Transcript of #BecauseMiami- We've Got the Meats!

Sag mal, Nikola, hast du auch immer dieses Gefühl, bei der Steuererklärung mit einem Bein schon im Knast zu stehen? 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. Wieso 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. Fühlt sich gar nicht wie Steuern an. Steuern erledigt? Safe. Mit Wieso Steuer? Jetzt kostenlos testen.

How are you? I'm recording this for the record. You can record on your end. How can I help you?

Is that your account?

I refuse to answer questions without my lawyer present. Like I said, you're not going to- This is freedom of speech. This is America, right?

I agree with you 100%.

You're here to investigate a statement that I allegedly made on Facebook. Am I being charged with the crime?

The concerning part and not concerning for the person who's posting it, we're just trying to prevent somebody else getting agitated or agreeing with the statement. We're not saying it's true or not. That guy who consistently caused for the death of all Palestinians, that can probably incite somebody to do something radical. That's all we're here to talk about, and we wanted to get your side of it.

Would you not post it that?

I would think to refrain from posting things like that because that could get something incited.

I appreciate your concern. I appreciate you coming out here.

New Year, same old Miami. As Americans are watching on live TV, the federal government ignoring, disregarding, violating, make disappear our First Amendment rights, Second Amendment rights, Fourth Amendment rights, Sixth Amendment rights, probably our Fifth Amendment rights, is as well. The same thing is happening right here at home because Miami. The Miami of today is the America of tomorrow. I mean, that's been pretty clear this past week, Roy, you remember? Yeah. I mean, all things Miami, right? Sports, culture, politics. We had a Florida man, President, a Miami man, Secretary of State attending the National Championship of College Football here in Miami. With the Miami Hurricanes playing a fellow born in Boston, but Miami boy and Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza. This is my first show back in Because Miami, but I was here, of course, doing,. I did it live and, of course, was here to witness Roy Ramos. Call that game ending. I mean, it was the easiest thing to call, man.

I mean, come on. I've been watching football for 41 years. That's what happens.

That's what happened at the end of all of our losses this season. But Miami is going to Miami. And what you just saw was a cell phone video from Raquel Pacheco, an Army National Guard veteran, former candidate for the Florida State Senate and Miami Beach City Commission. On January 12th, she got a visit from Miami Beach Police police officers because she was reported by Mayor Stephen Minor for making a mean Facebook comment underneath a post of his. Yes, that is a real thing that happened. It made for strange bedfellows because it's politics is a perfect circle, Roy, and so it's brought a lot of people together that you wouldn't expect to be agreeing on an issue. Stephen Minor, you might remember, is the Miami Beach mayor who is an accused serial sex pest. He was forced to resign from his government job as an SEC attorney 17 years in. He was just three years away from a fully-vested pension, and he resigned to kill an HR investigation into multiple accusations from multiple women in the SEC's Miami office of sexual harassment, including a college intern and a fellow lawyer in the office. He also is responsible for the international humiliation when he attempted to shut down the O-Cinema, our local art house cinema, for playing a documentary he didn't like.

That won an academy award the month before. This guy just can't help himself. He's also being sued. When I say him, I mean him and the city. So the taxpayers are footing the bill for a First Amendment lawsuit against the city for violating the First Amendment rights of a Jewish peace organization to conduct peaceful demonstrations. I mean, it just... It just... Hashtag Because Miami. It's more Beach. We're doing all the cards. All the... Roy. Roy. This is extremely frustrating because obviously, the First Amendment is numero uno in the Bill of Rights and in our hearts, Roy, here at the Because Miami Show. What we saw happen here was the police put out a statement. Let's start there. After this incident started to blow up internationally, Raquel Pacheco's video went viral. They wrote, On Monday, the Miami Beach Police Department was made aware of social media posts containing potentially inflammatory commentary, referencing a Miami Beach elected official. In light of recent national concerns regarding anti-Semitism and out of abundance of caution, the Department assessed the post for any potential safety implications. As a precautionary measure, intelligence unit detectives conducted a brief. Let's go ahead and stop there.

