irst came the controversial traffic stop, cop vs. cop on Florida's Turnpike, recorded on dash-cam video that went viral showing a state trooper pursuing, cuffing and detaining a hyper-speeding Miami police officer at gunpoint.
Now comes the aftermath: Some Miami police officers are not only defending their compatriot, they are threatening and insulting the Florida Highway Patrol trooper who had the nerve to write him a ticket for reckless driving.
If professional courtesy is a two-way street, it looks like the encounter between Miami Officer Fausto Lopez and Trooper Donna Jane Watts has dropped a massive roadblock between factions in their two agencies.
The grudge match has been playing out in hundreds of tit-for-tat postings on a law enforcement blog.
In this corner, Miami: "I would have loved for Watts to try and pull me over in my marked unit and draw her gun on me! She would have a very rude awakening,'' an anonymous writer posted Monday. "I would wait til I got to my district, called all my boys, and then you Miss Watts will be very SORRY!!'
On the other side, FHP: "The dumb ass shouldn't be doing 122 miles per hour that is RECKLESS,'' posted another writer. "What if it's your family that idiot rear-ends and kills, will you still want FHP to be so lenient?''
The growing tension was heightened Sunday when Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of Miami's Fraternal Order of Police, which represents the city's 1,000-plus officers, attacked Watts and defended Lopez in a letter to union members. He accused Watts of just wanting to ticket a Miami cop.
"Officer Lopez was extremely professional,'' Ortiz wrote. "Many of us would have acted differently if a fellow cop pulled a gun on them. I would have thought she possibly was a Baker Act that stole an FHP car and a uniform,'' he wrote, using a legal term for mentally unstable people who are considered dangerous.
He went on to tell officers: "Please do not get to her level and begin taking action against Troopers because of the poor decisions of one. … Do not be running her information on DAVID, FCIC/NCIC, etc.,'' referring to law enforcement databases that contain criminal records, addresses and dates of birth.
A short while later Lopez was escorted to another FHP car that had pulled up. He spent a few minutes inside that vehicle, then walked back to his patrol car and drove away. Lopez was never arrested but was charged with reckless driving, a second-degree misdemeanor.
He is back patrolling the city's central district. Watts, too, is on the job, according to the FHP, despite blog postings stating she had been suspended for not obeying her supervisor's purported orders to stop the pursuit.
