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Just back from a long weekend in Miami - from my brief time there it seemed like a great city, very "energetic" but from just talking to the locals, sounds like a tough place to live with the economy being so down.
But anyway, I digress - obviously the drug traffickers and the crime wave that hit Miami in the late 70's & early 80's is well known, just wondering:
1. If you lived there at that time, did all that crazy stuff effect your day to day life?
2. How did the authorities finally get a grip on the situation? - from reading about that time, it sounded like there was a lot of police corruption & that the law had largely deserted south Florida.
Hope this question does not offend anyone, I'm genuinely just curious as to your answers vs what the meda reports of the time state.
Just back from a long weekend in Miami - from my brief time there it seemed like a great city, very "energetic" but from just talking to the locals, sounds like a tough place to live with the economy being so down.
But anyway, I digress - obviously the drug traffickers and the crime wave that hit Miami in the late 70's & early 80's is well known, just wondering:
1. If you lived there at that time, did all that crazy stuff effect your day to day life?
2. How did the authorities finally get a grip on the situation? - from reading about that time, it sounded like there was a lot of police corruption & that the law had largely deserted south Florida.
Hope this question does not offend anyone, I'm genuinely just curious as to your answers vs what the meda reports of the time state.
Irishman, shame we couldn't have met up to get ****faced. I am a Brit, but one who loves Irish culture
Miami is largely safe now, as far as i'm concerned. The trick is to be street smart and stay out of certain areas at certain times. Still, unlike the chavs back home, people generally will not mess with you. Trouble will only find you if you look for it.
The drug era must have been awful. My understanding is that the Feds cracked down, after Jimmy Carter's failure to address the issue. Aside from Scarface, another movie should be made of that time. I guess it was a lot like Chicago here, when Chicago was going through similar wars during the alcohol prohibition era. Cocaine usage was also huge here during the 70's and 80's (from what I've read and been told).
Go watch Cocaine Cowboys, if you're really interested. It'll give you a great insight as to what went on in those days.
Just back from a long weekend in Miami - from my brief time there it seemed like a great city, very "energetic" but from just talking to the locals, sounds like a tough place to live with the economy being so down.
But anyway, I digress - obviously the drug traffickers and the crime wave that hit Miami in the late 70's & early 80's is well known, just wondering:
1. If you lived there at that time, did all that crazy stuff effect your day to day life?
2. How did the authorities finally get a grip on the situation? - from reading about that time, it sounded like there was a lot of police corruption & that the law had largely deserted south Florida.
Hope this question does not offend anyone, I'm genuinely just curious as to your answers vs what the meda reports of the time state.
Federal Goverment crack downs, FBI, DEA, US Military overseas etc.. It naturally slowed down. Also I know many people who lived here in those times. I was only born in 1989 so cant really say but from what I hear it was nothing a war zone. Just like most high crime areas in the US. If you were not part of the illegal activity, lived in the high crime areas or law enforcement it did not effect your daily lives much. The vast majority of those killed in murders were people involved in drugs and smuggling them etc..
I wasn't born during that time, but according to a neighbor i had that lived in those times told me that the violence was calmed down by 1984 and after that the DEA had neutralized many of the Colombian Cartel's most important leaders.
With the arrest of The Black Widow (La Madrina) and the death of many of the Cartel's people it all came to an end in the late 80's in Miami.
Increased drug enforcement drove them to calmer waters. The recession of the late 80's also cut drug demand and reduced business. In the early days the drug smugglers and dealers battled it out, but the DEA reduced the smugglers to those connected to the government, who did not have to fight for their sources. The successful money launderers became "respectable" bankers, developers, importers, etc. Almost all development in the 80's in south Florida was funded by drug money.
1. If you lived there at that time, did all that crazy stuff effect your day to day life?
Ohh the tales I could tell so - so much Vice so little time ...! Well let me wander back to the day for you ... Let's just muse ...
Mr Fatt and the 8th Street Boys ...
brazenly walking through Overtown ...
hearing the car doors locking as you walk by
That guy on the street corner with a garbage bag full of packages
a crackhead selling a sandwich
the crackhead strut - know what I mean?
crackheads' rep was blown out of proportion ya know - they were in reality too weak to really be dangerous - they were mostly just pathetic
oh and the hookers! whoa, what a selection! cheap too!
how bout the transvestite hookers? That was interesting.
There were some gangs, but mostly wannabees.
Then the Naked Brazilians started arriving.
Dive bars so nasty only the worst of the worst bothered. And why? everybody drank on the porch.
Hey, I was happy about the seediness. That's why my rent was $42 per week. I generally worked 2 days a week.
And the old folks. Much of Ocean Drive at that time was inhabited by people in their eighties. It was called God's waiting room. Ocean Drive was so dominated by geriatrics that Ron Wood's nightclub closed down for noise complaints!!
We used to wave a pretty Cuban girls who would drive around SoBe looking for fun but scared to get out. They knew something was brewing. And we were already drinking it up.
One time friends and I were walking back about 9am from OT after getting no work. We're walking down the alley between Collins and Wash (or was it Ocean?) and some real cutie is sitting back there eyeing us with an evil grin. She called my friend Trevor over and whispered something. Apparently it was what she would do for four dollars! We had to restrain Frank.
I took the neighborhood kids out to 5th and Wash to watch Vice being filmed. I told 'em to run over there and get PMT's autograph. They came back giddy. They were thrilled they stole his pen.
I always wondered who used to cut off parking meters to steal the dimes.
Alex Doude was the coolest mayor ever. What other mayor ever sparred with Muhammad Ali?
