The above Twitter exchange pretty much illustrates the level of contempt that Javier Ortiz and Edward Lugo have for the uniforms that they wear, and the oaths they took to serve and protect the public.

To them, being called Thugs In Uniform not only accurately describes what they are, but to them it represents a badge of honor and an acknowledgment that they successfully gamed the system every which way and always came out on top.

These guys are racists, liars and just out-and-out reprehensible street thugs who have attacked and beaten old people, like Hazel Mays, the 85 year old Black woman that Lugo knocked down in the West Grove after he claimed that she had,  “tried to do a reach around and grab his gun when he stopped her from trying to walk around a tape barricade put up by police on her way home.”

Or Jesse Campodonico, who Ortiz and Lugo, along with two other officers who were subsequently found guilty in federal court for being part of the gang of cops who provided protection to a gambling establishment in Liberty City, beat and tasered at the Ultra Music Festival.

As the Sergeant in Charge, Ortiz wrote a fabricated Response To Resistance Report in an effort to portray Campodonico as a drunk, belligerent guy who required multiple hits with a Taser to subdue.

It might have worked except for the video from a cell phone that appeared on You Tube showing Campodonico on the ground as they beat and Tasered him, and not on his feet and fighting as Ortiz claimed in his report.

When Lugo and the others showed up for depositions at the State Attorney's office, it immediately became evident that all of the cops were lying, because none of them it seems were aware of the cell phone video that made their testimony little more than willful acts of perjury.

The criminal case against Campodonico was dropped, he sued the Ultra Music Festival, and the settlement came to $400,000.

What didn't happen, even though the Close Out Report clearly revealed that all of these officers had lied, was that the State Attorney's office refused to charge any of them with Perjury.

The State Attorney's office, and most especially the Public Corruption Unit is more corrupt than the people they supposedly investigate. (If you want to read about this case, see the video and read the Close Out Report, click HERE.

HERE IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING

When the deal was reached to promote Ortiz to Captain, I was told, and in the days that followed many others also became aware that part of that deal required him to separate himself from the union.

In addition, not only did the deal require that the two officers who were above him in the civil service list be promoted to Commander so that Ortiz would then be at the top of the promotions list for Captain, but he negotiated his assignment, which was Captain of Specialized Units.

In short, he got himself a sweetheart appointment to be the Captain supervising the department's toys.  The boat patrol, the horse patrol, the helicopter, and best of all the Off-Duty Office, where he could influence and look out for his pals, and screw his enemies.

The Quo for that Quid was that he had to separate himself from the union.

Instead, in the letter that Ortiz sent to the membership after he was promoted stated that instead of resigning from the Presidency, he appointed himself Vice President, and appointed his BFF, Edward Lugo to replace him as President.

That would normally be illegal, even for the FOP

I have been told that the FOP By-laws call for the President, when his term expires to assume the title of Past President, and then becomes a member of the Executive Committee where he would not have any ability to operate and control the day to day management of the union.

Even if he resigned he would have been entitled to retain the title of Past President, and assume a seat on the Executive Committee.

To completely renege on the deal by appointing himself Vice President, and Edward Lugo as his replacement is the kind of move that you see done by tinhorn dictators in Banana Republics who refuse to give up power.

Even for Ortiz, this was a pretty brazen move, but his hand picked pals on the Executive Committee, including former FOP President Armando Aguillar, who retired years ago but still remains on the Committee as the Past President, were all to happy to support Ortiz in this self-serving deal because that would allow him to remain on the board.

Therefore, it's up to the membership of the FOP to move against Ortiz and Lugo, and to do it sooner rather than later.

To have a guy who sat in the back seat of and FBI Confidential Informant's car while being pitched to provide escort protection for drug smugglers as the President of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge for the Miami Police Department is a truly astounding situation, even for a city and police department with the history of corruption that caused Federal District Judge Robert Scola to proclaim during the sentencing of Miami Police Officer Harold James, who was one of the officers involved in providing protection for the gambling operation in Liberty City:

"It seems that the City of Miami Police Department has a culture of  corruption that exceeds all other police departments."

Not astounding, or even unusual in spite of the damning assessment of the judge about the levels of corruption in the Miami Police Department, is the refusal of the Miami Herald and the local TV stations in reporting on any of this. They have for years been little more than enablers - like the enablers who helped Harvey Weinstien assault, abuse and rape so many women - for the corruption that has occurred during the 8 years of the Regalado administration.

It's Miami, Bitches!