White Cop’s “Reliarability" was High so a Miami Beach Prosecutor Dropped Case. Video of Cop Pepper Spraying Black Woman in the Face for Filming Cops Contradicted Police Report

From [HERE] Miami Beach has dropped the case against a South Beach tourist who was pepper sprayed as she filmed police officers, then arrested under a controversial new city ordinance.

The city’s prosecutor announced Thursday that it would not pursue the ordinance case against Mariyah Maple, 27, of New York, who was arrested on July 25 after she had been recording a traffic stop on the 600 block of Collins Avenue.

Maple was one of over a dozen people arrested in July, during the weekend of the Rolling Loud hip-hop concert under a new ordinance touted to protect police officers from crowds but criticized as a way for cops to crack down on people lawfully video recording them. The Herald, which first reported on Maple’s case, obtained video that showed her arrest report depicted a significantly different version of what video showed happened that night.

The Herald story also detailed that of the 13 people arrested under the new ordinance, all were Black, and most involved people filming police. After the Herald article, the Miami Beach Police Department announced it had paused use of the ordinance, in light of two other arrests that involved allegations of excessive force — and the arrests of five police officers.

“I am pleased the prosecution dismissed the case, but it’s not enough. I’ve urged the prosecutors to quickly seal and expunge this arrest from Mariyah’s record, so she can maintain employment,” said her defense lawyer, Chad Piotrowski. “And I’ve urged them to ensure that the police officer be held accountable for using excessive force against a woman who was lawfully standing on a street video recording.”

The Miami Beach City Commission, in late June, passed the ordinance, which makes it illegal to “approach or remain within 20 feet” of a city police officer with the “intent to impede, provoke or harass” an officer engaged in lawful duties, after receiving a warning. City officials and the city’s police union said it was needed to protect officers from the raucous crowds that descended on South Beach’s famed tourist district during spring break.

Internal emails obtained by the Herald showed that the police department rushed to make sure the ordinance was in place specifically to possibly use for crowds in town during Rolling Loud.

The most high-profile ordinance cases were made against two New York men, Khalid Vaughn and Sharif Cobb, both of whom were wrestled to the ground as they video recorded police officers at the Royal Palm hotel in South Beach.

Some of the officers had been involved in the rough arrest of a third man accused of injuring a cop with his scooter. Five were later charged with misdemeanor battery.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office dropped the cases against Vaughn and Cobb; its office handled their cases because each man was also charged with separate state violations.

In Maple’s case, she was only charged with the city ordinance, which means the case was prosecuted by an attorney employed by the city of Miami Beach. The Miami Beach prosecutor, Yoe Lopez, only handles city ordinance cases under a system that is supposed to target nuisance “quality-of-life” crimes, but has largely ensnared homeless people.

Of the 13 arrests made under the ordinance that weekend, only four cases have been dropped, records show. Miami Beach did not explain why it dropped Maple’s case. Lopez made the announcement during a virtual hearing Thursday before Miami Beach branch court judge Stephanie Silver.

The arrest report alleged Maple was part of a group that “refused officers commands” to back away from cops making an arrest on South Beach on July 25. When a police sergeant used his bicycle to “create a physical barrier,” the report claimed, the crowd “stood their ground and refused to move” — forcing him to use pepper spray.

But a video taken by a bystander shows Maple standing peacefully on a sidewalk on the 600 block of Collins Avenue. “Back up. Back up,” a sergeant says. But before giving her a moment to do so, he whips his bike around like a shield, striking her hand and immediately deploys pepper spray. Maple, eyes stinging, then runs away with several friends.

Maple was not arrested immediately. The Miami Beach sergeant, Vincent Stella, walked away. Maple was only handcuffed after another officer noticed her down the street as her family rinsed her eyes out with water, and she complained about her burning eyes.