Transcript of #BecauseMiami: RIP 1st Amendment

. All right, Josh. Can we get a favor? Turn around, put your hands behind your back. False arrest. It's what Joshua Epstein calls his being locked up in 2024 regarding a verbal spat with the Then Vice Mayor of Surfside, Jeff Rose. The contention happened at Surfside town Hall. Rose, then Mayor Schlomo Danziger and others were routinely questioned and called out by the young activists. Jeff, he pushed me. What did I do? Epstein says no pushing occurred. I didn't push you. The criminal case against the then 18-year-old was dropped. The state attorney's office saying there was no battery. Now, Epstein is suing. Taking aim at Rose, then surfside Mayor Schlomo Danziger, the former police chief and town manager, for false arrest and abuse of power. The town itself is also named current mayor Charles Burkett, taking a shot at his predecessor. Using our police to punish Danziger's political enemies is an outrage, but worse, it is a criminal act itself. Thanks to Sheldon Fox at Miami's WSVN for that report. Joshua Epstein has been on the show now. I think this is his third visit. There might be a prize for that. I'm not sure what it is.

But Joshua was a... Were you a college student at the time you were first on the show? Now you are a first-year law student. He is joined by his attorney, Courtney Caprio, from Caldera Law in Miami, who some of you might recognize from the Joe Correo case that we followed quite extensively for years. She was on the winning side of the Correo case, I should say, the 63 and a million dollar judgment against disgraced former Miami Commissioner Joe Correo. He's a wife beater, wife beater. We're in Studio B today, so we don't have the cart machine. And so, Roy is going to do it live. Yeah, that's Joe Correo. There we go. Thank you. Congratulations belatedly on that, Courtney. I won't ask you how collections are going from that turnup, but this is a new case just filed. We've been waiting on this for quite some time. Josh, obviously, justice delayed is Justice denied, but how are you feeling now about moving towards getting your day in court? Yeah, I'm excited.

I want justice. I want accountability. I want to make sure what happened to me never happens again. Evidence collection and doing public records request takes a while. There was a lot of wrongdoing that went on in town hall, as is evidence in the lawsuit, but also just in large amounts of files that we now have. What happened was a disgrace. It wasn't just to me. It was two years of abuses of power, of threatening people that spoke out against the surfside government. They turned my little small beach town that I've always called home into some place I didn't recognize, into some place that many people in the community fled, authoritarian regimes. You should never go to jail for speaking out against people in power. I think what they did in surfside will happen again if they're not held accountable. Shlomo Danziger is running for mayor again. It's really scary.

Well, on the upside Shlomo Danzinger running for mayor again, Roy, we could dust off that old parody song. Do you remember the Danzinger parody song?

Oh, man, that was so long ago. No, I don't remember that.

Shlomo Danzinger, Fing that guy. Or something like that. I don't have to bleep that. In fact, when You're going to have to bleep that. In fact, when he lost the election two years ago, there's a video of somebody driving down Collins past the town hall of Surfside, blasting our song out of their car. A rare W for this program. #becausemiami. Oh, wow. You played the cart, huh? I had to do the cart. I had to do the cart, dude. Let me ask you this, Courtney. You name a lot of people. There's a lot of defendants in their individual capacity as well as the town of Surfside. I noticed Shlomo Danzinger is on that list of co-defendants. Now, it was Jeff Rose who initially was involved in this confrontation with Joshua, had the police come to him, made what I would argue was a false complaint against Joshua. Then I think within about 24 hours, Joshua was falsely arrested. How and why is Shlomo Danzinger involved in this?

Well, there was a campaign of First Amendment retaliation that went on prior to Josh's arrest. Josh was vocal throughout Shlomo's reign, and he criticized him for the Champlain towers and asked him over and over again for the Dubai receipts. They never answered Joshua. And Slo-Mo was involved in this, you'll see in the complaint, he wrote to Tallahassee, trying to encourage Joshua's prosecution after the Miami State Attorney's office determined there's no basis to charge him and that the statute that they use doesn't even apply. What?

I'm sorry. He wrote Tallahassee, the attorney general's office to prosecute this kid for nothing.

