The five commissioners took the step following a trial-like hearing in which Acevedo was criticized for offending fellow Cuban-Americans and losing the trust of his officers, while his attorney argued that the city’s politicians wanted him gone because he accused them of corruption. An interim chief was immediately sworn in after Acevedo’s ouster.

Acevedo, 57, did not testify at the meeting. He took office in April after leaving his post as Houston police chief. At the time, Miami’s mayor hailed the veteran police official as the Michael Jordan and Tom Brady of police chiefs. Native to Havana, Acevedo also shared a background with hundreds of thousands of Cubans in Miami.

Acevedo began clashing with others in his department almost immediately after his April swearing-in, by taking over internal affairs and making significant changes to his command staff. He demoted four majors and fired two high-level police officers — a married couple — because they weren’t truthful about a crash involving a city-issued SUV.

Chief Art Acevedo and his attorney John R. Byrne, arrive at Miami City Hall for a hearing to determine his job, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, in Miami. Acevedo was suspended after a tumultuous six-month tenure.

Acevedo’s attorney John Byrne said at Thursday’s meeting that there was not enough time to build a case to properly defend Acevedo. He noted that the meeting was scheduled four days after Acevedo was suspended by City Manager Art Noriega.

Commissioners said they were obligated to vote on the matter within five days of receiving the notice per city rules. Mayor Francis Suarez did not attend the meeting but has stood by the city manager’s moves to remove Acevedeo.

“Based on what we have seen here today, it is clear the commissioners have not a valid basis for terminating Chief Acevedo,” Byrne said. He added that the reasons stated by the city manager were “pretextual” and that the real justification was an eight-page memo in which he accused city commissioners of meddling in the police department and internal investigations.

In the memo sent to the mayor and city manager, Acevedo also accused commissioners of hampering his attempts at reforming the department by eliminating positions and stated he was talking to U.S. Justice Department officials to review the city’s police internal affairs procedures and non-fatal use of force incidents.

Two of the commissioners, also of Cuban descent, were seemingly upset that Acevedo would not speak at the hearing.

“He had the courage to write a false memo, full of lies,” said commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla upon learning that Byrne rested his case without calling witnesses. “He should have the courage to stand up here and address this commission, the courage or the guts to do it. He clearly does not.”

The Cuban American commissioners have publicly attacked Acevedo in two previous long meetings. On Thursday, the city manager’s attorney presented a video of him cursing at a demonstrator who was questioning his support for Black Lives Matter.

Before arriving in Miami, Acevedo became well known after calling for gun control and also marching with protesters in the aftermath of the police custody death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Noriega’s attorney, Stephanie Marchman, argued the termination of Acevedo was fair, naming the confrontation with the protester for which he was reprimanded as one of several reasons justifying his termination. She questioned witnesses who said Acevedo had lost the trust of his police officers and offended the community by saying the city was run by a “Cuban mafia,” a term former Cuban leader Fidel Castro used to refer to exiles in Miami.

“Any one of those reasons is sufficient to remove him from his position,” she said.

Assistant chief Manny Morales was sworn in as interim chief immediately following the hearing. He was one of the witnesses called by Marchman who testified there was growing dissatisfaction among the rank-and-file under Acevedo’s leadership.

Morales said the chief interviewed high-ranking officers, asking them to select people they would demote and state the reasons why. Acevedo would then tell officers what their coworkers were saying, without specifying who had said it, Morales said.

“That was perhaps what drove the biggest wedge. I think it was a tactic to divide and conquer,” he said. “The divulging of that information— that your peers were stabbing you in the back.”

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• A white teacher in Texas resigned after a recording of him using the “N-word” in class was leaked.

• Norman Grueneich, who taught theatre arts, can be heard asking why there’s no white history month.

• He went on to ask his students why he couldn’t say the “N-word” himself.

A white Houston-area teacher resigned on Wednesday after a student recorded a video of him using the “N-word” during a discussion and asking why he couldn’t use the word, according to KHOU.

The theatre arts teacher, identified as Norman Grueneich, worked at Klein Collins High School, located just outside of Houston, Texas.

“Why do the guys in my class say, ‘man n—a you crazy,'” Grueneich can be heard saying in the recording. “Why do they say that? And why is it cause I’m a white guy, I can’t say that?”

Grueneich can also be heard in the recording asking why there is no white history month and pointed to the treatment of some Irish people.

“Why don’t we have a white history month talking about what the Irish went through?” Grueneich said. “Because we’re white, and it’s a white privilege, right? That’s what I’m saying.”

The Klein Independent School District confirmed on Wednesday in a statement that the teacher no longer works at the school, according to KHOU.

“In Klein ISD, we pride ourselves on our ability to create safe spaces for every child in our schools,” the statement said. “This former employee failed to do that and is no longer employed in Klein ISD.”

The school district further apologized for the incident and said Grueneich’s actions are still under investigation.

“Every child deserves to feel safe and have a positive learning experience at school,” the school district said. “We are deeply sorry that this former employee failed to do this for our students.”

