In a special meeting Monday City Commissioners in Miami voted 4-0 to conduct an investigation into newly hired police chief Art Acevedo.
Acevedo, who has held the top police position in the City of Miami for six months, launched an attack before the special meeting even began.
The former Houston chief penned an eight-page memo Monday to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and City Manager Arthur Noriega, accusing three commissioners, Joe Carollo, Manolo Reyes, and Alex Díaz de la Portilla, of engaging in a pattern and practice of “official misconduct” and “unlawful behavior,” spanning claims they tried to interfere with an internal police investigation to accusing Carollo of being mad at him,” Local10 reports.
“… For my refusal to arrest and remove his enemies and those who were exercising their First Amendment rights,” Acevedo wrote.
The FBI Miami told Local 10 News Monday that they are aware of the memo as is the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, which stated that they are prohibited from confirming or denying whether they plan to launch any investigation.
Commissioner Carollo has expressed outrage over the chief using the explosive phrase “Cuban Mafia,” which the police chief has since apologized for. The term was often used by Fidel Castro to disparage Cuban exiles in Florida and paint them as criminals. Acevedo is Cuban American but grew up in California.
In addition to angering some Cuban Americans in Miami, the chief has been accused of unjustly terminating two high-ranking officers police officer who are husband and wife over allegations that they covered up a police vehicle accident.
At the special meeting Monday Carollo spent hours reading from a document that outlined instances where Acevedo was allegedly reprimanded in the past. He also questioned whether City Manager Art Noriega knew whether Acevedo had political aspirations, the Washington Post reports.
The commissioner even slammed Acevedo for his behavior, playing a video showing Acevedo entering the dance floor of a fundraiser to dance the cha-cha-cha and slapping a woman’s rear with a piece of paper, and another video of him impersonating Elvis Presley dancing the “Jailhouse Rock” in the iconic white jumpsuit.
Acevedo did not attend or specifically comment on the Commission meeting, but he tweeted a picture of himself with the slogan “¡Patria y vida!” — “Homeland and life!” — in support of demonstrators against Cuba’s communist regime, after suggesting in his Friday memo that certain commissioners were acting more like the Castro brothers.
Acevedo was offered the job on March 15, 2021, the compensation and benefits package included, among other benefits, a salary of $315,000, use of a 24-hour vehicle, an automobile allowance of $500 per month and a cell phone allowance of $200 per month.