For nothing. Yes, correct. He tried to rally the prosecution against Joshua. He wrote to Tallahassee. He tried to say that this It was a danger to public officials everywhere and that Joshua needed to be in jail. That's why he's named. He also was involved with ordering the police to take residents away from the podium at commission meetings when they were speaking out against him. You'll see all the pictures in the complaint. It's a draconian situation. We don't have a dictatorship with palm trees. We have a democracy, and we must protect it. That's why we filed this lawsuit.

Let's talk about that because, Joshua, you seem like a pretty harmless guy beyond your speech, beyond your First Amendment rights. I don't see you as any physical threat. I can't imagine reasonable rational adults would. But you made yourself a presence by being present in city or town hall at meetings. You challenged authority, spoke truth to power, asked tough questions. That's really where you were the threat. I guess my question is about this escalation that your lawyer, Courtney Caprio, is talking about. The idea that it started with the police, literally, in some cases, dragging people or forcing people out of public meetings during public comment, and then advances to, I think they investigated you over a work of parody, a satirical email blast or something, and then, of course, false arrest. By the way, I relate a lot to this. This is very similar to the accountability journalism and activism that I do. I go to meetings, I speak at public comment, I speak truth to power, I do parodies, I do satire. You sure do. All of this is protected speech. This is classic First Amendment shit here. I want to talk about that. A, how much of a threat are you?

And B, talk about this escalation of police powers and First Amendment retaliation.

As just anyone living in Surfside in those two years knows, originally, we had really competent hands running the town. They cleared out all of those people. They gave exorbitant pay raises to people that they knew would be their yes man. They bought loyalty. Then they hit, throw people out of town hall throughout their reign for speaking truth to power. I mean, there's this one case that comes to mind, Victoria Safie. She's this really just sweet woman, a mom in the community. And he has her taken out by four police officers just for speaking truth to power. I mean, she's one of the calmest public speakers I've ever seen. They were scared of words. In Surfside, as in any regime where those in power are not doing their job to benefit Surfside residents, They were scared of those with a mouth. And I've never been a threat to anyone. I've never gotten in trouble for touching anyone. I'm a pretty scrawny guy. First, my mom sent out a parody email with like, Shlomo Danziger on a little toy truck, and they investigated that for impersonation of an elected official. Not only was it clear throughout the entire email that it was parody, but at the bottom of it, it says, This is parody, if you haven't figured it out already.

I mean, anyone with a first-grade education would sense that it was parody. They sent out a community alert with a police badge saying, This is being investigated. Shomal Danziger sent out a thing saying, This is being investigated, and the police are looking into it, or something along those lines. The police did a full investigation into a parody email. I mean, this is something that should not happen in the United States of America. I mean, moms in the community, in Surfside, but elsewhere, should feel safe to go and say, Hey, my neighbor's being really loud, or there's a lot of traffic. I mean, that's what makes America great is we can go to our elected officials and say, We don't like what's going on. But in Surfside, people were scared to do that because of Shloma, because of Rose. I mean, there's a video of Rose at the commission meeting saying, Anyone who complains to the higher authorities would be called out. They would be called out, held accountable. I mean, it was like you see in another country where they're like, You speak out against me, you know what's going to happen to you. And they alluded to it many times during their reign, what happens if you speak out against them.

I was the worst case of their abuse of power, but I certainly was not the only one. It was a pattern in practice. And it's really scary. I'm glad it's over, but it's never over if they're not held accountable.

Courtney, this sounds like an abuse of power, a misuse of law enforcement resources included in his individual capacity as a defendant in your lawsuit is the former police chief, Marciante, I believe, is his name. Yes. Was there evidence here of some collusion or a conspiracy between or including the former mayor, Shlomo Danzinger, the former vice mayor, Jeff Rose, this former police chief, Marciante? I'm pointing out former, former, former, as Joshua did to show that they really did clean house over there as an acknowledgement that something wrong happened. Talk to me about that. What evidence have you uncovered that there was this concerted secret behind-the-scenes effort here?

