stop the violence.
Four fatal shootings by Miami police in just six weeks. Is it coincidence? Has something changed in the Miami police department? Do police and the black community need more communication?
Trying to figure that out is the job of this new blue ribbon panel.
"It's hard. It's difficult,” Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado told the panel. “You will be criticized, of course, because we can't please everyone."
But already, outspoken panel member Marvin Dunn, who for years has told police they need to do more “community policing” by getting out of their patrol cars and get to know the neighborhoods, says Miami police are clamming up over one fatal shooting.
"I don't get this,” he said. “Two people involved, one is dead. Why can't we find out what happened? Why is it taking weeks and weeks and weeks to find out what happened?"
Outside of the meeting, relatives of the shooting victims were skeptical of this whole process.
"They should have started this a long time ago,” said the sister of one of the victims. “They had to wait for several people to die to realize that something is truly going on in this community."
Miami police, though their union leadership, say as they crack down on crime, it leads police into more dangerous encounters.
“So I don’t think there's been any problems with any of these shootings,” declared Miami Police Union President Armando Aguilar. “Has the police been more tense when they go out there in some of these areas? Absolutely, because there has been so many shootings prior to that. So they're on a state of alert, to any type of danger that could be out there for them."
The Miami police department has faced the issue of frequent gunfire before. When former Police Chief John Timoney came into the job, he ordered changes and the shooting stopped cold.
The panel meets again next month.
