Coercion was used at elections
It's annoying enough that you are accosted by political campaign workers with signs and loud voices when you go to vote, but this past election for Village Council consisted of Center Grove bullies who accosted people at the polls and basically handed them a list of whom to vote for.
I know for a fact that one candidate who was in the running and is for 5 am bar closings and a different agenda for the Glass House in Peacock Park, was out shaking hands on election day and just as she would leave people, one of the Center Grove Mafia would come up to the person, tell the voter that the candidate was full of crap and then they would hand them a list of whom to vote for, following them all the way up to the door of the polling location.
Is this legal? It's coercion and I think it is illegal. Also being too close to the polling place is very illegal.
I would love to post the names of these people, but until this is in a court of law, there is no need to libel myself here now. Those in question may be facing a judge.
There are a handful of bullies who think they are calling the shots, but the tide is turning. There is a new Village Council and a new mayor who is well aware of what goes on here. We have spoken at length about it and there will be changes.
I would encourage all of you to keep sending me reports on these communistic tactics. They are breaking the law in most cases with lies, coercion and libel and we have some legal professionals who are ready to start taking the maters into the courts -- pro bono.
I know for a fact that one candidate who was in the running and is for 5 am bar closings and a different agenda for the Glass House in Peacock Park, was out shaking hands on election day and just as she would leave people, one of the Center Grove Mafia would come up to the person, tell the voter that the candidate was full of crap and then they would hand them a list of whom to vote for, following them all the way up to the door of the polling location.
Is this legal? It's coercion and I think it is illegal. Also being too close to the polling place is very illegal.
I would love to post the names of these people, but until this is in a court of law, there is no need to libel myself here now. Those in question may be facing a judge.
There are a handful of bullies who think they are calling the shots, but the tide is turning. There is a new Village Council and a new mayor who is well aware of what goes on here. We have spoken at length about it and there will be changes.
I would encourage all of you to keep sending me reports on these communistic tactics. They are breaking the law in most cases with lies, coercion and libel and we have some legal professionals who are ready to start taking the maters into the courts -- pro bono.
posted by Tom Falco at 12:30 PM
YOU MAY NOT LIFT THE PHOTOS & TEXT. IT'S COPYRIGHTED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU CAN HOWEVER SHARE A STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY USING THE LINKS HERE.
For linking to this one story, just click on the time it was posted & just this story will open for sharing - only through social media. Not copying and pasting.
27 Comments:
One of the people who did this is drunk off her ass daily right in the middle of the day NOT AT 5AM. It's a wonder she hasn't wiped out every table at Greenstreets yet on her way home as she rounds the corner driving drunk.
Be careful Grape you will be called loose canon again by these lifeless losers.
The precincts have poll watchers who watch where you stand and have you move back when you violate the footage - if that is happening that weak candidate should have reported it instead of standing there taking it. And there is nothing wrong with passing out flyers, palm cards or lists at the polls and taking them inside when you vote. It is done all the time.
People who actually listen to people who tell them what to do are the ones Im more concerned about...
It's the infamous Democratic Conspiracy!
Coconut Grove is the only place in the City of Miami where there is the 3 AM bar closing.
Coconut Grove is also the only place where there is a village council that has elections and has meetings in City Hall. All they do is offer recommendations. These quasi-elected officials think a bit too much of themselves.
For me, get rid of both the 3 am rule and the Village Council
How would you like to be in the inside polling station and only hear Spanish being spoken? Would you consider this colluding. You poor sod unfortunately are not bi-lingual. I admire people who arei-lingual what a gift and talent. But when doing the right thing as these people did being civic minded they should remember this is a very American process.
multicultural
Nothing new here. The Center Grove Mafia will not stop until the entire Coconut Grove is renamed The Village of Center Grove.
Steve, if you are just coming to grips with the fact that 80% of the people on this planet are sheep, I understand your frustration. However, something must be done to shepherd the sheep.