We've seen there are emails going back and forth. We took two years to file this case to get the records that we needed to show the collusion. Marciante was in charge of the police Department, and that is who arrested Joshua. So obviously, the buck stops with him there. But in this case, the evidence will show overwhelmingly that there was collusion. They were all trying to arrest Joshua for his free speech. We are very excited to show evidence and to prove our case at trial.

Let me ask you about that. You mentioned I'm a public records absolutist. That is basically my religion. I pray to the altar of Chapter 119, which is the sunshine laws here in the state of Florida that demands, supposedly, government in the sunshine and access to our records. They are our records. They are not their records. They're ours. Talk about this almost two years ongoing struggle here. Is there an ongoing effort on the part of any of these public or former public officials to cover up these public records or fail to comply with public records? I'm always worried about destruction of public records, which is supposed to be a crime, but who the hell knows what the penalty for that is or how that's enforced? Talk to me about that, Courtney.

Right. I mean, that's another problem that we have here. As you will see in the complaint, Schlomo wiped his laptop before he turned it in, and also his phone was unavailable. So the public records law exists for us to keep the sunshine, right? And that's very convenient for him, no? So Obviously, we'll be pressing that at trial and let the jury know that there's missing evidence. That stuff can't be recovered once it's gone, right? So again, that's just abuse of power. It flies in the face of Florida law. And they thought that they could just reign with impunity and do what they wanted to do, and that's not correct. That's why we're bringing this case.

Courtney, in that WSVN report, Sheldon Fox, the reporter, got a, quote, statement from the current surfside mayor, Charles Burkett. Now, he represents, he's the mayor of a town that He's theoretically a litigant, a defendant, arguably in this litigation. He told the reporter, Using our police to punish Danzinger's political enemies is an outrage, but worse, it is a criminal act in itself. How does it feel you as a plaintiff's attorney or How extraordinary and rare is it that you have a defendant, effectively, or someone who represents the defendants, speaking out in favor of your side, of your position?

Well, it's terrific, and it's certainly different than the Correio case. But we're really happy that Mayor Burkett is doing the right thing. He's taking accountability for what happened from the last administration. We're really excited and proud that he is speaking out and supporting us.

Last thing, Joshua, before we go, you had mentioned earlier that Shlomo Danzinger is going to be back on the ballot this spring, running again for his old job in the mayor's office. He's going to be running against, I imagine, Charles Burkett, who will be running for re-election. Do you have a message for Shlomo Danzinger?

I have a message for Surfside voters. I think we all remember what it was like, how scared we were to complain about basic aspects of our lives that we didn't like in the town. I think that we know who we are as surfsiders, as Americans. I mean, we're all proud in surfside to live in the United States of America, and let's never give our freedoms away to people who think that they can do whatever they want to us. I mean, we're strong people and we'll hopefully not elect him at the ballot box and hopefully be held accountable in court. And a message can be sent to all South Florida politicians that if you don't like what someone says, you can speak out against them, but you can't throw them in jail and pick them up on a Friday night and throw them in TGK because that's not what we in this country.

Law student Joshua Epstein, his attorney, Courtney Caprio of Caldera Law. We will be following this one, as we have now for almost two years. We look forward to having you back and hearing more about the case as it proceeds. Best of love to you. Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?

Don't place parlays on multiple long shots.

Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero. Always drink your Jägermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion. Everything else? Everything else. Wearing clean underwear every day? Well, that's just a personal decision. Brushing your teeth? Obviously smart, but not a rule. Never PP on an electric fence. Okay, maybe There are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Jägermeister must be drink ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it. Drink responsibly.

Jägermeister L'Core, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York. For 48 years, I reported the truth. Now, here's my truth. I'm the son of Cuban immigrants who came to this country our opportunity and the chance of the American dream. This community was built by hardworking immigrants just like them. Yes, secure borders matter, but so does due process and our Constitution. When our leaders stay silent as these rights are trampled on, that silence is not leadership.

