You have to dig deep into the Sun-Sentinel article on the Fort Lauderdale police shootings to get to the most interesting part: Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Carlton Moore -- who has been highest-profile critic of the shooting -- was pulled over by a BSO deputy Sunday, found to be driving on a suspended license, ticketed and released.
Moore seems to claim in Akilah Johnson's Sentinel story that he was targeted by police. Writes Johnson:
"One criticism has been that the department seems more concerned with highlighting Eddines' and Jackson's lengthy criminal records instead of figuring out what happened. Police now are trying to do the same to him, Moore said."
But then you go to the Miami Herald and find the Wanda J. DeMarzo story on the shootings, which properly led with Moore's arrest and Carlton makes another inference:
Moore, for his part, questioned why the deputy ran his tag in the first place."Did they run my tag because I was a black man in a suit driving a Mercedes?" Moore asked. "Were they racial profiling? That's the question that should be asked."
The man's all over the place. I'm not sure he got special treatment from police for not hauling him to jail, an issue DeMarzo explores. Police can use their discretion there and I know they often choose not to waste their time booking a traffic violator into a cell. And I speak from personal experience because several years ago I forgot to pay a fine and my license, unknowingly, was suspended. Plantation police pulled me over for an improper lane change (bogusly, as far as I was concerned) and informed me that my license had just been suspended. They ticketed me for driving on a suspended license without knowledge and let me go.
But I wasn't a city commissioner and I didn't drive to pay fines and driving around on a suspended license for a year? What is Moore thinking? In the Sentinel story, he say: "All the sudden Carlton is the issue."
Well, he better hope not. This is a politician who has a long list of ethically challenged business dealings and domestic problems, a man who works for government insurance broker James McKinley, a job that has also led to serious conflicts of interests. There's a lot of people, both in the black community and out of it, who believe he's not fit to be a public official.
At the same time, complaints by Mayor Jim Naugle and the police union that Moore is irresponsible for publicly questioning the shootings are ridiculous. There are legitimate questions about what happened last week and without pressure from the public -- and officials -- those questions would never be answered. At least now we have a proper investigation.
After the jump: Chris Evert Goes Cold and Serena Full Of (Pit) Bull
-- Jose Lambiet reports on Chris Evert's divorce to Andy Mill in the Palm Beach Post today. In it, Mill is all teary and Evert comes across as a stoic force of marital destruction. Lambiet hints that Evert, worth a reported $24 million, dumped puppy dog Mill for The Shark himself, golfer Greg Norman. He quotes Evert's spokeswoman, Tammy Starr: "He loves Chris, but he knows they can't be married. They were in therapy. Chris isn't known to show much emotion, and that's how she's been handling this. Andy is the kind of guy who used to cry when he talked about her."
Yeah and that's Evert's spokeswoman saying that. But you know Mill can buy a lot of tissue for all those tears -- $7 million worth, since that's what the tennis star has to pay him by tomorrow.
-- Also in the Post, reporter Nicole Janok tells us of Serena Williams' denial that a pit bull named Bambi, which attacked a security guard in her exclusive housing community in Palm Beach Gardens, was hers. Janok found out otherwise:
"But officials at Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control, which requires all residents to register their pets, said Williams is the registered owner of the pit bull and a Jack Russell terrier named Jackie. Williams' personal Web site also says she owns those dogs."
I checked out that very web site and, sure enough, on the pink and purple heart-peppered polka-dotted pages were a couple photos of Bambi, of whom she writes: "I don't have as many photos of my pit bull, Bambi - he is a little camera shy and not as vain as [her Jack Russell Terrier] Jackie. Here are a couple I was able to sneak by him."
The one included here is captioned: "Bambi Ready To Pounce."
She apparently wasn't kidding.