Not a Grovite, you are correct, all the Village Council can do is identify issues that impact the Grove, gather information, bring together stakeholders and residents, sometimes negotiate agreements on how things are done in our community, work with the City and the County and make recommendations about things that affect the residents of Coconut Grove. Since we are elected by the residents, and not appointed by the Commissioner like the City's advisory boards, we are independent of the City. The Village Council gives people who live in the Grove a forum and a voice they would not have otherwise.
Perhaps instead of suggesting we disband you should ask for similar representation for your own community.
As for 3 am closings, you are correct. We only have that rule in the Grove and it is killing our business district while doing nothing to protect us from drunk drivers, the supposed goal of the law. People just drive elsewhere to go out.
Hey Grape,
Here is a more fun alternative to posting the names of The Usual Suspects.
Maybe those who witnessed this "persuasion" can describe what they look like, then you can post a computer generated composite like the one the police gave you of the Grove assault suspect.
Grape, I spoke with Heather Bettner and she recounted her Introduction to Barbara Lang. She told me that on election day she was approached by Barbara and ask point blank where she stood on the 5AM issue. She replied that she was interested in bringing it up for discussion and was leaning toward the reinstatement of it. Upon hearing that, Barbara Lang started to feverishly write on scap paper all the names that SHE wanted people to vote for and began to hand them out. If a candidate was FOR the 5AM they were excluded on Barbara's list and the ones that were againt the 5AM, Barbara encouraged people to vote for them. This is the same Barbara Lang that tried to recruit our good neighbors at La Patit Paris to write a nice letter about Commissioner Sarnoff saying that they were merchants that were supportive of Marc. This was after Safnoff got his ass jumped at The Grove Bookstore while telling all the Grove business owners of his "vision" of "less drink and More food" and started his catch phrase "it's time for the grove to grow up". These people are nothing more than pawns in Marc's attemps to wipe out any business in the Grove that sells alcohol.
I've got a message to all of Marc's crew that want to go around and spread lies and fear at his behest, I will call you out by name and will make sure every single merchant in the Grove knows who you are. They'll be no more smiling to our faces and stabbing us in the back. I'm sick and tired of these people hiding in the shadows f#@king with people's lives. The gloves are off!!!
John El-Masry
Grape, while I'm on the subject I'd like to tell you about my own personal experience with Mrs. Barbara Lang. Back in the begining of 2007, after the 1ST reading of Marc's proposed 5AM rollback ordinance, I was working at Christabelle's Quarter when a very animated Barbara drove in front of CQ in her baby blue T-bird and beeped. When I went out to see what she wanted, she asked me to get in her car and that she wanted to talk. I got in and for the next 10-15 minutes Barbara drove around the Grove and told me that she felt that Marc was being VERY UNFAIR with me in regards to Mr. Moe's 5AM license and that she would speak on my behalf on the 2nd and final reading before this ordinance went into effect. She told me that I "was one of the good guys" and that she NEVER had an issue, noise or otherwise, with my business. She told me she would stand in front of the commission and say just that. I would like to add that this was unsolicited...
She came to me!
The very next day at the 2nd and final reading of this ordinance at the Commission, this woman Barbara Lang, stood directly in front of me at the podium and told Marc and the entire Commission that not only was she in favor of this rollback to 3am, she actually asked Marc if it could be changed to 2AM!!! I sh@t you not!!!
After she spoke and I removed the daggar out of my back I had to ask her why on earth did she do that...
She just shrugged her shoulders and walked away. These are
the people that Marc surrounds himself with, people who have no problem with doing all of his dirty work without conscience.
These half dozen or so people I want you to know that the goves are off and If that's how we're gunna do it from here on out, I'm pretty damn good myself.
John El-Masry
Sounds to me like we need to get rid of Marc. Grape, are you interested? Tony Scornavacca, are you? I can think of a few other people, none of whom are incumbents re-elected to the Village Council.
Bob Coultas
Me? No. But I know of at least 4 people interested already. And they are all quite serious.
Something else happened that I find a lot more disturbing than Barbara Lange pushing her agenda at Plymouth. One of the lawyers I share space with went to Miami-Dade Water and Sewer to vote at 6:40 p.m. The door was locked and there was a woman outside who told him the polls were closed. He has worked on campaigns as a monitor and knew the rules, and so showed her the time on his iPhone and told her the poll had to be open until 7. At that point she knocked on the door and the people inside let him in and he voted. Does anyone else know of people being locked out early from that or any other precinct?