Elliott Rodriguez is a legend. He started as a Miami news paper reporter in the late 1970s and started in Miami TV news in 1980, the most exciting, dangerous, significant year in any major city in America or perhaps the world in history. 45 years later, he retired as main anchor at CBS in Miami after 25 years. Elliot, you made a career out of Reporting the facts objectively and succinctly and certainly passionately, but rarely has been in editorial form. Now, in the immediate aftermath of your retirement, when everybody just assumed you'd chill out, spend some time with the family, you are taking to the airwaves once again, but direct a camera with your opinion and your take on a crisis that's happening, not only certainly in this country, but profoundly in this community, a minority-majority or a majority-minority community that we live in here in Miami, Dade County. Why are you doing this? I mean, obviously, you can now, but why are you doing this?

I'm doing this because I'm not going to stay quiet with what's happening. First of all, thanks a lot for inviting me. And yes, I did step into a television newsroom for the first time in my life in May of 1980, and you, of all people, would know it well. That was a year We were right in the Mariel boat lift, the McDuffie riots. It was right in the middle of the cocaine cowboy. So I got my baptism under fire in TV news. The guy that hired me, his name was Ralph Frenick, and I'll always be grateful to them for turning me from a newspaper reporter into a TV reporter. And you're right, I was a journalist. I was never a commentator. I never gave my opinion. I considered a badge of honor that people did not know my political leanings. But towards the end, I was approached by a friend, Mike Fernandez, who was a very wealthy, well-healed, concerned citizen who asked me if I would join a campaign that he has speaking out against what I consider atrocities against the immigrant community. Mike is doing a number of commercials and public service announcements, and he asked me if I would do it.

I said, Mike, absolutely I'll do it because the two most important people in my life were immigrants, my mother and my father.

Elliot, you mentioned, I just want for people at home who don't know, Ralph Renick. Ralph Renick was Miami's Ron Burgundy. He was like classic old-school practically drinking the scotch on the air, at the desk guy. At some point, we should do some clips from Ralph Renick. He did some legendary, in some case, what would be considered pretty, I mean, well, would have been considered wacky. Now, in an era of the 24-hour cable news cycle, not so much anymore, but he was an originator of some of that editorialization, just like no holds barred talking to the camera. But, Elliot, I want to show this recent headline, I mean, very recent headline from the New York Times, consistent with all the reporting that we've seen in 2025 and so far this year. Remaking America. To their shock, Cubans in Florida are being deported in record numbers. Cubans had long benefited from legal privileges unavailable to immigrants from other countries. President Trump has changed that. As of course we know, Cuban Americans in Miami Dade County overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in 2024, swinging the entire county red for the first time in decades in a presidential election.

What are you getting from the Cuban-American community here in Miami Dade about this issue, this issue of Cuban Americans who were accustomed for, my God, 60 years to what we called Cuban exceptionalism in terms of the differentiation, somewhat argue, double standard in America's immigration policy that held Cuban immigrants and exiles in very different standing from Haitians, Dominicans, literally everybody else, particularly from Latin America. What are you getting from the community? Because obviously, this is for you an internal issue, like you're talking about your parents. But externally, what are you getting from the Cuban-American community here in Miami-Dade about this issue?

Well, I'm getting a lot of, This is not what I voted for. I thought they were going after the bad hombres. Jesus. Oh, this is not what we wanted. And now we're waking up and I'm saying, weren't you paying attention? Wasn't this part of the whole anti-immigrant stance that this administration has taken? And I think that people do feel that somehow we're special. I am Cuban-American, extremely proud of it. I grew up in a very Cuban household. I never lived in Cuba. I was not born in Cuba. But when people ask me, what are you? Just the shorthand answer is I'm Cuban. My family history is a little different because my parents came before the revolution. My dad came here in 1946 as a single man living alone in New York City. And in 1955, he meets a Cuban woman, my mother, who was in New York on a work visa. She worked in a factory in New York. This was before Castro. So they met in the 1950s, mid '50s, when I was born. And they were just regular They were immigrants. They were not political refugees. They weren't even economic refugees. My dad left because he was 21 years old.

He was very adventurous. So he went to New York and he loved it and he became a businessman there and he thrived. But if they had been stopped in the years when I was first born, they might have become victims of ICE. I don't know if they had all their documentation in order in 1956. In fact, I'm sure they didn't have all the paperwork in order. So maybe that's why I see it a little bit different. Maybe I have empathy, and I think that all people should be treated the same, and I think that our laws should be followed and our Constitution should not be trampled on. And that's what we're seeing, Billy.