Reason is the key phrase here is that on Monday, the Miami Beach Police Department was made aware of a social media post. My producing partner Alfred Spellman and I wanted to know how they were made aware of this social media post. We sent in some public records requests that are now about two weeks old. The first request was for all emails that contained the keyword, in quotes, Raquel Pacheco, from a six-day period, from about January sixth to 12th-ish. They came back and they said, We found 56 emails for you, and we'd like to charge you $1,560 for them. What? Well, they claimed that the 56 emails were on average 70 pages each, that they totaled 3,920 pages. So they wanted over $1,500 for it. And in order to proceed with the request, a 50% deposit was required. What? Yes. So that was the first thing that happened. So I decided to narrow the request, and I sent a second request saying, You know what? Just give me Whatever documents that you referred to in your statement saying that on Monday you were made aware. How were you made aware? I was told it was an email.

So give me that email. I'm basically asking for one document. How much is that? So they wrote back, We found six emails. Well, that's much fewer. That's a good start. They want $1,480 to go through the 3,742 pages. Is that a discount? $250 per email. The whole thing is ludicrous. So we amended both requests and said, You know what? Don't review 3,000, 4,000 pages. Just give us the first page of each email. Ignore every page thereafter, the rest of the thread, any attachments. Now, it's only for six emails, basically. We'll see what happens there. In the meantime, they are in full-blown panic. It is crisis management mode. There are all hands-on deck meetings with the whiny cry baby mayor whose jeans are tight. He's not getting enough oxygen to the brain. So this guy's got the police chief, he's got the city manager, the city attorney. No business of the people of the city of Miami Beach are getting done. They're just in crisis management mode to try to spare what's left of the miserable international humiliation of a reputation that is Steven Minor. And they put out a second statement. They're not releasing any public records.

They just keep writing more statements. The next one is crazy. And it's from Chief Wayne Jones, who is ordinarily a reasonable man, but this thing reads like the mayor was holding a gun to his head. I was like, Hey, police chief, blink twice if you need help. He says, In response to recent media inquiries... He doesn't write this, but we're not releasing any public records. But Wayne Jones has the following statement, Given the real ongoing National and international concerns surrounding anti-Semitic attacks and recent rhetoric that has led to violence against political figures. I don't know what that has to do with anything. But he says, I directed two of my detectives to initiate a brief voluntary conversation regarding certain inflammatory, potentially insightful, false remarks. Now, the police chief, with no corroboration or investigation, is characterizing Raquel Pacheco's remarks as being false all of a sudden. That wasn't the story two days earlier. But he just wanted to make sure there was no immediate threat to the elected official or the broader community that might emerge as a result of the post. The interaction was handled professionally and without incident. I had serious concerns that her remarks could trigger physical action by others.

At no time did the mayor or any other official direct me to take action. Whoa, is this some high bullshittery? First of all, stop releasing statements and release the public records already. You know what we're looking for. They got to come out irregardless, so release them. Whoa, do you have the money I'm not going to call that. Call Uncle Dan. Let's get the Metta Lark credit card up in here. I need a public records budget on this show, damn it. I have a pizza and parody song budget. All right, this is ridiculous. First of all, he characterizes Ms. Pacheco's is false, but yet there appear to be several disingenuous, if not outright, false claims in Chief Wayne Jones's statement. Okay, first, he says, At no time did the mayor or any other official direct me to take action. Dude, we already know that this incident was a direct result of a complaint by the mayor's office to the police Department, via an email that the city refuses to release. To borrow the chief's terminology, Minor, at the bare minimum, incited this questionable visit by detectives to Ms. Pacheco. If you call 911, Roy, to report a suspicious person, and that person gets arrested, you didn't order the police to arrest that person, but you called the cops on them.

No, I probably would get arrested in that situation.

But what I'm saying is that's exactly what happened here. Minor called the cops on Pacheco because of her mean Facebook comment. Then the police chief sent armed plainclothed detectives in unmarked car to police her speech by telling her, If it was you who posted that, I would think to refrain from posting things like that.