We were at 3 polling locations at the end of the day (including WASA) and they just starting taking down signs early, you could still get in.
Listen, with 15% turnout by Grove residents, they could have closed at 5pm and it would not have made a difference; Hell they could have taken the results from early voting and they would have gotten the same results.
At my precinct we have 1600 registered voters and 250 voted.
I said it before; with this kind of turnout for a “Grove issue”, now you know why the rest of City does not pay attention to us.
It was sad to see but we deserve what we get…..
This is the reason why I didn't care to campaign to be part of the Village Council... I was all about the people, when all along others are using this as a stepping stone to something else.
We tried the 3 am closing and it didn't work. The Grove has turned into a ghost town. We have to compete with South Miami and Mary brickell Village. The crime will be a lot worse if the bars and shops continue to close down. It will just leave more empty street and alleys for the drug dealers to take over.
Javier, you are so right about the turnout. It's really frustrating. What bothers me the most is that the 80% who didn't show up will be sure to complain when they don't like things, but when they had a chance to do something positive they stayed home.
My point about the polling place was not that it would have made a difference ... it clearly would not. Voting is one of our most fundamental rights as citizens of this country, and if there are polling places that were not following the rules, keeping people out, the County Department of Elections needs to know so it won't happen again. My colleague who was told the poll was closed is a litigator who is not shy about demanding what he knows he has a right to. Others may have just left when told the polls were closed.
Michelle, although I believe your a good person and I wish every neighborhood can get representation it would just not work.
Imagine if every neighborhood had one? Just off the top of my head we have shenandoah, silver bluff, flagami, west little havana, gross point, coral gate, gables west, all of these just in District 4! A quick look at this would be the community councils in the county. They are just not working. Imagine ALL of the neighborhoods in the City having a meeting up in City Hall. Along with all of the boards (which there are too many also).
Each of them being as important as Coconut Grove Village Council.
Just sayin, I believe the 3 am rule is wrong because there is no where else in the City that takes place. Just as well as I believe that it is wrong that Grovites say they never get representation and that they are the only neighborhood entity that has elections, gets their board televised and has their meetings in City Hall.
But what I know....I am not a Grovite.
Not a Grovite: The Grove has one because the Grove should actually be its own city. The goal is to take it back from the City of Miami who stole it in 1920 and this is the first step.
The Village Council is part of the Grove and needs to be. We are a small village where it works. It may not work in Shenandoah or Little Havana, but in a small Village setting, it works.
Not a Grovite, I guess not being part of it, you don't understand, but the grove is the last true neighborhood left in Miami. There may be other places with names of their little area, but none are a community or a neighborhood in the same way as the grove.
We live, eat, shop, work and completely live within our neighborhood. Tell me that's true about shenandoah or gables west. Didn't think so...
Reading the last couple of postings as I procrastinate... ...um, make that, as I clear my mind before attacking next creative project on my to-do list, I can't help but muse that if the City Miami were the Brady Bunch, Coconut Grove would be Marsha. (Although sometimes we tend to act more like Jan, as in "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha...").
Let's have a liquor party from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. for a week in the Virginia St/Center Grove Dog Park - since we can't party in the Grove, we can party in Marc's backyard. I am sure the City of Miami police will let us have a liquor-in if no one drives and we are only disturbing Marc. We can leave all the liquor bottles at his house for recycling. That law was dumb. We have enough to do and I voted for Marc. After that law, I wanted to spit in his face. But I didn't.
Hey Bob,
Thank you for asking me if I'm interested in running for office. I am flattered.
Unfortunately, my other time commitments would not allow me to serve properly.
(Not only that, in order to qualify, your I.Q. must exceed 10% of your credit score.)
Hahaha, I know Liz and she is a firecracker! Sarnoff is a douche. Hopefully he will be gone soon. I agree we should throw a booze party at 3am in front of his house. Or get all highschool and TP it on a daily basis!
Post a Comment
<< Home