Let me run this by some of my more cynical readers. On Thursday night I was out with my husband and we decided to stop by the new Starbucks in Skylake Mall for some dessert. When we walked out I noticed a ton of police cars and rescue vehicles in front of Publix, all with their lights flashing. Being a yenta, of course, I told my husband he just had to drive closer to the scene so I could try to find out what happened. We couldn’t get very close because the entire front of Publix and part of the parking lot was cordoned off with crime scene tape. We rubbernecked for a few minutes, then drove home.
To say I was curious is putting it mildly. Since there were North Miami Beach cop cars on the scene, as well as those from other jurisdictions, my first act was to call the non-emergency number of the NMB Police Department for more information. All I was told was that “the situation is under control.” When I pressed her for more information, she said there was none. I presumed that she wasn’t at liberty to discuss the matter, and she neither confirmed nor denied my presumption.
Next I checked my handy dandy iPhone apps for The Miami Herald and Channel 7 News. No mention of the incident on either website.
I then proceeded to call Rosh Lowe of Channel 7 News, who usually covers NMB news. He said he heard something about it, and that maybe it was a shooting, but he had no other information.
I thought that was rather strange. The fact that there were absolutely no news crews on the scene only added to the mystery.
Later that evening, we drove to Walgreens on Miami Gardens Drive and NE 14 Avenue. I immediately noticed an armed guard standing just inside the door. I waited in the car while my husband went inside. When he came out he told me that the cashier said she heard there was a shooting at the credit union near Publix. She told him that “two Jamaicans” got into an argument, shots were fired but no one was hurt. Hence the armed guard at Walgreens.
I called a fellow yenta in NMB and told him what I heard, to which he replied, “We are under siege.” To which I responded, “And our criminals can’t even shoot straight.”
Yesterday I was at my hairdresser. Of course, you know that your hairdresser knows EVERYTHING! Of course, she had already heard about the shooting from a friend of hers who works at Publix. Only this story went something like “two men were in the check out line and got into an argument, which ended in gunfire.”
Okay, so which is it? Did the shooting happen at the credit union or at Publix? I’m inclined to believe the latter because the crime scene tape was in front of Publix, while the credit union is a pretty fair distance away.
But the bigger mystery, if you will, is why has there been absolutely no mention of this incident in the press? Not one story in the Herald. Not one video on any of our local news channels (that I’m aware of anyway). Not one press release from our Police Department or any other PD (that I’m aware of anyway).
Does anyone out there know the truth?
Could it be that shootings have become so common lately that if no one gets hit it’s not news? Or, could there be some sort of cover up going on here?
Is conspiracy no longer a theory?
You be the judge.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
It’s 20 days into the new year and we’ve had about 13 shootings in NMB, none of which have been mentioned in the news. Call your contacts at NMPBD, it’s true.
OMG! Seriously? WTF??
It really is crazy. And just before the New Year we had a homicide basically at the police department. It occurred on the other side of the 15 foot wall that seperates the pd from the basketball courts.
Our burglaries are out of control as well. Were spread so thin that we spend most of our time writing bs reports for the non-residents of our city and the tax paying residents are getting screwed.
We wish it wasn’t like that as most of us are tax paying residents of other cities and we’d be royally pissed if this crime trend was occurring in our neighborhoods.
These crime stats are public record and easily obtainable. Keep up the good work Mrs. Kienzle, we appreciate what you do.
Wow, thanks! I do appreciate our police department and I know what you’re up against. NMB is really getting hit hard. This latest shootout wasn’t inside NMB city limits, but it’s definitely way too close for comfort.
when i go on to the website https://www.crimereports.com/, I do not see any shootings listed. Why aren’t they being reported to the site? I wish the Law and Order club was open to all residents because now is the time I wish I could go. I, too, appreciate the NMB police, especially those on the street.
Pretty soon we’ll all be holding (useless) candlelight vigils and (hopeless) peace marches like the residents of other less fortunate neighborhoods where the decay was allowed to take hold due to neglect, and now it’s just too late to clean things up. It’s not just the flashy shooting incidents, crime is undermining our city in all sorts of ways: A neighbor of mine was selling his house and the day of the final inspection there were two break-ins on our block alone. Needless to say the buyer, a single woman, backed out of the deal and like so many others, ran as fast as she could from NMB. We are fiddling (or traveling to Washington DC) while Rome burns.
Unfortunately, I’m beginning to think you’re right. I still think that the lack of enforcement of a coherent and uniform code is the number one problem. Far too many property owners in NMB have let their homes slide into disrepair, and worse. The house on the corner of my block was destroyed by a fire last year and it still sits there, windows blown out and in cinders amidst overgrown weeds. It has become home to all the neighborhood stray cats. If we had the HUD program that North Miami does, that home would have been already purchased by the city, renovated and sold. Has anyone at City Hall even thought of that? HAH! It wouldn’t even occur to them since I’m betting no one there even drives down my street, and even if they did, they wouldn’t care since it’s not THEIR neighborhood! If Frantzie even noticed, it wouldn’t matter since he’s in violation of the Code himself, so he’s not about to make waves about any other properties.
As long as our neighborhoods look like crap, the only people moving in will be criminals who don’t give a damn what their homes look like as long as they have a closet to store their illegal drugs and weapons.
Zero Code Enforcement = Slum
Welcome to my ‘hood.
I disagree about code enforcement. They operate with unmitigated zeal when the neighborhood church, Fulford United Methodist Church is trying to renovate and beautify it’s buildings. 🙄 The pastor could tell you some horror stories, but she won’t because…well, she’s a pastor. Fulford is the church that kept the community going during hurricanes Andrew and Wllma. Fulford is the church that provides free meals for anyone in the community on very holiday. Fulford UMC is a big part of the heart of NMB and yet NMB Code enforcement bullies them every time they have the smallest request. Can you can imagine trying to get through a major renovation? It makes me want to cry. Someday that church on the corner of 164th and 19th will just go the way of so many others and people will comment, “I wonder what happened”? No one will be left to say it got crushed by a bureaucracy too blind to see they were sucking out the lifeblood of the city as they fed and nurtured the parasites who infected it in the first place.
I heard about what happened with the church’s sign and its battle with Code Enforcement. That was ridiculous and I totally agree with you. Fulford United Methodist Church is one of the great long standing institutions in NMB. It’s also a lovely property! But City officials don’t know where its bread is buttered, so to speak. I was mainly referring to all the crappy homes, apartment buildings and commercial properties that blight our city. Code Enforcement does nothing to clean up the garbage, and as a result, we attract no new business.