Tag: Miami Beach Police

It was the office of Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner that flagged a resident’s Facebook comment to police before officers showed up at the resident’s home, officials said Tuesday evening.

On Monday, Miami Beach police detectives paid Raquel Pacheco a visit to ask about a critical comment that had been left under one of Meiner’s Facebook posts.

Miami Beach police spokesman Christopher Bess confirmed in an email that the complaint came from the mayor’s office. Bess did not provide additional details, including whether the complaint came from Meiner himself or from his staff and whether the mayor’s office asked police to take any particular action.

Bess said police chose not to initiate a criminal investigation after briefly speaking with Pacheco on Monday afternoon.

Meiner and his chief of staff did not respond to a request for comment.

READ MORE: Miami Beach resident posted online about the mayor. Police showed up at her door

On Monday afternoon, two officers went to the South Beach home of Pacheco — an outspoken critic of Meiner who previously ran for the Miami Beach City Commission and Florida Senate — to ask her about a Facebook comment in which she claimed that Meiner “consistently calls for the death of all Palestinians.”

The comment was in response to a post from Meiner saying Miami Beach is “a safe haven for everyone.”

The police department’s action, Bess said, was taken “in light of recent national concerns regarding antisemitism, and out of an abundance of caution.”

“As a precautionary measure, Intelligence Unit detectives conducted a brief, consensual encounter to ensure there was no immediate threat to the safety of the elected official or the community,” Bess said. “The encounter was conducted in a professional manner and concluded without incident.”

He added: “The Miami Beach Police Department remains committed to safeguarding public officials, residents, and visitors, while also respecting constitutional rights, including freedom of expression.”

Meiner, who is Jewish, has not explicitly called for the death of Palestinians. Pacheco told the Herald she was referring to statements the mayor has made in support of Israel and its war in Gaza.

Pacheco recorded her interaction with officers and shared the video on social media. In it, detectives told her that they were trying to prevent “someone else getting agitated or agreeing with the statement” and advised her to “refrain from posting things like that because that can get something incited.”

Pacheco later told the Herald she saw the police visit as an “intimidation tactic” and an attack on her First Amendment rights. Pacheco has engaged an attorney but has not yet taken legal action.

On Tuesday evening, the Herald shared with Pacheco and her attorney details of the police department’s statement and its confirmation that Meiner’s office flagged the Facebook comment to police.

“The mayor really needs to grow some thicker skin here,” Pacheco said. “He’s weaponizing the police department against private citizens. This is an abuse of power.”

Pacheco’s attorney, Miriam Haskell of the nonprofit Community Justice Project, said the police statement failed to reassure her that the visit wasn’t a reaction to the “content” of Pacheco’s Facebook comment — a reference to First Amendment law that limits government’s ability to restrict speech based on viewpoint.

Haskell also questioned the police department’s characterization of the encounter as an assessment for an “immediate threat,” given that officers indicated to Pacheco that they were concerned about how someone else might react after reading Pacheco’s comment.

“That gives me pause as to what their real motivations are,” she said.

The incident is the latest in a series of examples demonstrating that Meiner “doesn’t believe that free speech should be protected on Miami Beach,” Haskell said.

Meiner has previously attempted to cancel the lease of O Cinema for showing a documentary about the West Bank and pushed to enact limits on protests by pro-Palestinian activists that are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit against the city.

Pacheco’s experience raises a troubling question, Haskell added, about whether other Miami Beach residents may have been subject to similar scrutiny.

“Who else’s doors are they knocking on?” Haskell said.