Invest 40% & Murder in NMB

There is a 40% chance of development of a Cape Verde Tropical Wave currently known as Invest 94L. Models take it towards the Caribbean and/or the SE Coast. These are early long range models and the tropical wave needs to beat the very dry conditions in the Eastern Atlantic due to Saharan Dust.

There is are signs of life and it is being monitored for development down the tropical road.

Same old story... tropical wave vs saharan dust.

I will update this blog this evening with an in depth discussion of this tropical wave and the chances it could become Tropical Storm Cristobal and it's chances of making landfall ...

But...today my mind is on the sadness of the murder of someone in my neighborhood in North Miami Beach FL and relatives of his that I know as friends. He was murdered on a block not far from my old house where my kids grew up and where I have walked many times on Saturday on Shabbos. So... let me veer away a bit and explain why I am writing about Joseph Raksin's death today and not going long on discussion on a far away tropical wave fighting for it's life in a sea of Saharan Dust. Joseph Raksin, a visitor from NY who traveled to the Miami are to visit his grandchildren is going home today in a casket to be buried later in NY.

Usually on a Saturday Night after my Sabbath I turn on the weather, go online check the loops for information on the tropics. Last night the peace of my Sabbath was destroyed when my youngest daughter came into my room and told me a Rabbi had been shot in NMB. "Shot?" I asked ... as in he died??" My mind could not wrap my head around the reality of the situation. Seems the police department involved cannot wrap their head around it either as they refuse to even investigate it as a hate crime even though there is ample evidence to address it as a possible hate crime. And, yes he was visiting someone I know from the synagogue who lives down the block from people I know a few blocks from where I used to live. Oh... and 2 blocks away from where Anti-Semitic graffiti was sprawled across the entrance of another synagogue last week.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/09/4280988/two-men-sought-in-fatal-shooting.html

This is a horrendous situation that is extremely upsetting & needs to be fixed, resolved and attended to and that is the way that the Metro Dade Police Department handles crime in the North Miami Beach area.

You may have read the headlines "Rabbi murdered in NMB" on the local news in Miami. It's a complicated story and yet very plain & simple. However the Miami Dade Police Department who hates having to go into the NMB area to handle crime (and does a bad job of patrolling and protecting their citizens in that area) doesn't want to deal with this as a "hate crime" but a simple "crime" a possible "mugging" ...

If you did not know the details that might make sense to you.

The devil is in the details  so let me explain this. NMB is a neighborhood made up mostly of residents of the City of North Miami Beach. Inside that area is an area known locally as the "donut hole" where long ago when the area was incorporating a local farmer not wishing to pay taxes for roads that they did not need insisted on opting out of the incorporation. NMB is an area of rich farm land back when and to her it seemed stupid to pay taxes for amenities she did not want. Time went on...people bought homes on VA Loans, the Baby Boom came a long. They built 163rd Street Mall. NMB went on to bigger and better things but the "donut hole" in NMB was left behind having to wait for police to come into the area from far away to handle police calls.

See the map with the "donut hole" highlighted. If you are not in the yellow you are in the "donut hole and rely on Miami Dade Police" if you are in the yellow area... you are way luckier and rely on NMB Police.

How do I know this FOR SURE?

#1
I worked for the NMB Public Library on the Reference Desk and was in charge of the archives. I met with local police from NMB many times who work hard to try and fight gangs (like in many cities) and protect it's citizens. Many of the NMB police department live in my area and were friends.. neighbors to both me and my kids. Few people know NMB as well as me as I ran the historical archives,worked at the reference desk and helped run children's summer programs at the library there before leaving to work at a College Library. I have 5 family members who live there, 2 best friends and it's the synagogue I attend and am part of myself. I just got back to NC from NMB not a half a mile from where Joseph Raksin was murdered. My best friend's son lives a few houses over from where he lay screaming for help and ran to help him on Shabbos before they airlifted him to the hospital where he did not make it. It's my world.

http://www.citynmb.com/index.asp?Type=B_LIST&SEC=%7B940536F0-DEED-4110-8BCC-F9503851CDF3

History of the area.. farm days, boom days... etc.
http://www.citynmb.com/index.asp?Type=B_LIST&SEC=%7B940536F0-DEED-4110-8BCC-F9503851CDF3#{760A74AE-0CFB-4D3E-B816-4CCFA84D7423}

#2
I have had on more than one occasion Metro Dade Police complain to me how much they HATE having to drive all the way into NMB to write up a report for something "stupid" or something it seems they deemed "stupid" honestly...really...to my face while writing up a report my daughter felt she needed to make.