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INTERNATIONAL GUARDIAN is the boldest and brightest issue-oriented international newspaper published in Houston, Texas. Strategically, it strives to promote private enterprise, support responsible government and advocate social justice.

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Downtown Houston, Third Ward, Texas Southern, and the University of Houston, would all be removed from Jackson Lee’s 18th Congressional District. Even her residence of nearly 50 years would fall-off the map. This would equally prevent her from voting for herself in future elections. This plan is perilously strategic. It retains both Jackson Lee and Reps Al Green’s districts under the Democratic strongholds, but the shuffling of communities could result in them being pitted against one another in the 9th District. Both colleagues, Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green objected with a rare in-person plea to members of the Texas Senate to reverse this plan that would maliciously shove-off substantial number of Black Houston voters into new congressional districts.

The Republican majority’s proposals for all of the state’s political maps are out, and each is skewed in favor of the same voters: white Republicans.

One thing leads to the other. Republicans hold all of the statewide offices, along with majorities in the state’s congressional delegation, the Texas House and Senate, and the State Board of Education. It’s normal for those political animals to want to extend their dominance in state government, and to seize any opportunity to hurt Democrats and help Republicans.

But the correlations between race and party in Texas elections take that strategy of political discrimination perilously close to racial discrimination. White Texans are more likely to vote for Republicans than Democrats. Hispanic and Black Texans are more likely to vote for Democrats than Republicans.

And maps like the ones presented by legislators in the last two weeks are what comes of that. According to the latest U.S. census, 39.8% of the population is white, 39.3% is Hispanic, 11.8% is Black and 5.4% is Asian.

In the political maps laid out by lawmakers during the current special legislative session, white Texans are overrepresented and the other groups are underrepresented.

In the initial map for the Texas House, the majority of eligible voters (known in the redistricting and census data as the Citizen Voting Age Population) in 59.3% of the districts are white, in 20% are Hispanic and in 2.7% are Black. No district has an Asian majority, and in 18%, no group has a majority.

This plan is perilously strategic. It retains both Jackson Lee and Reps Al Green’s districts under the Democratic strongholds, but the shuffling of communities could result in them being pitted against one another in the 9th District.

In the proposed Senate map, 64.5% of the districts have white majorities, 22.6% have Hispanic majorities, 3.2% have Black majorities, none has an Asian majority, and in 9.7%, no group has a majority.

White Texans make up the majority of eligible voters in 60.5% of the proposed congressional districts, followed by Hispanic Texans at 18.4%, Black Texans and Asian Texans with no district majorities at all, and 21.1% of districts with no group in the majority.

At least the mapmakers are consistent.

You can’t draw maps like that with nice geometric shapes. We don’t live like that, and only a squiggly set of lines can divide Texans into the groups that best serve the political mapmakers. That sort of gerrymandering is legal, and sometimes, it’s even fair.

Here’s a definition from the website of the Texas Legislative Council, the state agency that draws redistricting maps and does other legal work for the state Legislature: “Gerrymander: To draw a district or set of districts with unusual boundaries usually with the intent to favor one group or party over another.”

Intent is everything. In arguments — both live and on social media — gerrymander is a term used to describe a district you don’t like. If it’s bad, it’s a gerrymander. But not all weirdly shaped districts are created equal. If it’s intended to give an unfair advantage to someone or some group, that’s not the same as making a funny pattern to connect people whose mutual interests are protected by law. That can be communities with common interests or problems, for instance, or communities of color.

Texas Republicans are trying to connect voters on the basis of politics, which is OK unless it crosses a legal line — one that is drawn, for example, to protect from racial discrimination. That’s for the courts to work out, but a simple analysis of the maps proposed for the congressional delegation, the Texas Senate and the Texas House reveals some of the cost of protecting the state from Democrats.

A perfect match in the 150-member Texas House, if the mix of the overall population was your guide, would be 60 districts with white majorities instead of the 89 in the proposed map, 59 Hispanic-majority districts instead of 30, 18 Black districts instead of 4, and eight districts with Asian majorities instead of none.

A perfect match of representation to population is practically impossible. The groups are scattered, and the gerrymandering required would be staggering. Even so, it’s hard to explain the fairness of proposed maps that have 39.8% of the Texas population — the white part — represented by 60.2% of the Texas Legislature; 39.3% — Hispanic Texans — represented by 20.4%; 11.8% — Black Texans — by 2.8%; and 5.4% — Asian Texans — by none at all.

The Texas Legislature might approve it, and the federal courts, when given the chance, might ratify it, but those numbers don’t add up.

Culled from the Texas Tribune

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Texas Guardian News

INTERNATIONAL GUARDIAN is the boldest and brightest issue-oriented international newspaper published in Houston, Texas. Strategically, it strives to promote private enterprise, support responsible government and advocate social justice.

Latest posts by Texas Guardian News (see all)

• I got my first COVID shot in Nigeria, second in the UK – difference was infuriating - October 20, 2021
• Haitian prime minister forced to flee official ceremony after armed gangs appear - October 20, 2021
• U.S. Attorney Announces Charges Against 11 Members Of Money Laundering And Bank Fraud Ring - October 20, 2021