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“Crime in Miami is up and tourist arrival is up”
The arrival of the Mariel Cubans was quite an episode for Miami. Although Miamians were concerned about the thousands of new immigrants, a more significant problem arose with the Cubans leaving from the port of the Mariel. During the May Day Celebration Speech, Fidel Castro announced that amongst those leaving from Mariel were the "scum of the country- anti-socials, homosexuals, drug addicts, and gamblers, who are welcome to leave Cuba if any country will have them (Portes and Stepick 21). When the news of this went public the people of Miami were baffled. People were calling what Fidel had done an act of genocide. He rid Cuba of thousands of undesirables. He publically stated he had flushed the toilets of Cuba on the United States. The wave of illegal immigrants has pushed up unemployment, taxed social services, irritated racial tensions and helped send the crime rate to staggering heights. Marielitos are believed to be responsible for half of all violent crime in Miami. (Kelly,J, 1981)
Before this exodus, Detroit and Atlanta had been known as the murders cities. Miami was soon to take that title. The first 9 months of 1980’s have been called the bloodiest year in Miami’s history. In 1980, Miami had recorded 573 murders. 1981 went down as another record year for killings in Miami. In the first seven months and ten days of 1981, the homicide count was 296 by the end of the year it climbed to 621. Miami had nowhere to put these dead bodies. Refrigerated trucks were rented to put the dead bodies in. These trucks were a symbol of the trouble this paradise city was in. The U.S held an opinion that it was the Cuban immigrants continuing to rise the crime in Miami. It was hard not to blame the immigrants. South Florida’s drug trade began to prosper as more marielitos arrived. Crime became a common sight. It seemed like an invading army had taken over Miami. The marielitos were considered savages and animals. Traveling without a gun in Miami during the 1980’s was he most dangerous thing you could do at the time. Miami was being torn apart by crime. Federal agencies were crippled by lack of man power. The city of Miami Dade police department went on a blind hiring. The hopes were that more police on the streets would help reverse this record setting trend. The standards at the time for police men were that you couldn’t have used drugs. They had to reduce it that you could not have used drugs in the past 10 years. When that did not bring enough recruitment in they reduced it to 5 years and then 2 years. Finally it became that as long as you were not under the influence of drugs at the moment you could be hired. That resulted in the largest police corruption crisis since the Serpico days up in New York. The entire academy class that year died or went to jail themselves. Police men were being accused of ripping off other drug dealers and dealing drugs themselves. Over 40 police men were being charged with drug tracking, conspiracy, and racketeering. Rule of law completely broke down in South Florida. The nature of the criminals arising from the mariel brought another look to South Florida. The goal became to capture them and put them in jail or kill them. Miami soon became torn between two worlds the sun and fun capital and murder capital. Though most of the crimes were being pushed and blamed on the mariel no one gave much thought to the Colombians at the time that were ruling the cocaine drug trade.
Aside from all the crime the marielitos had been blamed for they also set off some very angry African Americans many of whom felt politically marginalized and shut out of economic advancement. This resulted in a riot in the Overtown district of Miami that had a 50- percent unemployment rate among African Americans.
Social security, driver license and food stamp offices became overwhelmed by the great number of people requesting services. Lines at the INS Office begin forming daily in the early hours of the morning. Medical care demand at the County hospital and in community mental health centers and other social service programs, has increased substantially ( Unzueta ,1989 ). That year schools reported an extra 13,800 Cuban students in k-12. The children, fluent in only Spanish flooded an already over crowded school system who had previously been denied any school funding.
The arrival of the Mariel Cubans was quite an episode for Miami. Although Miamians were concerned about the thousands of new immigrants, a more significant problem arose with the Cubans leaving from the port of the Mariel. During the May Day Celebration Speech, Fidel Castro announced that amongst those leaving from Mariel were the "scum of the country- anti-socials, homosexuals, drug addicts, and gamblers, who are welcome to leave Cuba if any country will have them (Portes and Stepick 21). When the news of this went public the people of Miami were baffled. People were calling what Fidel had done an act of genocide. He rid Cuba of thousands of undesirables. He publically stated he had flushed the toilets of Cuba on the United States. The wave of illegal immigrants has pushed up unemployment, taxed social services, irritated racial tensions and helped send the crime rate to staggering heights. Marielitos are believed to be responsible for half of all violent crime in Miami. (Kelly,J, 1981)
Before this exodus, Detroit and Atlanta had been known as the murders cities. Miami was soon to take that title. The first 9 months of 1980’s have been called the bloodiest year in Miami’s history. In 1980, Miami had recorded 573 murders. 1981 went down as another record year for killings in Miami. In the first seven months and ten days of 1981, the homicide count was 296 by the end of the year it climbed to 621. Miami had nowhere to put these dead bodies. Refrigerated trucks were rented to put the dead bodies in. These trucks were a symbol of the trouble this paradise city was in. The U.S held an opinion that it was the Cuban immigrants continuing to rise the crime in Miami. It was hard not to blame the immigrants. South Florida’s drug trade began to prosper as more marielitos arrived. Crime became a common sight. It seemed like an invading army had taken over Miami. The marielitos were considered savages and animals. Traveling without a gun in Miami during the 1980’s was he most dangerous thing you could do at the time. Miami was being torn apart by crime. Federal agencies were crippled by lack of man power. The city of Miami Dade police department went on a blind hiring. The hopes were that more police on the streets would help reverse this record setting trend. The standards at the time for police men were that you couldn’t have used drugs. They had to reduce it that you could not have used drugs in the past 10 years. When that did not bring enough recruitment in they reduced it to 5 years and then 2 years. Finally it became that as long as you were not under the influence of drugs at the moment you could be hired. That resulted in the largest police corruption crisis since the Serpico days up in New York. The entire academy class that year died or went to jail themselves. Police men were being accused of ripping off other drug dealers and dealing drugs themselves. Over 40 police men were being charged with drug tracking, conspiracy, and racketeering. Rule of law completely broke down in South Florida. The nature of the criminals arising from the mariel brought another look to South Florida. The goal became to capture them and put them in jail or kill them. Miami soon became torn between two worlds the sun and fun capital and murder capital. Though most of the crimes were being pushed and blamed on the mariel no one gave much thought to the Colombians at the time that were ruling the cocaine drug trade.
Aside from all the crime the marielitos had been blamed for they also set off some very angry African Americans many of whom felt politically marginalized and shut out of economic advancement. This resulted in a riot in the Overtown district of Miami that had a 50- percent unemployment rate among African Americans.
Social security, driver license and food stamp offices became overwhelmed by the great number of people requesting services. Lines at the INS Office begin forming daily in the early hours of the morning. Medical care demand at the County hospital and in community mental health centers and other social service programs, has increased substantially ( Unzueta ,1989 ). That year schools reported an extra 13,800 Cuban students in k-12. The children, fluent in only Spanish flooded an already over crowded school system who had previously been denied any school funding.