#3
There was a house across the street from me when I moved into the donut hole from down the block in NMB and I called 911 concerning a fight that took place at 1 AM on a Saturday Night during a very loud party across the street between a man who was threatening to shoot his girlfriend if she did not get an abortion for the pregnancy she had with some other guy. It went on for a long time...I called the police, others called the police. I was hiding in my house and this is the conversation I had with the Miami Dade Police:

me: "Please send someone right away to ____ there is a loud party and people are fighting and someone is threatening to shoot someone and the other person is pleading for their life"

911: "Maam, people like to party on Saturday Night"

me: "I said someone is outside threatening to shoot his girlfriend"

911: "Maam did you see the gun?"

me: "Ummm no I'm inside hiding in my bedroom with my kids and I didn't "see the gun"

911: "So you could not ascertain there is a gun involved"

me: "No.. I'm sorry I'm not going out there and asking to see the gun so that the police will come. Seriously?"

She gave me a lecture on bothering the police and making them drive there without being sure ...etc...and told me she would send a police car.

It was one night... one obnoxious incident with the Metro Dade Police that never ever would have gone down that in NMB where the police know the area better, show up immediately and do not cross examine you when you call for help.

I think based on the above information I am highly qualified to complain about the problems dealing with the police in the area where Joseph Raksin was murdered.. 500 yards away from the unsolved case of graffiti that the police also did not want to label as a hate crime.

NMB was my home for close to 20 years. I still maintain a place there. I love it. It's not perfect. Most people there of all races and religions live there.... because it's affordable housing in a nice area with good amenities and for the Orthodox Jewish Community that means schools, kosher food, synagogues they can walk to on Shabbos (as they do not drive on the Sabbath) and enjoy a good measure of life with their children and families. They, like all the members of the NMB community, need and deserve and pay for police protection free of rhetoric and politically correct sound bites.

So beautiful I took my wedding pictures at the canal there with my kids the morning after I got remarried.

Who would not want to live in such a beautiful place?

This is the block the man was murdered on ...about 3 blocks from where he lay dying...

It has easy access to expressway, shopping, beaches, restaurants and FLL airport as well as a myriad of other amenities. It is well maintained by the City of NMB and on top of that it is a diverse city with many different types of people from everywhere who by and large get along beautifully. That is what America is supposed to be all about right?

Part of NMB is not in the City of NMB and relies on Metro Dade for it's police service. That is part of the problem here....the other part is hatred and crime.

It is not made up of predominately Orthodox Jews or Haitians but a mix of both add in Colombians, Nigerians, Brazilians, Filipino, etc, etc. On my block Phillippe from Nigeria would give me a ride  home from my job at the library as we didn't always have a car. Maria two houses down complained incessantly about her marriage and divorce to Pedro from Peru (honest) who she decided she no longer loved. My daughter learned to use chop sticks from her Chinese best friend at Greynold's Park Elementary who owned a popular restaurant in NMB and my youngest daughter was best friends with a sweet Egyptian girl named Nadra. Later I sent my kids to Miami Beach Hebrew Academy to insure some Jewish education the way many people send their kids to private religious schools. But, my kids hung out in NMB... grew up in NMB and are NMB kids who walk the streets, hang out at the canal and deserve police protection like anyone else.

"NMB" is NOT a GHETTO and not divided by class or racial warfare as some from Metro Dade Police would make it sound. There are robberies unfortunately and petty crime as many cities today in poor economic times deal with and cope. Life goes on. 

Life did not go on Saturday morning for a 60 year old Rabbi in town to visit his grandchildren who were not more than 2 blocks behind him when he was peacefully, routinely walking eastbound on 175th Street towards 10th Avenue where he would have turned South past the synagogue that had recently had anti-Semitic graffiti on it towards his place of worship on 172nd Street. Around the 800 block of 175th Street less than 2 blocks as the crow flies from the last week's graffiti he was approached by two males one on a bike and one on foot who took out a gun shot him and ran away. 

Connect the dots. Someone in the NMB area.. possibly living in the donut hole or not... has an issue with Jews and note I said Jews not Orthodox Jews. 

Let's look at the police statement and think and wonder how their spokesperson Elena Hernandez can make a statement in an ongoing police investigation prior to even arresting the suspects other than it being a political sound bite that it could not be a "hate crime" or motivated by "hate" for a specific type of person who was marked by his appearance. Also, how that statement could be said after graffiti was sprawled on the entrance to a Jewish synagogue less than 1584 feet from where Joseph Raksin lay dying on Saturday Morning a week or so earlier? It would seem to even the simplest observer there was some indication that it could definitely be a hate crime that needs to be investigated.

