9 DECEMBER 29, 2022 - JANUARY 4, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | lure superstar quarterback Tom Brady, who was under contract with the cross-state rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the time, and contacting the agent of then-New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton with similar designs on poaching. Ross’ disregard for the rules cost the Dolphins a 2023 first-round draft pick and a third-round pick in 2024, and the owner himself was fined $1.5 million, suspended for the first six games of the current season, and barred from attending the league’s fall meeting. Undeterred, Ross pivoted to pissing off preservationists, spending $1 million in an unsuccessful effort to pass Referendum 1, which would have allowed him to build an eyesore of a hotel and condo on the site of the recently demolished Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach. Robert Sabater The cops involved in a repugnant display at the Royal Palm Hotel on July 26, 2021, could go a long way to- ward populating a Dirty Dozen all on their own, but we limited ourselves to just one. When a handful of Miami Beach’s finest caught up with Dalonta Crudup, who’d allegedly hit an officer with his scooter and fled, they took turns pummeling him as he lay on the ground. Two cops, Jose Perez and Kevin Perez (no relation), kicked Crudup in the head, according to Miami-Dade prosecutors. Our boys in blue could’ve called it a night, but instead, they set their sights on a by- stander, Khalid Vaughn, who was quietly capturing the fiasco on his phone. Officer Robert Sabater was the first to assault Vaughn, shoulder checking and repeat- edly striking him, according to an arrest affidavit, whereupon other officers rushed over and joined in. Sabater has pled not guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and is scheduled for trial next year. (Three officers have had their charges upgraded to felo- nies.) To its credit, the city has suspended an ordinance that made it illegal “to approach or re- main within 20 feet of a law en- forcement officer” with an “intent to directly or indirectly harass” them. Critics of the measure warned it would embolden cops to do precisely what they did at the Royal Palm: violently detain a by- stander for lawfully recording police. [email protected] Miami-Dade School Board Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-led Florida legisla- ture have consistently played to their far-right base by tak- ing hardline stances on just about every culture-related issue. From passing the Parental Rights in Education Act (AKA the “Don’t Say Gay” bill) to banning transgender athletes from public school sports teams, Sunshine State politicians have capitalized on conservative parents’ angst that their children will be swept up in a very gay, very woke groom-fest of indoctrination. But hey, at least we can count on the Miami-Dade County school board to stand firm for sane, reality-based education. Or not. Over the summer, the board nearly bowed to a lunatic fringe that demanded it reject a textbook that dared to acknowledge to adolescents that there are such things as gender identity, birth control, and abortion. In Septem- ber, the board struck down a proposal that would have recognized LGBTQ History Month and rejected a mea- sure to teach high school seniors about Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court landmark deci- sion that recognized same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry. Stephen Ross Do not let the Miami Dolphins’ upward trajectory under first-year head coach Mike McDaniel rose-color your sunglasses. Stephen Ross still found a way to shroud his franchise in embarrassment. The Dolphins owner and billionaire chairman of the Related Companies was at the center of a discrimination lawsuit brought by fired head coach Brian Flores, who accused Ross of violating the league’s tampering rules by offering to pay him $100,000 for each game the team lost in 2019, with the aim of securing a high position in the NFL draft. Flores, who was one of a few Black head coaches in the league, alleged Dolphins higherups cast him as “an angry Black man” and fired him because he refused to tank. A league investigation found that Ross was joking about the tanking bounty but that he nonetheless tampered in other matters — trying to