So a threat.

I mean, I thought it was pretty clear. It was a very professional demeanor, but it sounded like him policing her speech. Finally, if in fact the police chief, Roy, had serious concerns that her remarks could trigger physical action by others, how does dispatching police to her home dispel that? The detective himself tells her, We're less worried about you than we are about other people. Well, then why go to see her then? It doesn't make any sense. Here to talk to us about it is Raquel Pacheco herself, who I understand has heard from many a strange figure, including not one, but two gubernatorial candidates in the Republican primary for Florida governor who support her freedom of speech. Say no. Starting with Paul Renner, who was the former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, who had a very reasonable take. Let's play it. This video of Miami Beach police interrogating a poor woman over a harmless social media post is outrageous. I served for 20 years in the military and in two wars, so this would never happen in our country. This is a fundamental right of all Americans, free speech. You can disagree with me or anybody else to the top of your lungs.

That's your right. When I'm governor of the free state of Florida, you will have that right. I understand some elected officials don't get it. I do. We will protect it here in Florida. James Fishback is a groiper-adjacent, right-wing internet troll. A grooper? Groiper. Not a... A square groiper? Oh, yeah.

He's a fishback, so.

He's been making a lot of news lately with his race baiting rhetoric against opponent Byron Donalds, who he's nicknamed Byrone. Byrone, and he wants this quote, Send him back to the ghetto, end quote. There's allegations of grooming, there's multi-state voter registration controversy, a big public blowup on social media with Governor Ron DeSantis advisor, Christina Pashaw, is a wild man. And he appeared... Yes, we are showing a clip from One American News from Own on Because Miami. It is the Matt Gates show. What? I don't even know what's happening right now. We are through the Looking Glass here, people. But this is what I said about strange bedfellows. And James Fishback had this to say. How can a governor vindicate free speech?

Well, in this particular case, what I would do as governor is I would use my power is vested under Article 4, Section 7A of the Florida Constitution, and immediately remove the mayor of Miami Beach for dereliction of duty, for essentially using his office to politically pursue someone who merely disagreed with him on the Internet. But I think it's a bigger part of something that you and I, Matt, have talked about for a while, which is Republicans and Democrats not teaming up to fight for higher wages or stopping the great replacement, but teaming up to combat anti-Semitism. Look, we all agree that all forms of religious hatred should be condemned, but that does not give you the right to snatch our free speech rights in the name of protecting anti-Semitism or defending against it. You're allowed to criticize Israel Netanyahu. You're allowed to call him a war criminal. We're allowed to do whatever we want in this country. It's called the First Amendment And as Florida governor, I'll always defend that.

Not an unreasonable position. Then he upped the ante on the Twitter machine, now known as X, where Fishback wrote, Our founding fathers would have publicly executed Miami Beach mayor Stephen Minor for ordering armed men to confront a woman for criticizing the government. It might have been a little bit of a extreme hyperbolic statement. Raquel Pacheco, first and foremost, before we get into all of this craziness, how are you doing? How are you feeling? I know this was a little... You put on a tough face and a tough voice on your video, but how are you feeling now about all this?

Well, first of all, thank you for having me, and thank you for highlighting this story. The initial shock has worn off. I'm still dealing with the actual physical and emotional aspects of having to deal with this. Both my son and I are... We're just on extra... My nervous system is on alert. Let's put it that way. Managing the best I can, trying to get back to life as normal as soon as possible, I guess.

You made a very powerful statement contemporaneously, in the immediate aftermath of this when you were doing interviews. Do you remember what you said about the First Amendment?

I sure do. It still rings true today. I said that it felt like the First Amendment, and as I know it, died at my door that day.

Things aren't getting any better, it seems, on a national level. I don't mean to be glib about it, but your incident is a microcosm of a greater plague in this country that is clearly bringing people from the left of which you ran. I should have mentioned you ran as a Democrat when you ran for office two times, and people from the right. James Fishback I guess they call it the political horseshoe, but I'd call it a circle. But what is that like, though, to hearing from people who... I mean, I don't think it's too presumptuous to say that you would probably never vote for.

