Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Help those arrested at County Hall during Marlins fiesta ... by Guest Blogger

Ms. Yvonne Stratford and Tony Romano were released from custody early this morning after being arrested yesterday afternoon as they walked out of the Miami Dade County Chambers (read below for a full explanation of the circumstances of the arrest). Both are a little tired, but in good spirits. Thank you to all of you who sent emails and called county officials demanding their release. They are both facing several misdemeanor charges. They still need support in asking for all charges to be dropped. If you haven't taken action yet go ahead and do so now:

The Details

Ms. Yvonne Stratford and Tony Romano were arrested on Monday March 23, as they left the Miami-Dade Board of County Commission Chambers. They were peacefully leaving a hearing to demonstrate their vote of no confidence in county leaders as they considered a bad deal to build a new stadium for the Florida Marlins.

The process of the City and County cutting a bad deal with Marlins officials has denied the right of residents to vote on the project from the outset. Opposition to the deal has cut across race and class lines and galvanized a call for democracy and opposition to corporate bailouts at the local level in South Florida. This is a final attempt by county officials to silence dissent.

-Joseph Phelan, Miami Workers Center

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The arrests show how much money was involved. Selected insiders and various commissioners who voted yes will make serious money. Of course, the taxpayers got screwed.

Anonymous said...

well. I think they were foolish to do what they did. They may not respect the individuals, but they needed to have more class and respect the government building which is home to all of us.

besides, if they are activists they should know the rules of decorum in the chambers and if they are really up to speed, they would realize that getting arrested where it doesn't change an outcome or even make a ripple in the pond of life would give them a police record without a logical reason.

Anonymous said...

Every intelligent Miami-Dade County resident and stakeholder were ignored and treated with disrespect by at least nine commissioners. Special blame goes to Carlos Alvarez and George Burgess who appeared to be snickering as they stole $2 billion from the taxpayers to benefit the owner of a privately owned company. Let us see how stupid Alvarez and Burgess look when they try to sell the bonds and then later when they get hit with the cost overruns.

Geniusofdespair said...

Trust me no one will care when the shit hit the fan. All of you sheep out there: THEY TOOK MOST OF THE TRANSIT TAX into general funds about a month ago. Where was your outrage about that?

And if one more person says "I won't vote for them" I will stuff a sock down your throat. They don't care about your vote. Haven't you figured that out yet?

Anonymous said...

follow the money