Ok, FK can't leave all of Miami behind. Here is another "touching" story.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Ticket a second torment for officer
The Florida Highway Patrol is reviewing an incident in which a Miami police lieutenant was ticketed while rushing to a hospital where his son lay mortally injured.
BY JOAN FLEISCHMAN
jfleischman@MiamiHerald.com
Miami police Lt. Armando Bello was in the Florida Keys when he got word that his son, a 27-year-old Miami-Dade police officer, was critically injured in an off-duty, one-car crash at 5:45 a.m. Saturday. Bello jumped into his car and was racing north on U.S. 1, headed to Jackson Memorial Hospital, when he got stopped for speeding by the Florida Highway Patrol.
Bello, 49, told Trooper Jose Burgos the circumstances. Burgos didn't believe him. So he wrote Bello a ticket -- for doing 91 mph in a 55-mph zone. That was at 7:11 a.m.
What Bello didn't know was that doctors at JMH's Ryder Trauma Center had just pronounced his son dead at 7:08 a.m.
Would that validate his speeding or justify the ticket?Officer Armando Bello Jr. was on his way home from a party for a fellow police officer when his silver Lexus hit a tree at Northwest 27th Avenue and 110th Street.
FHP Lt. Col. Rick Gregory said the brass are reviewing the traffic ticket situation. ''Our concern is the sensitivity and discretion issue,'' Gregory said.
Burgos, 26, a trooper for three years, lives in Homestead and patrols upper Monroe County on the day shift. He was driving to work in his marked black-and-yellow cruiser when a motorist flagged him down to report a ''reckless driver,'' Capt. Jaime Picanol said Tuesday.
Burgos saw Bello ''passing, changing lanes, at a very high rate of speed,'' Picanol said. The trooper clocked Bello's Mercedes with radar and pulled him over at mile marker 118. Bello said he was a policeman and that he had a gun in the car. ''`My son has been involved in a serious crash,'' he told Burgos, according to Picanol. ``He's been airlifted.''
Why are Miami PD officers driving so much nicer cars than Fat Kid? And the quote is seriously lame..FK is reading the story and doesn't believe it as an excuse.Burgos, who had watched the TV morning news, ''didn't hear anything about it,'' Picanol said. ``He didn't give it much credibility, so he wrote him a ticket.''
Having experienced the Miami morning news, Burgos was probably too distracted by the boobies to pay attention to the 2 second blurb placed between a bikini contest and an interview w/a plastic surgeon.Burgos felt terrible when he later learned that Bello was telling the truth and that his son had died.
Bello, a 26-year Miami Police Department veteran now assigned to the communications section, once worked motorcycle patrol, doing traffic and DUI enforcement.
Shouldn't someone in communications be better at explaining things?Burgos is a solid, ''high activity'' trooper, Picanol said. And troopers ''get so many excuses, you have to determine which is real,'' Picanol added.
Said Lt. Col Gregory: ``It is hard to put a policy in place to describe common sense, but we want to make sure every trooper understands that they have discretion and there is a need for sensitivity.''
Why shouldn't we give police unfettered discretion? Oh. Right.Burgos will likely void the ticket, Picanol said. ``He's going to take care of the citation to make sure Lt. Bello won't have to go to court.''
The junior Bello was a finalist for the Dade County Police Benevolent Association's Officer of the Year award in 2005 for rescuing a driver and four children from a burning car.
Ok this makes FK look like a jerk.Services are at 10 a.m. today at St. Brendan Catholic Church in Westchester. Burial is at Woodlawn Park South, 11655 SW 117th Ave. In lieu of flowers, the Bello family requests donations to the Police Officer Assistance Trust, 1030 NW 111th Ave., Suite 232, Miami, FL 33172.
Is the fact he is a cop supposed to make his ticket even more painful? Should the Monroe Co. FHP guy be penalized for doing his job? Where the hell was the blue wall? Great news breaking Miami
"This article is only improved the the reader comments:Of course Trooper Burgos is lying about the "phantom passerby" who complained of a reckless driver. He caught Lt. Bello ON RADAR. Which means our lying Trooper was up ahead of Bello's speeding car. How did our fast and furious "phantom passerby" get ahead of a speeding car and let Super Trooper Burgos know that Bello was coming? The real answer....the Trooper was traveling or sitting southbound and caught Bello going northbound on his radar. And now that EVERYONE sees what a jackass that Trooper Burgos is, the weasel makes up a lie to try and make Bello look reckless when all he was doing was speeding on an empty highway in the early morning. If FHP knows what's good for them, Trooper Burgos better get transferred to an Everglades post, because his name is MUD around here from now on and he can look forward to NO RESPECT when he deals with local law enforcement in the future here in South Florida." Long Memory
"It is very sad that the Police Officer was ticketed within minutes of his son dying, but apparently he was driving very dangerously. Anyone who is driving 91 miles an hour on those tiny one or two lane roads between Key West and Florida City is a danger to the public, and maybe State Trooper Burgos kept Lt. Bello from killing himself and others. That would have been a much greater tragedy for everyone.
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Posted by: Frank Miller
"Funny how that will get reviewed but I'm found guilty of pulling over outside the airport to calm my wife (who is scared of flying) down on the phone while she's panics after flying alone for the first time."
I'm sorry for the loss, but 91 mph in a 55 is no excuse. I would do the same and drive that fast, but understanding the risk of the ticket. If that were me, I would suck it up. The ticket should be the least of his worries."
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Posted by: TC
It continues for about 40 more comments. To TC re: his wife sucking, grow a pair and slap her. She deserves it.