No, I wouldn't vote for Mr. Fishback. Mr. Fishback reached out to me. Actually, his aid initially reached out to me, asked if I would have a conversation with him. I wasn't even familiar with him as a candidate, but I agreed because I agreed to talk with everyone. We had a good exchange via phone about standing as Americans behind First Amendment issues and protections. So on that much, we agreed. He asked me to go to Tallahassee and do a press conference with him, which I politely declined because after investigating Mr. Fishback's platform, there's nothing there that I can politically, personally, or morally align with. So I politely declined. But the thing that stands out about this outreach from across the aisle is that this is the one issue that Americans can all rally behind despite party affiliation. So that's promising.

It's a start. I mean, it must provide some solace, if not comfort.

It does. It's good to see Americans lay down our differences and come together over this issue. It's like first amendment, number one. We get this right, we're screwed.

I talk on this show a lot about the city of Miami, which is a very different beast than the city of Miami Beach. The government's very different. Obviously, the makeup city of Miami is one of the largest cities in Florida, and it operates very differently in the city of Miami Beach, which is a barrier island with approximately 80,000 full-time residents. You have a very different system of government where the mayor has a vote. All the commissioners run citywide and not as districts like we do in the city of Miami. There are six other people other than the mayor. I'm going to name them because I think it's important. Monica Mateo Salinas, Laura Dominguez, Alex J. Fernandez, Tanya Bott, David Suarez, Joseph magazine. All of these people have the same mandate as the mayor. They were all elected citywide. Some of them were elected by more votes or a far greater margin. Monica, Mateo Salinas was won by 20% more than Mayor Minor was voted with. They all have the same one vote on the commission out of seven. I'm finding this silence of these folks really peculiar and odd. The spinelessness, the cowardice, they are enabling this ongoing misconduct of this mayor, in my opinion.

Have you heard on the record from any of these people? Have they spoken out publicly about... You're hearing from statewide candidates for Florida governor. Have you heard from your local... You're a resident in Miami Beach. Have you heard from your local representatives who you probably voted for some of them?

Not one. Not one. I'm in shock, actually, at the response. I'm going to say some things today that maybe will not make me any new friends, but I never got into politics or activism to make friends, so I'm just going to be very blunt here. I'm incredibly blown away by the lack of response from the entire Democratic side of politics on this issue. You mentioned Mr. Fishback, and I don't even know this other gentleman. Well, Paul Renner. I wasn't even familiar earlier with his comments. But I'll tell you, the silence from the Democratic side is really quite deafening here. I haven't heard from David Jolly. I haven't heard from Nikki Fried, I haven't heard from... I've heard from one political consultant Consultant, not Christian Elvert, thankfully. It's just absolutely deafening. It's just you see this opportunity for the Democratic Party of Florida to come together on an issue that even Republicans can come together on.

And what do you hear?

Crickets.

You know what I say? The Democrats never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. So while this doesn't shock me, it certainly disappoints me. And I think it was my friend's left of center who once told me, Silence is violence, as those of us who have privilege in this country have to use our platform and our bully pulpets to speak out for people who don't have the ability to amplify their message or perhaps are afraid to do so. To hear silence is violence and then to hear, as you put it, deafening silence from Democrats and from the left on this is absolutely, to borrow a term, deplorable.

It is. It speaks to a much bigger issue that we have here in Florida. I mean, I've always suspected that we had some organizational issues, but now I'm certain of it.

Well, they're systemic. I don't really see how Nikki Fried has a job. I mean, if you look at the latest statewide voter registrations, I mean, Republicans just continue to widen that gap. I mean, the only person who can be this wrong and this bad at their job and keep it are meteorologists. I don't really understand how... And even they, I think, have a better success rate than Nikki Fried. I mean, this is just embarrassing already. Incidentally, the show's not called Making Friends, Raquel. It's called Because Miami for a reason. It's because if you close your eyes, you can see how many facts we give on this program. You've come to the right place to alienate your political party.

Yeah, I feel totally at home. Thank you.