I yelled Disco Sucks at Barry Gibb at South Pointe Park. I really didn't want to be impolite, but I had made a vow in '78 that had to be fulfilled.
Most street hustlers at night weren't dangerous, just pesky. Gimme a dime gimme a dollar, gimme a cigarette, gimme a quarter. One day I was so fed up with it I rampaged from 1st st to 4th demanding something from every thug I could find. The whole street cowered from me that night.
Speaking of p***ies, me and this huge black kid from Detroit laughed our butts off one day watching these two baseheads trying to fight over a dollar. One had the other down and was punching him, but he was so weak he couldn't hurt him. We both agreed in NY or DET such an event wouldn't be so funny. Miami was all punks.
Speaking of punks, we went to club Nu one night to see a Thrash Metal triple header. There were ten bouncers at the edge of the stage, about 25 skinheads in front. People were trying to climb the stage like that scene from Assault on Precinct 13. I never saw so many people get the living shist kicked out of 'em at a show. The band was whining about too much violence and the skinheads just shouted Shut the F up and play. 10 limp bodies got crowd surfed out the door.
I told AJ at the Junkyard that the 'heads were coming to his show and he didn't listen. I offered my services, but no. I said, ok, your azz. Next day my big black bass player told me he was there and I was sure right - those skinheads nearly killed some dude except for his intervention and when he intervened they kept saying "whatzup Brutus?"
But the only real serious a--h--e I ever really met was this 6-5 black psycho. He broke some old bums jaw to take his booze even though the guy didn't (couldn't) resist. He was a known rapist. He had no home, he only occupied solitary women's homes. Truly evil. He beat the living crap out of this tiny woman in our building, made me bloodthirsty, but there were reasons to think twice. After awhile my buddy decided he agreed with me and that this dude needed to go. One night we went after him. Sticks, pipes, gun, gasoline. We told him leave South Beach or die - period. We eventually heard he got picked up - I got to the ADA with a signed letter from half the hood and that dude was shipped outta on a warrant.
But mostly it was all good. In fact, it was great.
In the eighties, everyplace was f-ed up, and compared to NY, Miami was a friendly little town. Back then to me if someone wasn't bashing your face in just for being there, everything was sweet.
South beach wasn't all glamourized like it is now, but it was still full of young and crazy kids having a blast and it was dirt cheap back then. What's not to love about a $200 month apt one block from the beach? So we needed roach spray? Who cared? We drank Schaffers 2 dollar sixpacks and smoked Dorals 2 for a dollar. We'd stay up all night partying and blow off work for a week. I once stayed up partying for three days straight. There was so much sex you had to say no.
Make no mistake - Miami utterly rocked in the eighties. Everybody wanted some vice and everybody got more than they could ever imagine. It was a veritable whole city hellfire club. F-in Aye!
Federal Goverment crack downs, FBI, DEA, US Military overseas etc.. It naturally slowed down. Also I know many people who lived here in those times. I was only born in 1989 so cant really say but from what I hear it was nothing a war zone. Just like most high crime areas in the US. If you were not part of the illegal activity, lived in the high crime areas or law enforcement it did not effect your daily lives much. The vast majority of those killed in murders were people involved in drugs and smuggling them etc..
This. A lot of it was sensationalized. Miami "lost" its innocence (figuratively). It was similar to the craziness of today, except it was confined to people among the drug trade...so it wasn't scary. Now, people get murded, raped and maimed in an almost random fashion, which I think is scarier. There is certainly a visciosness in our home grown criminals that had no compassion or concious.
When the government cracks down on an area, it resurfaces elsewhere. Miami's problem wasn't solved, it just moved to Colombia, and now to Mexico. Not to say out problems are the same as theire or that they were that bad, but the drugs have found easier ports of entry...although they still do come in through South Florida to this day.
I grew up in a rather quiet neighborhood in Hialeah. Once the 80s drugs came in, and many criminals from the Martiel boatlift participated in the drug culture and business, life became violent. I saw the SWAT more than once in my teenage years. I heard gunfire several times growing up. While these were not everyday events, they happened enough as to where I thought they was commonplace.
MIYayo is another documentary that sheds light on the 10 biggest drug lords in Miami history. Boobie Boys, John Doe, Convertible Burt, etc. Many of my Miami friends/family grew up in the very hoods the aforementioned drug CEO's ran. Miami's crime wave largely died down after the 90's, because that's when many of the drug lords were taken off the street (either killed or doing life behind bars). Without the drug era, would Miami be as developed as it is now? Hmmmm.
1. If you lived there at that time, did all that crazy stuff effect your day to day life?
I didn't notice a darn thing. I was in college in Los Angeles when 1980 arrived but I spent every summer and Christmas in Miami, near Tropical Park. It seemed like a seamless transition from the '70s, although I do remember the rioting in spring 1980, big news nationwide but to me it was a TV event from the opposite coast.
After college I lived in Miami for 18 months in '82 and '83, and again there wasn't a noticeable shift. The economy was awful and I remember the dispair during that depression but not crime as a day to day factor.
Weird because as soon as I moved to Las Vegas I was jolted by the seedy aspects of that town almost immediately. I met a sharp guy in the Stardust sportsbook who seemingly had his own money tree. He'd make a $550 bet one day, lose it and say he was broke, then make another $550 wager the next day. I was baffled until someone pulled me aside and told me to steer clear from that guy, that he was one of the biggest slot cheats in town. Sure enough, the guy was caught at the Desert Inn within weeks and sentenced to jail.
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