Suspended ex-Miami police union chief rips replacement
Javier Ortiz, the outspoken and controversial former police union president suspended indefinitely a year ago, has resurfaced.
But instead of patrolling Miami’s streets, Ortiz appears to be making another run for some role in union leadership after a series of texts and a WhatsApp video surfaced of him criticizing the current union president for his handling of negotiations with the city during the coronavirus pandemic.
Miami, like most major cities nationwide, has blasted through its budget while trying to fight back against the still quickly spreading infection. City leaders searching for ways to save money have been discussing cutting overtime for police with Miami’s Fraternal Order of Police. FOP President Tommy
Javier Ortiz, an outspoken Miami cop suspended a year ago after infuriating police brass for years, resurfaced recently bashing the police union president.
Reyes has been leading those discussions.
Last week, Ortiz texted union members a draft copy of the still-being-negotiated agreement that would have police pass on overtime for the remainder of the year and accumulate comp time instead. Up until then, the draft had been kept from members and it’s unclear how Ortiz got a copy.
In a written statement and on video, Ortiz claims it would leave the union in worse shape during the next contract negotiations and that Miami has the money to cover its deficit.
On WhatsApp, Ortiz responded to a video
Reyes made to union members, referring to it as the “Crying Game” and said Reyes isn’t keeping union members up to date on negotiations as the city demands $5 million in cuts or the layoff of up to 66 cops.
“Everything is a secret with you,” Ortiz said, getting angrier as the fiveminute video continued. At one point he blasts Reyes for trying to make “backdoor deals” with the Civilian Investigative Panel, which investigates complaints and perceived misconduct against Miami police officers and passes recommendations on to the chief.
“The CIP that has done everything possible to destroy cops here, “he said. Ortiz has had a particularly frosty relationship with the oversight panel, which claimed last year that the captain double-dipped on-duty work with an off-duty job. Ortiz denied it.
Ortiz ends the video saying “free the Allapattah boys,” referring to some cops who have been sidelined during an investigation into a police chase and crash in which a young woman was killed.
Reyes said that $5 million in cuts is the correct ballpark figure the city is asking for. He said his plan is to eliminate overtime for officers for the remainder of the fiscal year until the end of September 2021, and that the city in turn would bump up comp time from a maximum of 200 hours saved, to the federal maximum level of 480 hours.
But Reyes said the last time he heard from the city was almost two weeks ago and that no one has responded to him since Ortiz released his video. He also ripped the former union president.
“A lot of it is lies. He’s been misleading our membership. Obviously, we don’t want to give concessions, but we’ve been talking to them,” said Reyes. “It would not only save money, but not take any money out of pocket. Both parties would have a win-win.”
A thorn in the side to Miami police brass for years, in large part due to controversial race-related posts on social media,
Ortiz was finally suspended “indefinitely” by Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina in January, a week after telling Miami’s only Black commissioner that Ortiz was not Hispanic, but instead was a Black male.
At one point Ortiz referred to Blacks as “negroes” and told then-Commission Chairman Keon Hardemon, who is Black, that he was aware the commissioner was “blacker than me, that’s obvious.” That was followed by an explanation of the “onedrop rule,” an old racist trope that implied anyone with any degree of Black ancestry, was Black.
National and international news outlets jumped on the story and the city’s Black police union and the local chapter of the
NAACP called for his removal. But controversies surrounding Ortiz’s social media posts have been around for years. Five years ago Ortiz sent a letter to police agencies around the country saying Miami police were boycotting Beyonce’s planned concert at Marlins Park because she made a video that he believed paid homage to the Black Panthers.
He posted the cellphone number on social media of a woman who videotaped a cop pulling her over and urged people to call her. He bashed the city’s highest ranking female cop at the time, who is Muslim, for not covering her heart with her hand during the Pledge of Allegiance. He called 12-year-old Tamir Rice, shot and killed by Cleveland police while the child played with a toy gun, a thug. And he announced he stood in support of the Ferguson, Missouri, officer who shot and killed unarmed Michael Brown — a shooting death that launched protests of unfair treatment of Blacks by police around the country.
Yet Ortiz, despite the indefinite suspension in January, remains in good standing with the city’s police union and is free to run for any position he wishes.
Calls and texts to Ortiz were not returned as of late Monday.