The Dream Defenders, a Florida civil rights group formed near the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement, has helped turn the GEO Group, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s single largest contractor, from a largely unknown private prison firm hated by justice-reform activists into a toxic company from which even some Republican politicians are now refusing donations.
Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills has been kneeling during the national anthem to protest the racist American justice system for portions of the last three NFL seasons. Stills is extremely serious about his activism — in February, he took a road trip in an RV to meet civil-rights supporters…
Boca Raton’s GEO Group — the single largest contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement — absolutely does not want anyone to accuse it of caging people or separating families. GEO is so upset by such allegations that it threatened to sue Dream Defenders, a Florida civil rights group, all…
America largely phased out the use of privately run, for-profit jails and prison facilities in the early 20th Century after the public realized that the practice of making a profit from caging people was a particularly heinous piece of the capitalist economy. But amidst a government privatization push under Ronald…
Last week, the Hollywood Police Department conducted a useless, money-wasting “sting” on an adult store, where they arrested 13 men who were masturbating or having consensual oral sex in private, locked rooms. Rather than ask why the hell HPD thought it should be arresting gay men for no reason…
Hollywood Police have now raided the same adult store twice in a single year. This past Thursday, Hollywood cops arrested 13 men for masturbating and having consensual oral sex in a secluded, private room — hardly the sort of police work that makes locals safer. Thanks to Hollywood PD, 13 men will likely be harassed or retaliated against by their families or employers simply for consensually enjoying themselves at a gay-cruising destination.
Yesterday, Hollywood Police officers raided an adult store and — surprise! — found some dudes masturbating inside. Aside from finding 11 self-pleasuring gentlemen, Hollywood’s brave cops busted two additional men for the heinous, hideous, unspeakable crime of… [checks notes] having consensual oral sex inside a private building. This is the second time Hollywood PD has harassed patrons of the shop, Pleasure Emporium, this year.
Even in the “Gunshine State,” the National Rifle Association is rapidly becoming politically toxic. After the Parkland school massacre February 14, every politician closely aligned with the NRA took a rightful beating: Sen. Marco Rubio was ridiculed on live TV during a CNN town hall, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam has still not lived down calling himself a “proud NRA sellout.”
Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Florida by slightly more than 100,000 votes. At least according to the official recount numbers, George W. Bush beat Al Gore in Florida in 2000 by fewer than 600 votes. Had the constantly ineffectual Florida Democratic Party gotten its act together decades ago and…
Michael Boatwright, a 22-year-old Broward resident, was arrested on July 5 on marijuana possession and probation-violation charges. Boatwright has been sitting inside the Broward County Jail ever since — and it now looks like he might wind up staying there for quite a while, since he was charged this morning…
The Trump era has been horrible for many of us, but few have suffered more than immigrants and those seeking asylum from oppressive regimes. But Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown has been fantastic for South Florida’s massive private-prison corporation, Boca Raton’s GEO Group. According to a breakdown of current ICE contracts…
Since the Parkland shooting last February, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel has been the target of a bunch of insane, conspiratorial fearmongering and outrage. He’s been lambasted on InfoWars and attacked by National Rifle Association ghoul Dana Loesch. But there are plenty of very real problems with the sheriff, including the…
While our big, sweaty grandpa president is busy tweeting that immigrants don’t deserve due-process in immigration courts, the business bearing his name (which he pretty much still runs) is trying to hire more foreign workers. According to federal Department of Labor documents BuzzFeed first dug up yesterday, the Trump Organization has…
The Broward Transitional Center is basically a jail for people who haven’t committed crimes. It’s designed to hold “low-level” immigrant detainees slated for deportation after they’ve been arrested on minor charges — such as driving without a license — or picked up on no criminal charges at all.
Slightly more than three months after David Hogg was forced to hide in a closet to avoid being shot to death in a school massacre, some monster today prank-called a SWAT team to the teen’s house. Thankfully, the Miami Herald reports Hogg wasn’t home at the time — but that doesn’t make the prank any less heinous and cruel.
May has been an absolutely awful month in South Florida for police-misconduct videos, from the Miami Police Department cop charged with assault for taking a flying kick at someone’s head, to the Miami-Dade County cops who shot a man for holding nothing but a screwdriver, to the Miami Beach officer…
Mary Caceres fled Colombia’s brutal civil war in 2005 with her then-9-year-old daughter Daniela Gaona after Caceres’ brother was killed by guerrillas. Daniela was eventually awarded status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and spared from possible deportation. But Caceres’ repeated attempts to obtain asylum in the United States have so far…
Last October, Cutler Bay resident Dustin Hughes stamped his profile picture with an image of a Confederate flag and the message “Heritage not hate.” But hate is exactly what has landed Hughes in jail on felony charges.
When a group of Coral Springs Police officers rushed to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High this past February following reports of an active shooter, one officer says he arrived to find Broward Sheriff’s deputies taking cover behind cars and a tree — despite knowing that shooter Nikolas Cruz was still inside firing on students.
In 2015, Jessica Mooney sat next to her fiancee at a Fort Lauderdale bus terminal as he filmed Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Victor Ramirez slapping a homeless man in the face. The In 2015, Jessica Mooney sat next to her fiancé at a Fort Lauderdale bus terminal as he filmed Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Victor Ramirez slapping a homeless man in the face.
Donald Trump’s deportation forces appear to be using Florida as a testing laboratory to devise new and ever-more draconian ways to clamp down on documented and undocumented immigrants nationwide. Last month, a group of Central and North Florida sheriffs announced plans to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a pilot project designed to detain immigrants in jail for even longer stretches of time, for example.
In June, a group of avowed white nationalists harassed a gathering of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters who’d gathered in Hollywood to demand that the city change three streets named after Confederate generals and the original grand-wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. After a massive, multi-day PR boondoggle, the city…