Let me ask you, before we go, what is next? I understand You've lawyered up. We're all trying to get some public records here that, in my opinion, are clearly being slow walked by the mayor. I think there is a conspiracy to violate Florida statute going on in the city of Miami Beach right now, and I hope they're looking at a lot of lawsuits. I know I'm ready to go if they don't turn the... And public records are called public records. They don't belong to the mayor. They don't belong to the city manager. They don't belong to the city of Miami Beach. They own nothing. They work for us, and all of the work product that they generate is our work product. It is on our time and our dime. I had a Republican lawmaker late last year on this program who was introducing a bill this legislative session in Florida to make Chapter 119 stronger because he has now experienced for how this statute is abused. I think there is no doubt we are seeing an abuse of that here. I'm sorry, I got to get off my Billy pulpit. But what is next for you and what are you experiencing with your own?

I imagine your own public records requests.

Right. We have our own public records request. You have yours. The Harold has theirs. There's lots of public requests going and actively active at the same time. We're going to keep pressing for those. I'm really taken aback by the absurdity in the city's lack of response here, there hasn't been any discussion about having an open meeting, a meeting, or trying to discuss this with me. At the very least, at this point, I think the best they can do is the right thing to It would be for them to release the documents at no cost and to just have a completely transparent process and maybe conduct an internal investigation. We're going to advocate and push for that.

Absolutely. In my last email, in fact, I'm writing one right now. You got me all fired up. I'm sitting here literally writing a public records request to the city of Miami Beach. But I specifically said, and I copied everyone in the city, I said, With the overwhelming public and media interest on this, you should waive all of the fees associated with these public records requests in the interest of full transparency. When do you think Do you think that'll happen, Roy?

When the whole freeze is over, probably.

Probably about right. Raquel Pacheco, thanks so much for being here, and good luck to you. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

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Francis Suarez, apparently on his way out the door, it's unclear exactly when, gifted to... Somehow this guy had at least four sergeant-at-arm, which ludicrous. We have covered his abuse of the Sergeant at Arm system, Adnauzam, on this show, and just the absolute waste of police time and resources, a taxpayer money, how it's helped to kill morale at the Miami Police Department, which has never been lower. He gifted them, Roy, four Sergeant at Arms, Rolex watches. We don't know what model of Rolex watch. We don't know if they're used or they fell off a truck or we don't know what, but four Rolex watches.

Like he's a quarterback and he's giving watches to his offensive line.

Hang on. Wait for it, Roy. You know what I'm looking for? Sports. Hey, you found it. I'm curious. Naomi, do you have any idea what might be the floor on this? What is the bare minimum that Francis Suarez might have spent out of pocket to gift these luxury items to police officers?

Yeah. I mean, obviously, I wish I knew the style, if it was primary market, secondary market. But floor, it could be a 6,000. It could go all the way up to 100,000, depending, again, on the model, if you bought it on the secondary market. As we all know, none of us need to be watch connoisseurs. We've seen the prices of jewelry, watches, have skyrocketed really since the pandemic. I can't even imagine what the price is.

If you're wondering, Roy, where you got this money from, it's because- Mr..

Mayor, you're brilliant.

You were super smart. And we're sure those watches didn't come out of the back of a truck. Well, that's what I said. I don't know. We don't know. They could be previously enjoyed. Do they have serial numbers on them? We just don't know. But what we do know is that there is an investigation by Miami Police Internal Affairs into these four officers. Well, three of them. One of the four have retired. Two of them, we know, have in fact been demoted. The timing seems to be curious, though it may have been prior to this internal affairs complaint and investigation being launched. Naomi, first and foremost, though, let's talk about this IA investigation. Apparently, there may have been some violation of departmental orders or policy as a result of whether it's an elected official or whether he was already a private citizen, giving a gift or what could have the appearance of a bribe for some preferential treatment. What are the rules here that may have been violated?

