Miami-Dade police review panel member denies flipping bird at reform advocate

Miami-Dade County’s Independent Civilian Panel — created more than two years ago to review questionable police conduct but yet to handle a single allegation — found itself briefly answering questions about the behavior of one of its own members.

Did panel member Clemente Vera flash a rude finger gesture as a police reform advocate spoke from the podium during an otherwise mundane Tuesday night meeting?

Rafael Antonio Gomez — whose Twitter profile is filled with police videos of what he calls “unhinged cops” and admits to filing numerous complaints about police incidents he was not involved in — said he did.

But Vera flat-out denies it, there does not appear to be any video of the incident and the board’s chair and interim director said they didn’t see anything. A fellow police reform advocate — one of the few people in the cavernous and mostly-empty Miami-Dade County Commission chamber there with Gomez Tuesday night — also said she saw nothing.

“It surprised the hell out of me. The only thing I can think of is I have dry eyes and I rub my eyes a lot. Lots of times I use my middle finger,” Vera said Wednesday when asked by a Herald reporter about the claim. “If I would have given him the finger, everyone would have seen it. That would have been stupid on my part. I knew he was filming me.”

The exchange between Vera and Gomez took up only a few seconds of the more-than-two-hour meeting. It happened near the start, after ICP Chairwoman Loreal Arscott opened the floor to public input.

Gomez approached the podium with a video recorder likely taping the proceedings, to comment on the slow progress of the panel to take on cases. A previous board, stripped of funding, was largely disbanded in 2009. In the wake of the protests after George Floyd’s killing during an arrest in Minneapolis, the county commission agreed in August 2020 to create a new board, which finally held its first meeting in October.

“I want to thank you for wasting our time and money,” Gomez began, then quickly said, “You just stuck your middle finger at me, sir. You didn’t think I saw that. I saw that.” Gomez spent the next 90 seconds asking the panel to look into a 2021 police shooting and several officers who were charged with DUIs.

When he was done, ICP Chairwoman Arscott spoke up: “Just for the record. I did not see Mr. Vera doing any inappropriate gestures,” she said.

After the next speaker, Vera briefly addressed Gomez.

“Young man, I don’t appreciate what you did and I don’t appreciate your ignorance,” he said. “Don’t insult me. Don’t ever do that again.”

And that was it.

Two hours later, just before the meeting was adjourned, Gomez again took to the podium. This time he was more polite, urging members to look through his complaints and explaining how expensive and timely it was for the public to get a final copy of any internal affairs report.

Jeanne Baker, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and a longtime proponent of the ICP, spoke briefly after Gomez, offering to explain the nuances of the panel to him as it continues its baby steps before a full-time director takes the helm in January.

Baker, who said she didn’t see Vera make any type of rude gesture, said she approached Gomez after the meeting and gave him her ACLU card. She said he was receptive, at first. They didn’t discuss the alleged incident, she said.

“He took the card,” she said. “Then he said politely, ‘I’m not interested in talking to you.’”