We have to go back to this revisionist history here because the history ain't that old. The history is from the 2024 campaign. It reminds me, are you telling me the Cuban-American community in Miami is claiming that they've been bamboozled by a man who turned out to be a dictator? I feel like at the end of Hunt for Red October, when the guy goes, Andre, you've lost another submarine. I mean, again, bamboozled again, Elliot, I'm sorry. All of this was the policy. There were giant Trump rallies with Hundreds of people holding up signs that said, Mass deportations now. They talked about openly deporting 15 to 20 million people. That can't just be bad hombres. That numbers like that can't be just convicted criminals. That would be statistically impossible. They talked about the privatization and building prisons and holding centers and concentration camps. They talked about at least a million people a year being deported. You know what? Let me show this clip from my Congresswoman, Maria Elvira Salazar. Once again, humiliating herself on national television. There's a cynicism to this. Let's play this.

Trump's not approval rating among Latinos on his deportation program.

Look at this. You go back a year ago, according to the CBS News You Gov poll, he was right and even, right?

As many people approved as disapproved.

Again, that's really good numbers for a Republican among Latinos.

But look at where we are now.

34 points underwater.

Hispanics are very, very offended at the fact that they thought that the border was going to be sealed under President Trump. But then the bad hombres, as the President said, were the ones who were going to be targeted. But right now, we are in deep trouble in the GOP.

Does anybody smell that? You smell that, Roy? That's the bullshit that she's talking. I mean, look at the statistics on screen. Trump struggles with Hispanic voters, 68% disapproved, 27% approved. That's practically the inverse of where he was before. And a poll, if elections for Congress were held today, 41% of Hispanics would vote Democrat, 23% of Hispanics would vote Republican. That's some swing vote shit right there. Elliot, I'm getting the sense that Maria Elvira Salazar is not sincere, really, about this, because ever since your ad came out, she's now taken to the airwaves in defense of, I guess, her miserable track record of getting nothing done on this subject, of selling out her district, which is, I think, one of the largest immigrant Spanish-speaking districts, if not the, certainly among them in the entire country. Her position is, Oh, we're going to lose the midterms. It's not about policy or compassion. It's about politics. Is that right?

I would ask Maria and the other Republicans who are now just opening their eyes, I would ask, Weren't you paying attention? Did you not do your due diligence? Did you not find out exactly what Donald Trump was going to do? Because the rest of us knew we didn't know that the cruelty would reach this length. We didn't know that they were going to actually put an alligator out as in the middle of the Everglades. And by the way, Billy, has the federal government reimbursed the state of Florida for what? $600 million in FEMA funds to build a prison whose sole purpose is cruelty, to be cruel to immigrants. And by the way, they never stop any white immigrants. They only stop Brown, Hispanic immigrants. And in some cases, I've seen where they've stopped Hispanic who are citizens. One guy was stopped two times, and he's a citizen. And both times, he was rocked up by agents. I believe it was in Alabama. And both times he was an American citizen. We should not be seeing this in the United States of America in 2026. It's just wrong.

I'm still waiting on my DOGE check. I'm still waiting on my tariff rebate. I imagine we'll see that over half a billion dollar reimbursement from the federal government to the state of Florida as soon as we get those checks as well. Now, what we've seen on the streets of Minnesota is really interesting because the justification for this is is this idea that there is somehow a disproportionate amount of fraud in that state, that there's a disproportionate number of undocumented immigrants and immigrants convicted of crimes. I'm trying to find the stat here, but I don't even think Minneapolis ranks in the top 5, 10, 15, 20, maybe 50 cities. But you know who's number one for fraud? You know who's number one for immigrants per capita and for convicted criminal immigrants? I'll give you three guesses, Roy.

Florida?

Well, which city? You're there.

Oh, you're talking about cities? Miami.