Yeah, there are strict rules about officers, any employee within the department accepting gifts or gratuities because they want to prevent bribery, corruption, or even, let's say, someone got a gift for a police officer, and they meant no harm by it. They didn't know the rules, but they don't want to present the image as though that officer employee is compromised. I think the sheer fact that if they got these watches on itself, it doesn't look good, accepting a gift. But the sheer fact that luxury watch at this price, I think, supposedly had been rubbing people within the department the wrong way, the message that it sends.

Of course. I mean, listen, this has been part of the problem with the morale is that the fish rots from the head down. Roy, what's been happening is the rank and police officers have been sent message that there is just impunity at the top, that there is no accountability for the people in charge of this department. And that's not a good thing. It doesn't make the officers safer on the streets. It doesn't make the public safer. It arguably puts everyone in greater danger and makes the streets and the city less safe. You just have a real message being sent from the chief and assistant chiefs and majors that you can act with impunity, and they don't even care about That's the perception of corruption here. Naomi, what do you know about the procedures here? We mentioned one of the... Sergeant Arms has retired, so she gets to sail off into the sunset with her beautiful Rolex wristwatch. But there's three other officers currently employed, two of whom have been demoted a great personal expense because they're making much less money. I mean, upper five figures, if not, lower six figures less money. But they're all subject to this internal affairs process, and they can be called in and subjected to discipline.

What do we know about this?

Yeah. I mean, may I add one thing, though? Sorry, real quick. Yeah, two got demoted, one didn't. So begs the question, why one wasn't? Who knows? What could it be? But one other thing that's really interesting is that, supposedly, there was one additional sergeant of arms who allegedly was gifted a watch but declined, given the orders. So that has also been added to the complaint. That would be very interesting to see what comes out of that.

But yeah, I mean- There was a fifth. To be clear, there was a fifth sergeant of arms- There was a fifth. Who was offered a Rolex by Francis Suarez but turned it down, presumably because he knew it was a violation of policy?

Yeah. I tried to confirm that. I haven't gotten any confirmation. It's a complete dead end. But as we know, they're investigating it. Supposedly, they're investigating it. Again, the process is ongoing, and we might not hear for months. I mean, you're no stranger to knowing how these investigations work.

Come on, we might never hear. I'm eager to see. We might never hear. We might never hear. Again, this may never come up again.

And I think the big question, I think for a lot of people have been, what will be the outcome? I mean, they're like, I guess Francis is Scott free. He's not in office anymore. I guess it's more of a reputational thing, but it is very interesting.

What reputation? Underhanded man child fail, son. I mean, come on. Naomi, the major in charge of internal affairs is Winsor Lozano. Winsor Lozano. What a name. Winsor Lozano is part of a, let's call him a Miami police dynasty. His father, I believe, was a police officer. His father His brother, so Winsor Lozano's uncle, William Lozano, was also a Miami police officer. If that name sounds familiar, it's because William Lozano, in January of 1989, shot and killed an unarmed Black motorist, Clement Lloyd, who was allegedly fleeing another Miami police officer who was chasing him for an alleged traffic violation. Lozano was on foot investigating an unrelated incident, heard about the situation, and later claimed that the motorcycle veered toward him. He fired at the motorcycle, striking Lloyd in the head and killing him instantly. The motorcycle crashed into an oncoming car, injuring two occupants, and Lloyd's passenger on the motorcycle, a 24-year-old named Alan Blanchard, died the next day from his injuries. Several Black witnesses said that Lozano walked almost to the center of the street, Dirty Harry style, with his handgun poised and ready to shoot for several seconds as the motorcycle approach. So stood in the path of the motorcycle and executed the man, according to these witnesses.

Now, I should say this was January of '89. You remember the-Super Bowl? Super Bowl was here at Joe Robby Stadium. He went on his bang. I was there. The city burned while the world's press was here covering the Super Bowl in the so-called Lozano riots. Lozano was originally convicted of manslaughter. And then, Roy Black, the famed criminal defense attorney who just passed away last year, won an appeal, and in a retrial, he was acquitted and went free. William Lozano was the last police officer in Miami Dade County to ever be charged with an on duty killing. This is the esteemed background that this internal affairs major comes from. Naomi, who polices the police? Am I to believe that Winsor Lozano, the internal affairs major who is supposed to be investigating Watchgate, is himself under investigation?

