Police screw-ups, cultural shifts, government overreach — 2013 had it all. Here’s what stood out.
Bad cops
For years, some residents in Tampa have complained about over-zealous DUI cops. But the greater public might not have learned the extent of such nefarious behavior if it hadn’t broken out during the Bubba the Love Sponge v. Todd Schnitt trial last winter.
Surely you recall this sleazy affair. On the night of Jan. 23, TPD Sgt. Ray Fernandez, a supervisor with the department’s DUI unit, began madly texting back and forth with his pal, attorney Adam Filthaut, whose firm happened to be representing Schnitt in his trial with Clem. Filthaut was giving Fernandez the play-by-play of what was going on inside Malio’s — while another member of his firm, Melissa Personius, was plying Schnitt attorney Phil Campbell with drinks. The comely paralegal than asked Campbell to drive her home. Campbell attempted to do so, but was immediately pulled over by Fernandez and busted for a DUI. The shit ultimately hit the fan and the FBI began investigating what looked like an obvious set-up.
This is the same Ray Fernandez who, we later learned, had pulled over Cuban activist Al Fox for allegedly drinking while driving. The 70-year-old Fox passed a Breathalyzer test twice, blowing 0.00 both times. Yet he was still arrested for a DUI.
Ultimately Fox was freed, Fernandez was shit-canned by Chief Jane Castor, and Fox is suing the department. The Hillsborough County State Attorney’s office ultimately threw out 12 cases involving Fernandez, and is still winding its way through more than three dozen other cases where he was involved.
As outrageous as those actions were, they pale in comparison to what other police departments have been up to in the Sunshine State. For example:
The Tallahassee Police Department: In November we learned that Florida State quarterback (and ultimately Heisman Trophy winner) Jameis Winston was being investigated regarding an alleged sexual assault. No charges were brought against him. But what seemed highly questionable was the fact that the Tallahassee Police waited 10 months before testing Winston’s DNA and did not immediately begin interviewing key witnesses, creating the appearance that the police wanted to impede the accuser’s case.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Department: In late November the New York Times published a lengthy Sunday front-page story about the 2010 death of Michelle O’Connell, a St. Augustine woman who was killed with the gun of her then-boyfriend, Jeremy Banks, a St. John’s county deputy. O’Connell’s mother and sister told the Times that Banks was abusive and might have been responsible for her death. The story laid out a convincing case.
But State Attorney Brad King told the St. Augustine Record earlier this month that the case won’t be reopened “based on what the New York Times did. There has to be substantial probative evidence, not just different people’s opinions about the evidence.”
Sanford Police Department: On July 13, a six-member, all-woman jury declared George Zimmerman not guilty in the killing of Trayvon Martin. While the verdict was somewhat controversial, the Sanford Florida Police’s refusal to arrest Zimmerman for weeks after he shot and killed the 17-year-old teen in late February of 2012 was the real catalyst that caused people around the country to believe, legitimately or not, that race was a factor in the case.
After Zimmerman was acquitted of murder, The Daily Show’s Jon Oliver labeled Florida “The Worst State” and quipped, “Just because you’re shaped like some combination of a gun and a dick doesn’t mean you have to act that way.”
Florida enters the 21st century on LGBT issues
Although elements of Florida’s law enforcement may be stuck in an endless rerun of In the Heat of the Night, social progress is on the upswing in other spheres, none bigger in 2013 than the gay rights movement. To wit:
• A Public Religion Research poll showed that 54 percent of voters support marriage for gay couples in Florida, and Florida LGBT activists are debating whether to work for a repeal of the state’s law banning same-sex marriage in 2014, or to wait for 2016 and a more progressive-friendly electorate. But the state may not be quite ready to pass such a measure, which would require 60 percent support. Nadine Smith of Equality Florida says that instead of going to a ballot measure, there’s a chance that a potential lawsuit might be filed in 2014 to force the issue.
• A year ago the first openly gay members of the Florida House were elected: Joe Saunders from Orlando and David Richardson from Miami Beach. That’s “changed the tone in Tallahassee,” avers Equality Florida’s Smith, referring to the fact that for the first time ever, the “Families First” bill, which would allow domestic partnerships statewide, passed through its first committee with bipartisan support, though it went no further.
• And in St. Petersburg the two newest members of the City Council, Darden Rice and Amy Foster, happen to be lesbians, though that fact was barely noted at all during their respective campaigns for office.
Of course it would be inaccurate to say that gay rights have been fully embraced in Florida. Not when you have Hillsborough County being the only local government that refuses to create domestic partnership benefits for unmarried couples. Yes, the BOCC did repeal its odious 2005 law banning “gay pride” events. In Hillsborough, when it comes to LGBT issues, that’s progress.