Nailed it. Certainly the Miami-Dade metropolitan area here. I guess, I'm being a little snarky about it, but the concern, Elliot, is that next stop Miami. If this administration is sincere about its commitment to cracking down on bad hombres and on fraud? Are we going to see scenes like that in South Florida soon? And what, if anything, are Congress people, all of whom are either Cuban immigrants or first-generation Americans born to Cuban immigrants, what are they doing about it?

Well, I would ask Carlos Jimenez, is he carrying his passport around with him? He was born in Cuba. Salazar and Diasbar, like me, were born in the United States of Cuban Carlos Jimenez walking around with his passport in case they asked him, Where were you born? And he has to say, Havana, Cuba.

I think they should answer that question. I've invited them on the program. They have not accepted my invitation. I think it's disappointing because I think they have a lot to answer for. I think the idea that they're all trying to clean up this mess or pretending that they're cleaning up this mess now in the aftermath of people like you putting yourself out there in a way that I think effectively represents this community better than they are. What are they doing? They're voting lockstep with the president, with this administration. They're voting to increase the funding for ICE without any concessions or without any accountability or any transparency. I don't know that they effectively representing Americans, let alone representing a community of immigrants in America. Do you share that concern?

Absolutely. They're hypocrites. Let's just call it what it is. I agreed to be part of this campaign that Mike Fernandez is funding because he left Cuba when he was 12 years old, and he told me that what he is seeing now in the United States reminds him exactly of what was happening in his country when he was 12 years old and he left. He said, Elliot, I haven't forgotten it, and I'm seeing a repeat. And I said, Mike, we're living in a dictatorship. Now, you can say you lived in a dictatorship at the beginning of a dictatorship in Cuba, and now we're living in one here. The last thing I ever expected to do After 48 years working in journalism and retiring, and I have six daughters who are now are all grown and have children, and I wanted to spend time with them. The last thing I wanted to do was being involved in any campaign like this. But you know what? I couldn't stay quiet. There's no way I could stay quiet seeing what I am seeing in Minneapolis that's now not only affected immigrant, the immigrant community, it's affecting American citizens. And I think it's not a time to stand by the sidelines and be quiet It's a time to speak out.

Everybody speak out. Look, the folks in Minneapolis, my hats off to them. Now we're getting news that they're pulling out those goon squads because that's what they are, Goon squads. Nobody in the United States of America should be subjected to somebody pulling up in an unmarked car, wearing a mask and asking them for their papers. This is not Nazi Germany. It's so simple to me. I just don't understand why more people are not as outraged as I am.

Elliot Rodriguez, so much for a quiet retirement. My apologies to your wife and six daughters. They thought you were going to be chilling. On the way out the door, I want to let everyone know just how embarrassing this is for those of us who live in this community of immigrants who care about our friends and neighbors and their safety and well-being and their due process rights and their ability to contribute to this community as law-abiding taxpayers. This is what Republicans and influencers like Matt Walsh, for example, very prominent, very popular right-wing political commentator and podcast host. This is what they think when Maria Elvira Salazar tries to pretend that she suddenly cares about immigrants and their rights.

What do you mean by our? What do you mean by we, Maria? You're Cuban. Your greatest priority is to destroy our national sovereignty and identity. You talk American history like it's something to be ashamed of. So there's no we here. You're not American. You clearly don't like this country or identify yourself with it. You want to talk about we, go back to Cuba and talk about we. How dare you come here and start telling us that we aren't allowed to have a country anymore. How dare you come here and tell us that, Oh, you're not... No, it's shameful. It's shame. You should be ashamed. How dare... Get the hell out, seriously. Standing there talking I don't want shameful moments. I know one shameful moment in American history, it's when you got elected.

I agree with his latter sentiment, but for the record, he wants her to go back to Cuba. She was born in Miami.

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Boah, nee, gar nicht. Wieso Steuer ist so die Steuer-App, mit der ich wirklich nichts falsch machen kann. Wow. Das heißt, damit ist alles sicher? Ja, genau.

Wiso Steuer ist die Steuer-App, die dich versteht.

Weil Steuer betrifft ja dein ganzes Leben. Arbeit, Kinder, Partner. Du kannst nichts falsch machen. Stimmt. Nice.

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