That brings us to Giftgate. Yeah, he is. Gifgate, it went from Watchgate to Giftgate. That is a good question to ask, who polices the police?

What is Giftgate now? This guy is investigating improper, alleged, or potential improper gifts made to Miami police officers, and he himself is caught on video that was posted publicly to the internet, accepting improper gifts?

Yeah. In the wake of of Watchgate, we've now entered Giftgate, where there was a video of Major Lozano appearing to receive a luxury gift box from a chef and owner of El Toro Loco. You know it's a TikTok video. Lozano is wearing his badge. He has his gun on his holster, and he is posing with this gift box, and he's giving the guy a hug and opening this box. There's wine, there's all these meat like these gourmet, like butcher meats, jacket. There's even a birthday card and a Scotch glass or whiskey glass. And he's accepting this gift, seemingly accepting this gift in this video. And so we wrote this story. And Actually, an interesting snippet of this story is who posted the video, again, is the owner of El Toro, a local steakhouse. There's a few locations. There's a location in the city of Miami. His name is Aldo Espinosa. Actually, Actually, if you go through the same TikTok account and Instagram account that posted this video, they also posted a video from his birthday of Lozano and also Chief Manny Morales celebrating their birthday with him. I bring that up because when I reached for comment, Lozano, he told me, Thank you for reaching out.

Just wanted to clarify this was just a skit. I had no clue it would be posted online. But he said it was purely promotional. You can even call Aldo. He can explain, which I did. He said, Yes, it was just for promoting his new butcher shop that was opening, and these are one of the gift boxes you could get. But my ears, I still perked up by that because this video was posted back in July. I just reported this in January. His video has been up for a long time.

Seven months.

Exactly. I use that information. I put in the story and let the reader decide what they want.

The idea being that if Lozano didn't know that this was going to be posted online, he certainly has known for several months. Exactly. If he understood that it appeared to be a skit in which he was violating policy, clearly identifiable as a police officer with badge and gun, then he probably should have asked his buddy to take it down so that not only would he not get in trouble, but it wouldn't send the message that we were talking about down the chain of command, that you can behave like this in uniform without any accountability. Now the Carl Gables Police Department is now investigating the head of IA because, of course, IA can't investigate the head of IA because he's the head of IA, for crying out loud. Now this has been kicked over to Carl Gables, who are investigating the head of IA for possibly accepting a gift in violation of policy while he investigates other Miami police officers for possibly accepting gifts in violation of policy. All of this takes us to meet Kate, because then In the gift that keeps on giving, you now dig into El Toro Loco and find out some wild shit about the relationship between this so-called Miami meat Tsar, as you've dubbed him.

What else would you call him? Put it on the poll. I don't know. The Tsar of meat. I don't know. But this man has a very deep relationship between us and our tax dollars, it What did you learn here, Naomi?

As we shift from Gifgate to Beatgate, what stood out to me was I think this was so important is because I think context matters because we want to know, it could have been A harmless thing, just giving him a gift. They're good friends. But also I wanted to know, does this guy have further ties within the community and involved in the city business? So as I said, he does actually have a meat distribution company where he's giving out these meats, and then he also has the steakhouses, one of which is within the city of Miami. And so in doing this, I got records to show that since December 2023 through December 2025, he's been getting quite a bit of money, $730,000 worth- What? Of money because of... Yes. Wait, I'll get there. And basically, meaning this money is basically from district 3 and district 1, and they are for different... I mean, district 3 under Joe Caroy was the big spender. He was responsible for 90% of it. District 1, Gabela's office only basically had two purchases.

For clarity, these are, sorry to interrupt, this is what we call discretionary funds. Exactly. There's no bidding, there's no RFP. These guys can spend this money however they want to spend this money without any accountability other than, I guess, perhaps, requesting these records and being able to see how they spent them. So they're just writing checks, three quarters of a million dollars, it seems, and counting. Because even though Joe Correo is gone, Miguel Gabela is there still spending tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on what? On meat? What are they spending it? Yeah.

