City’s New Police Car Design Comes Under Fire

(NewsReady.com) – Miami’s police department is facing ridicule after the city’s mayor presented a woke new paint scheme for its vehicles. Mayor Francis Suarez (R) says the “beautiful collaboration” celebrates the history of African-Americans. Critics say it’s out of touch — and a waste of money.

Miami used a police car to celebrate Black History Month https://t.co/pZdNv4dZCA via @MailOnline

— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) February 3, 2023

On February 2, Mayor Suarez, flanked by serving and former Miami Police Department officers, unveiled a police cruiser decorated in a bold new color scheme. The garish paint job features red, yellow, and green stripes, a map of Africa and the Black Power clenched fist symbol. It also has a large Black History Month slogan down the side. Suarez praised the design for commemorating black history, but the internet was less impressed.

Sherrilyn Ifill, the former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, tweeted “THIS CANNOT BE” in response to the new design. Another commentator said “Policing is fixed now. Thank you, police car.” Even the radical Black Lives Matter movement was unimpressed, tweeting a Cardi B meme captioned “I just hate it.” One person pointed out that a normal vehicle wrap costs around $5,000, and this custom job probably cost a lot more.

The design was even too much for some in the liberal media. According to Fox News, Charles F Coleman, a legal analyst for MSNBC, called it “tone deaf performative action” and said it’s this sort of gesture that’s causing the kickback against woke policies “when we are made to accept the unacceptable.”

When it became obvious the controversial design had sparked a backlash, Suarez’s office backed away from it, insisting they’d had nothing to do with its creation. In fact, it was paid for by the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association, and approved by the police union before the vehicle was unveiled.

The redecorated cruiser was displayed outside the Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. The building, which operated from 1950 to 1963, was a segregated facility aimed at giving black people a separate police and justice system. Modern Miami has moved on from that kind of racial division. Unfortunately, woke gestures like this car design are dragging it back.