By Tyler Bridges. tbridges@herald.com. Published Friday, August 4, 2000, in the Miami Herald
The Miami Police Department's forceful response to street disturbances during the Elián González case earlier this year provoked widespread complaints of brutality, particularly among Cuban Americans.
But a special citizens' committee created to investigate the police reaction has attracted little public interest, with many of those invited to speak before the group not bothering to show up.
"Everybody was so exhausted that a lot of people wanted to put it behind them,'' said Ramón Saúl Sánchez, who as president of the Democracy Movement led protests against the federal government's effort to return Elián to Cuba. "The committee hasn't received
the attention it should.''
STAYED AWAY
Grisel Ybarra, a Miami immigration attorney, was invited to speak at the committee's July 17 meeting, but stayed away.
"Who's going to trust the city after what they did to us?'' asked Ybarra, who was arrested in April during the protests against the federal government's decision to snatch Elián from his home. Ybarra became a cause célbre because her arrest was captured by television cameras
while she was collecting bail money -- from passing cars -- for those who had been jailed.
Andrew Rosenblatt, a Miami attorney who chairs the six-member committee, said the lack of public attention to its work -- as well as the criticism -- has not been a deterrent.
"The totality of our report and the recommendations will speak for themselves,'' Rosenblatt said.
The police have released their own report about their response to the April disturbances, concluding that the Miami Police Department reacted appropriately to quell a potential riot.
Among the police recommendations: restrict the media's presence to a designated area. The police think some protesters played to the TV cameras.
The Miami City Commission created the special committee in mid-January, a week after the police clashed with demonstrators at West Flagler Street and 57th Avenue, following an Immigration and Naturalization Service ruling that Elián should be sent home. Police fired tear gas and arrested
48 protesters that day.
The commission asked the committee to suggest ways to prevent a recurrence of the street clash and later added an investigation into the disturbances following the federal raid that seized Elián to its charge.
The commission created the committee at the behest of City Commissioner Tomás Regalado, who was in the middle of the street protests in early January. Regalado said he was helping soothe tensions that day. But some police officers thought he interfered with their efforts to arrest
demonstrators.
VIDEOTAPE OFFERED
Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida American Civil Liberties Union, suggested at the committee's July 5 meeting that it look into Regalado's actions. Simon offered to provide a videotape and photographs of Regalado's activities that day to the committee.
"I said he may not have been a peacemaker,'' Simon recalled.
Robert Navarro, president of the Hispanic Officers Association and an aide to Mayor Joe Carollo, an implacable Regalado foe, had supplied the videotape and photographs to Simon.
Jose Herrera, a committee member appointed by Regalado, strongly defended the commissioner, and the committee did not follow up on Simon's suggestion. Herrera did not return three phone calls.
Regalado said Simon's suggestion surprised him. "It was the first time that the ACLU was on the police's side,'' he said.
POLICE REPORT
The police department has already issued its post-mortem, in a 34-page report released June 23. The report largely absolved the police of blame but found that officers could have better handled the street disturbances.
"The overall police department response . . . was commendable,'' concluded the report. "There were noted minor departmental policy infractions, which . . . can be corrected with training.''
Among the recommendations: preselect field force commanders, preselect which officers will be on arrest teams and which will confront protesters, have sufficient personnel available and restrict the media's presence.
Rosenblatt and other committee members declined to discuss their preliminary observations, saying they did not want to discuss the matter publicly until they released the final report, expected in one to two months.
"We welcome any recommendations to improve our work,'' said Police Chief Raul Martinez, who added that the police department is assessing the recommendations from its own study group.
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