"It’s unclear how many shots were fired at Raksin. But the New York rabbi's critical wounds prompted authorities to iairlift him to the Ryder Trauma Center, where he later died.

The shooting took place in an area of unincorporated Northeast Miami-Dade near North Miami Beach, where swastikas found painted on a local synagogue last month have worried local Jewish leaders.

“At this time there is no indication of this being a hate crime,” said Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Elena Hernandez in a statement.":

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/09/4280988/two-men-sought-in-fatal-shooting.html#storylink=cpy

Also understand this was not a man walking down the street in a GAP tee shirt or Miami Heat Tee Shirt and jeans. He was walking quietly down the street wearing hasidic garb known as a kapota and a black hat in the middle of August when many in NMB wouldn't put on more than a tank top and shorts. I think he probably stood out as a JEW... an Orthodox Jew.. probably a supporter of Israel and a symbol. He was approached and shot. It would seem to anyone with half a brain that he might have been seen as a symbol by someone who had an axe to grind. Rather than play a knock out game with him they had a gun...they shot him... opps he died.

There are only 2 scenarios here.

He somehow confronted someone in a dangerous manner and for self defense reasons they shot him and fled the scene on foot & on a bike... running away to safety and not reporting the incident to the police. (ummm nooo I think we can rule that one out...) Or he was approached, targeted as a Jew a third of a mile from the synagogue with the graffiti. Hmnnn you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know that it could have been connected. 

Note I said "could" because powers that be have suggested maybe it was just a random gang iniation to kill someone...so rather than anyone else they chose a 60 year old man walking down the street in August in a long black coat, hat in Jewish garb possibly holding a religious prayer shawl or not depending on whether or not he used the Eruv. Google Eruv.

Note the x on the left is where Rabbi Raksin lay dying. 

The x on the right is where the synagogue was covered in graffiti.

The small circle is where he was walking to my synagogue in NMB.

On the street below... nice street, nice neighborhood ....that has some crime like most cities.

I heard a police officer from Miami Dade on TV say "that area has a lot of crime, people commit crimes and jump on the expressway nearby...." Obviously he and the rest of the Miami Dade Police Department missed the part that the murderers ran away on foot and on a bike. Hello? I don't think they jumped on I95 on foot or on a bike. They are local, neighborhood criminals who may have also been involved in the graffiti sprawled on the synagogue closer to the murder scene than I95 where people do not ride their bikes.

Someone needs to explain this to Elena Hernandez at the Miami Dade Police Department.

It needs to be investigated as a HATE CRIME until that motive can be eliminated.

NOT ruled out during an ongoing investigation 

Gee Facebook sees the connection. 

Is Facebook smarter than the Miami Dade Police Department?

Yeah we call it jokingly the "hood" and make fun of things that we cannot wrap our heads around like the crime that is rampant in so much of Miami Dade ...so much of the world. 

NMB deserves better. The area inside the "donut hole" that we call NMB but that is really unincorporated Miami Dade deserves better.

Shulie the daughter of the man murdered and her grandchildren deserve better. 

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/09/4280988/two-men-sought-in-fatal-shooting.html

The Miami Dade Police together with the NMB Police need to step up to the plate and take control of whatever sick game is going on in NMB that IS fueled by hate sadly. Or is it politically incorrect to say such crimes are "hate" based but just "oh well random crime..." 

When a man from out of town visiting his grandchildren is dressed in a long black coat and a black hat is walking down a hot street in August in Miami on the way to temple on Saturday the Sabbath it is well within reason to believe it may have been a Hate Crime. More so when he was about to pass a more public spot where there had just been Anti-Semitic graffiti he was shot on side street for no apparent reason...the reason is apparent Elena Hernandez...the reason was HATE and that the Miami Dade Police Department does a poor job policing that area in "NMB" and dealing with crime and local criminals that live there.

I'd love to write about just the weather today. I hate watching local news because it is always filled with stories that are sad and rip your heart out. Last night my heart was ripped out and I feel so sorry for his grandchildren....his children...his mother... some of his family members in NY that I know or knew personally when I attended Bais Rivka Seminary.

Trust me it's easier to prepare for a run of the mill hurricane than it seems to be to rely on police protection in North Miami Beach when living in the "donut hole" where you have to beg 911 to send police when two people are fighting in the street outside with a gun... or when you are simply walking to your temple to pray with your family and friends.

Besos Bobbi

Ps.. there is a $50,000 reward for information leading to....

Pics of the funeral service being held as his casket is loaded to go to NY. He was supposed to visit his other daughter in Palm Beach today and his grandchildren there...instead he is being buried. Sorry I'm not too up on the tropics today...