You’ve seen it happen: you’re driving down I-95, minding your own business, when all of a sudden some douchebag in the express lane realizes they’re about to miss their exit and abruptly plows through the orange plastic poles, forcing you to slam on the brakes and narrowly avoid a messy…
If you head to downtown Hollywood today or Saturday, you may notice that several parking spots on Tyler Street and Hollywood Boulevard have been replaced by temporary miniature parks with outdoor seating and greenery. It’s part of an international event known as Park(ing) Day, in which ordinary parking spots temporarily…
The day after Gregory Frazier was fatally shot in his Pompano Beach backyard, his blood was still on the chair where he’d been sitting, along with a chicken wing that he’d dropped when officers arrived. Flies were buzzing around the styrofoam container of food that he’d been eating. “Can I…
Ever since Gregory Frazier was fatally shot by police officers in his backyard on Friday night, information about what, exactly, prompted them to react with deadly force has slowly trickled out. First, the Broward Sheriff’s Office released the two 911 calls made by family members who reported that Frazier had been…
The Broward Sheriff’s Office has released more details about the fatal shooting of Gregory Frazier, who was killed by police officers in his backyard on Friday night. On Monday, the BSO released audio of the two 911 calls placed by family members leading up to the shooting. “He tried to…
In the August 30th primary, Michael Satz was re-elected as Broward State Attorney. He’s held the job since 1976—virtually his entire adult life. To some people, that’s far too long. Just to put it into perspective, when Satz was first elected, it was still legal for women to get fired…
Deputies from the Broward Sheriff’s Office fatally shot and killed a man in Pompano Beach at around 10 p.m. last night. According to the BSO’s report, deputies were responding to a call about a domestic disturbance. When they arrived, they were directed to the backyard, where the man (whose name…
In a city best known as a beach destination, you’d think that lifeguard salaries would be a non-negotiable expense. Apparently, that’s not the case with Hollywood. Faced with a $20 million budget shortfall, the city is considering either eliminating or cutting the hours of all 31 part-time lifeguards, who represent…
Earlier this year, members of South Florida Smash HLS learned that Fort Lauderdale-based Landmark Bank had made a $4 million loan to the founder of Worldwide Primates, one of several controversial local primate importers that have drawn scrutiny from animal rights groups in recent years. In hopes of convincing the…
Zen Root Kava doesn’t look like a drug den. Located next to a hair salon in a strip mall off Federal Highway in Pompano Beach, it’s got Buddha paintings on the walls and a Himalayan salt lamp on the bar. Reggae music plays softly in the background. There are pita…
When the passenger came to, she was on a desk aboard the M/V Norwegian Sky, crying hysterically and trying to figure out how she’d wound up there. Her vaginal area was sore, and the last thing she could remember was being trapped in a storage room by the bartender who’d…
At 7:05 am on September 29, 2009, a van came to pick up Tommy Lee Benton at the Hernando County Jail and take him to the Broward County Main Jail, where he’d serve out his three-year sentence after pleading guilty to being the accessory to armed robbery. According to a…
It’s been a bad couple of weeks for the Boca Raton-based GEO Group, the country’s second largest operator of private prisons. After the Department of Justice announced on August 18 that it would discontinue use of private prisons, stock prices plummeted. Now, investors are suing. A lawsuit filed against the…
Most police department Twitter accounts are mundane. Cops apparently really like sharing pictures of their new Ford Explorers, helpful advice about dealing with mosquitos, and selfies with their dogs. It’s kind of like getting texts from your dad — if he had a crew cut and and spent significant time polishing…
Last week, activists around the country celebrated the news that the Department of Justice would stop contracting with private prison companies. Not to rain on that entirely well-deserved parade, but this doesn’t mean private prisons are going away altogether. The ruling won’t affect the four private prisons here in Broward…
Gerry Wengert doesn’t have the best track record. In 2010, the Broward Sheriff’s deputy allegedly fractured a man’s face after he pulled him over for playing his radio too loudly. In 2012, he was arrested after he was accused of punched a teenager who had annoyed his girlfriend by grabbing a parking…
Earlier this summer, chief assistant public defender Gordon Weekes commented that dealing with the Broward Juvenile Detention Center was “like Whack-a-Mole: you get them to address one problem, and four other problems come up.” The latest problem to pop up is particularly disturbing: a 17-year-old boy says that he was…
“They’re already labeling me ‘Mr. Education,’” Pitbull, aka Mr. Worldwide, told NPR when his first charter school opened in Little Havana in 2013. It was a bit of a stretch—the Miami Herald made that joke in one article, and it hasn’t exactly caught on. But the rapper, born Armando Perez,…
Theova Milfort has one request for Barack Obama during his last 153 days in office: visit Haiti. “Haiti is the first independent black country in the world, and the first country in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery,” he explains. “Mr. Barack Obama is the beneficiary of that.” The 48-year-old…
Tiniko Thompson, who is facing life in prison for fatally shooting her boyfriend, Miami police officer Carl Patrick, has been getting a lot of attention lately. It represents everything that’s wrong with how our criminal justice system treats the victims of domestic violence, particularly women of color. But the local…
A few weeks ago, Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Peter Peraza was cleared of manslaughter charges in the shooting of Jermaine McBean. That much wasn’t surprising. As we’ve seen in the cases of Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and many others, it happens all the time. But what was surprising…
Last week, DJ Khaled went on Snapchat wearing a Free Kodak Black t-shirt. Either he has god-like powers, or Atlantic Records has some really good lawyers, because yesterday, Kodak Black was released from jail. The 19-year-old Pompano Beach rapper, whose real name is Dieuson Octave, pleaded no contest to a…