So for district 3, for instance, and district 1 had one of these giveaways. So Correo would have a lot of these holiday distribution events where you would have turkey giveaways, pork shoulder giveaways, evidently.

Al Capone style.

I wasn't well-versed. That was the thing.

Don King style. Wait, pork shoulder giveaway?

Pork Butt. Yeah, and for holiday distribution events, turkey makes sense, Thanksgiving.

So three quarters of a million dollars in pork butt?

To give you one example, November 2024, his office paid $156,000 for whole turkeys. This past November, again, that's for a turkey distribution. In November December 2025, $200,000 for whole turkeys, but there was also $111,000 for some prime pork shoulder. And then there's various in our article, and if people take a look at it, I have a little breakdown since December 2023 of each month of what they were bills. It's pork shoulder, turkey, pork shoulder. Gabela's office had one other purchase besides a one distribution meat distribution spending. It was for a staff luncheon for only $448.

The money we're talking about, though, I have to ask the question, not making any accusations, but the money we're talking about, particularly Joe Correlio. These guys, El Toro Loco, they have a food truck outside here at Bayfront Park, which was the subject of part of the scandal or the controversy in the Bayfront Park Management Trust, where it was alleged by the former executive director who's now suing the city and the Bayfront Park Management Trust and Joe Correlio, saying that these were very politically connected individuals to Joe Correo, and he allowed them to apparently tap into the city's power supply, so not have to furnish their own generator as they're apparently required to do, perhaps by lease or contract or whatever. And steal, he was alleging, power, electricity, and arguably tax dollars from the city. These people have come up before. But when you're talking about this money, there's always the question of alleged kickbacks. There's always the question of when When there's so much money going out and there's no accountability and there's no one else in city government, procurement doesn't know about it, city manager doesn't know about it, city attorney doesn't know about it, nobody is looking over and approving these contracts.

But where is this money going? Is it all going to Toiki? Is it all going to pork shoulder or pork asshole or whatever it is. We can say that now. But can we follow the money any further here, Naomi?

I mean, this is just the beginning. I mean, let's see where it happens. As far as I know, I'm not sure where else the money could lead us. I got Excel sheets instead of Excel sheets full of these invoices. I don't know where it could lead. It could lead somewhere else.

You know where it leads? It leads me to the conclusion that we are in the wrong line of work because these sergeant arms make almost 200 grand a year, basically to just chauffeur. There's no life and limb. It's not really protecting and serving the way rank and file police officers do. You basically are a chauffeur for elected who nobody recognizes anywhere they go anyway. So there's not exactly a secret service level of threat or anxiety. And then they get Rolexes, apparently. And then if we sold pork butt or whatever, we'd apparently be making three quarters of a million dollars. It all feels like we should just... What do they say? I want either less corruption or more of an opportunity to participate in it because this is just absolutely nuts. And I want to say, for the record, if Now, Francis Juarez, we're all human beings here, and these cops are human beings, and they did a job for him, by the way, at our taxpayer expense, but nonetheless, if he wants to give them a sweater or he wants to take them to dinner, a nice dinner at Capitol Grill or Sunny Steakhouse or something, to say thank you and and and goodbye.

I don't know that I'd have that big of a problem with it. But when you're giving police officers in apparent violation of policy, luxury gift items that could very easily be seen as some an effort to impact how they might do their jobs towards this person who has been, incidentally, accused of a great many different things that might require law enforcement action here. Roy, I was going to apply. I know Miami New Times is looking for a new editor in Sheet. I was going to apply for that job. I think we all know. I'm going to go to the food truck across the street and apply for a job at El Toro Loco. Yeah, I'm going to get into the turkey and pork ass distribution business. Listen. We can say that now. Yeah, you're right. Naomi Feinstein, read her at miyminewtimes. Com. She's been doing great work, really fascinating stuff that I think is of interest well beyond the borders of... #becausemiami. In the meantime, cocanes.