Shortly after both the ACLU and NAACP asked outside authorities to look into the shooting deaths of eight young black men by police in the last 10 months, embattled Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito has agreed to meet with the families of the deceased.
At least two of the men were unarmed, and the communities of Little Haiti, Overtown, and Liberty City -- from which all of the dead hailed -- had repeatedly requested more information to little avail.
"This is an attempt to at least ease some of those concerns, and to bring those families a little bit more closure," said Delrish Moss, a spokesperson for the Miami Police Department.
"There's a cry for answers...The hope here is that we can do everything that we can through conversation and dialogue to ease some those tensions."
Tensions, however, may continue even after the meetings set for some time next week. City manager Tony Crapp, Jr. has hired a retired FBI investigator to review the police department, the State Attorney's Office is reviewing the shootings, and Mayor Tomas Regalado and multiple city commissioners have called for Exposito's dismissal or resignation.
Following the shooting death of Travis McNeil last Friday, the local NAACP chapter called upon the Florida Attorney General to step in and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson to contact the Justice Department.
The ACLU delivered an investigation request Tuesday to Miami's Civilian Investigative Panel, noting that New York City, with a population 20 times larger than Miami's, had only 10 such police-involved shootings in all of 2010.
For its part, the police department says its own investigations in each fatality -- seven of them in just seven months -- are ongoing.
“[The families] are the people who are most important here getting answers first," said Moss. "We’ll talk to them, and when the time allows, we’ll talk to the public at large."
