MIAMI – Cherise Gause made history in September when she became the Miami Police Department’s first Haitian-American woman to serve as an assistant chief.
Gause wants the public to know the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association does not speak for all of Miami’s black officers when it accuses Chief Jorge Colina of harboring “implicit biases”
“We are here to represent a different perspective because we have not experienced what they are describing under chief colina’s leadership.”
The MCPBA reported Colina made a racial slur more than 20 years ago that they claim has manifested into a culture of discriminatory practices.
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Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said there has been a long personal dispute between some MCPBA members and Colina.
“Our department has the most number of high-ranking African-Americans in its history,” Suarez said.
Since he became chief, the department claims he has promoted 24 people – 10 of whom are Black, 12 Hispanics and one white.
“I just find it utterly appalling that anybody on the department could look at the way the chief has led our department and think of him as a racist,” Major William Cook said.