Best Defense Against Terrorism 2005 | Hollywood Police Department | People & Places | South Florida
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Best Defense Against Terrorism

Hollywood Police Department

Hollywood police do heinous things to patriotic American citizens, so just imagine what they would do to Middle Eastern terrorists if they got their heavy hands on them. There have been accusations of manslaughter, assault, and sexual battery -- and that's just one officer, Pete Salvo. How does the city respond to the brutality? It makes Salvo the Officer of the Year. For photographic evidence of just how much damage Hollywood cops can administer, check out the snapshots of Donald Baker, a 52-year-old construction worker who was beaten silly -- and quite bloody -- by officers after being detained on an open-container violation. Then there's Officer Joe Pendergrast, whose nickname "Heavy-Handed Joe" says it all. He was accused of beating a man and breaking his ankle. The man's crime: He was playing music too loudly in the vicinity of Pendergrast's father-in-law. Forget Texas, Osama. Don't mess with Hollywood.

Best Political Protest

Fort Lauderdale city employees'wearing gags

Maybe Alan Silva, Fort Lauderdale's volunteer city manager at the time, didn't actually intend his new policy to become a gag order per se. But it sure looked that way when he decreed in late May that no city employee could talk to the media, neighborhood and civic groups, homeowners or businesses without clearance from above. When the city's communications director, Leslie Backus, then forbade those self-same employees from even commenting on the rule, some of them staged a fitting silent protest at a City Council meeting with stickers reading "employee" over their mouths. Newspapers tend to bristle when their sources are muted, and the local dailies threw fits. The Miami Herald editorialized: "[T]he get-permission-first, speak-with-one-voice policy smacks of party line spin." The president of the police union compared the policy to "Nazi Germany in 1940." Silva lasted eight days before he reversed field, apparently stupefied that he had thrown the city into turmoil. "The idea this was a tremendous change never occurred to me," the Sun-Sentinel quoted Silva as saying. "To compare me to Nazi Germany, my Jesus mercy! I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU."

Best Power Couple

Mary and Kevin McCarty

She's a long-time member of the Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners and a onetime chairwoman of the county's Republican Party. He's on the board of governors for the South Florida Water Management District and a bond underwriter for Bear Stearns & Co. in Boca Raton. Together, they oversee public budgets of more than $3 billion and lord over almost 11,000 employees. But their real power is acting as the eyes and ears of Gov. Jeb Bush in Palm Beach County, which is dominated by Democrats. Mary is among the staunchest supporters of Bush's plan to build Scripps' biotech research institute on Mecca Farms, environmental concerns be damned. As Bush's handpicked choice for the water district board, Kevin has worked in tandem with his wife as his agency approved the go-ahead for Scripps.

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