St Pete’s transformation continues
Despite the fact that crime remains an issue in pockets of the city, poverty is still prevalent on the south side, and the Pier issue may continue to divide the body politic, no one can dispute that the town formerly known as “God’s Waiting Room” is having a very serious moment.
That was magnified by Rick Kriseman’s stunning 12-point mayoral victory in November over incumbent Bill Foster. Foster frustrated voters with his contradictory stances on some high-profile issues like the Pier and the Rays stadium. And he alienated the black community when he terminated Goliath Davis in early 2011 as his liaison to the south side, saying he’d replace him but never following through. But his administration wasn’t corrupt or incompetent. Foster boasted about $500 million in new development coming online in the coming year, and the arts community continued to be nationally recognized. Yet he lost by 12 points. That’s almost unheard of under the circumstances.
Perhaps the body politic simply outgrew him, with Kriseman being the conduit for a more dynamic (we won’t say hip — not yet) city. And so far the 51-year-old former City Councilman and state legislator seems to be making all the right moves during the transition. He won plaudits in naming former Bayfront Health System executive Kanika Tomalin to be his deputy mayor, with an emphasis on citywide issues. He then followed up by naming architect Andy Hayes and Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich to head his transition team, and appointed a 44-person transition squad to look at issues like transportation, economic development, the arts, and the Rays, among other items.
St. Petersburg also is home to the People’s Budget Review, a coalition of progressive groups that combs through the city’s budget to find responsible ways to move funds around. This fall they called for the city to find $300,000 for after-school programs for youth unemployment, the homeless and other neighborhood improvement programs.
The Cuban disconnect
The hysteria in some quarters over President Obama’s handshake with Raoul Castro at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service illustrates how a segment of our national leaders (and people in Miami) are in no way prepared for a rapprochement with Cuba.
That stands in contrast to the movement taking place in Tampa over the past year to reestablish relations with the Cuban government. Tampa’s historic ties with Cuba go back to the mid-19th century and the cigar factories, as well as supporting the revolution that freed Cuba from Spain. With the third highest concentration of Cuban-Americans in the country, there is an emotional cord tying the Cigar City and the People’s Republic.
So it was considered a major deal when Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor came back from a visit to Cuba this spring and declared that it was time to end the economic sanctions. “I don’t meet anyone anymore, here or wherever I go, who [believes] that the restriction on trade and travel makes sense,” she told a cheering crowd at Tampa’s Mise en Place in March.
The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce also made its maiden voyage to Cuba, and Chairman Bob Rohrlack discussed the possibilities of re-instituting an economic relationship with Cuba. And there are now regular plane flights to Havana from Tampa International.
But it will be up to President Obama and Congress to end the sanctions.
At a conference on Cuban-American relations hosted by Al Fox this past spring, an all-star cast of Cuba experts met in Ybor City to talk about that prospect, but even there the euphoria was muted.
Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, acknowledged that a change in Cuban policy was not a priority with the Obama administration and accused the president of lacking “moral courage” when it came to ending the sanctions.
Technically, normalizing relations with Cuba would require Congress to repeal the Helms-Burton Law created in 1996. For that to happen, the Cuban government would need to legalize all political activity; release all political prisoners and international inspections of Cuban prisons; and abolish the Ministry of Interior, its State Security branch and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. The law also requires a commitment to holding free, fair and internationally supervised elections within 18 months after the transition government assumes power, with the participation of multiple political powers and free access to the mass media.
Although there was maybe more to the president’s handshake with Raoul Castro than mere courtesy, it remains questionable whether our policy will change on this issue in 2014.
Concerns over our personal freedoms
Although he was edged out by Pope Francis as Time’s Person of the Year, make no mistake that Edward Snowden’s revelations that the National Security Agency spies on Americans and foreign leaders will continue to create reverberations throughout the next year.
While some liberals have expressed little concern (not sure that would have been the case had the revelations occurred during George W. Bush’s tenure), there are many Americans who feel otherwise, and both the White House and Google get it. Eight different technology companies, including Yahoo, Google and Apple, issued a statement in early December saying, “The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual.”
A week later a presidential task force drafted recommendations calling for a sweeping overhaul of the NSA.
People in Tampa care about it. Although major protests in the summertime (or really anytime) are a rare thing, close to 150 people marched in downtown on the 4th of July this year to protest NSA surveillance. And last week, for the first time, a federal judge called out the NSA for exceeding its constitutionality in systematically gathering the telephone records of Americans.
This article appears in Dec 26, 2013 – Jan 1, 2014.