ENGLISH ONLY

UPDATE: As the comments alerted us yesterday, DOM's client in Colorado federal court was convicted. We abhor Monday Morning Quarterbacking on trials, but we did see some of the pre-trial motions and the defense had an uphill battle. Accidental discharge of a FA is a difficult defense in the best of cases. But  DOM and his team did what we are supposed to do- they fought with all their skill and effort to protect their client, in the best traditions of our craft. And make no mistake, if and when the gov comes for your blogger, there is only one lawyer we are hiring- David. And although he does not need solace, this is where we find comfort after a loss: The Man In The Arena.  (and BTW- he and his wife Mona are a hell of an appellate team. Just ask the 11th cir. It's not over till it's over.) 

More From The Year of Dangerous Days (most of the information is taken from chapter 21). Quotes are taken directly from the book, as is the story line we used. 

The Mariel boatlift dropped an additional third of the total Miami population on an unprepared Miami in less than two months. It was like “having Providence, Rhode Island dropped into Dade County without any provisions for schools, housing, or jobs.”

The immediate aftereffects of the riot following the McDuffie acquittal was brutal. Large swarths of Overtown and Liberty City was burned to the ground. Most stores were looted and destroyed,  never to return. Old time REGJB regulars may remember Wally Leahy, Ted Mastos’s bailiff when Ted was a Judge (and Ted’s father-in-law at the time!). Wally had owned  (we are doing this from memory) a type of meat/ butcher/convenience store in Overtown. He helped feed the neighborhood and employed members of the community. After his store was looted and burned in the McDuffie riots, he never returned. He was not alone. Most businesses abandoned Black Miami, and in the aftermath, no bank would give loans to businesses wanting to re-open.

Miami became the center of the news media world, with every major outlet adding staff, and the Herald having fifty reporters covering it all (today David Ovalle feels very lonely indeed). Russian news agencies said Miami was an example of "mixing capitalism with race and immigration."

Governor Bob Graham proposed to raise Dade’s sales tax by 1% to raise $291 million for rebuilding Liberty City and Overtown. But the rest of Florida viewed the riots in Miami as Miami’s own fault and the mostly white, Anglo southern legislators in Tallahassee voted down the bill.  The Herald reported that house members and their aides then sang “Dixie” and “It’s Hard to be Humble when you’re perfect in every way.”

Miam was on its own, and it was not done ripping itself apart.

Cuban refugees were housed in the Orange Bowl, scared of the crime and violence they had witnessed, they huddled worried and confused. Miami Cuban businessmen went to the OB and gave hours long lectures on things like getting around, renting an apartment, getting a job and even explaining what a parking ticket was and whether it had to be paid.

Into this mix and mess of riots, arson, destruction (old time REGJB regulars like us recall walking into our beloved Justice Building as it was known then, under the watch of armed National Guard troops) and abandonment by the rest of Florida and the US, walked a small slight, Russian born immigrant named Emmy Shafer and her new organization Citizens of United Dade. Shafer was a survivor of Auschwitz. She spoke six languages, but not Spanish, and CUD had one goal: placing ENGLISH ONLY on the ballot-and enacting laws banning Spanish on public signs, 911, and hurricane warnings, to name a few. Don't even think about speaking Spanish in public schools. 

Anglo Miami wanted integration and communication: “How can we have communication in grocery stores if we don’t speak the same language?” Black Miami stayed out of the issue,  busy trying to figure out how to rebuild and bring back jobs. And Hispanic Miami went ballistic, feeling their heritage was under attack. One Anglo woman spoke for many when she said on TV “Make me a refugee so I can have some rights.” That kind of resentment resonated not just in White Miami, but in Black Miami as well. Hispanic Miami shuddered, feeling the rest of Miami just didn’t get the immigrant experience. 

At the time Miami most needed to come together- race, language, culture and heritage was about to rip Miami apart deeper and worse than even the riots had done. The wounds would be deep, the scars hard and long lasting. Remnants still exist today. It is only the current Millennials, born well after riots and nonsense like English only dominated the news, who do not feel the resentment that older Miami residents still feel to this day. Talk to an African American Man or Woman in their sixties and they will tell you of the feelings of hopelessness and rage over the McDuffie verdicts. Talk to a Cuban who came from Mariel, and they will tell you of the feelings of not being wanted and cursed at and called "spic" when all they wanted was the same chance that generations of immigrants before them had. Their only involvement in McDuffie was bad timing- arriving right when the city went up in flames. Talk to older White Miamians and they will explain the feelings of bewilderment at how their peaceful city exploded. Miami didn't acquit the cops who killed Arthur McDuffie- Tampa did. 

Nobody understood the other two sides of the triangle. And each side was certain the other two sides were against them. These problems were never really settled. There was no peace, just a stalemate as people aged and moved away and died. Mayor Fere's vision for Miami came into being because of people connected to each other through the internet and social media. Millennials wanted to enjoy the success of Miami facing south- their anger reserved only for the slow barista at Starbucks, or the Door-Dash driver who showed up late. 

We got what Mayor Fere wanted; we just got here in a way neither he nor anyone who watched Miami burn could have imagined.