Miami Is Corrupt and Weird

As I’ve noted before, “South Florida is corrupt and weird.” And just how corrupt and how weird is it?

First, corruption: The New Times, Miami’s alternative weekly, has issued corrupt local politician trading cards, “commemorating those halcyon days when bankruptcy loomed, graft was common, and lawmen busted bad pols like fishermen nail snook in the Keys.” What I find odd is that, given the long litany of corrupt South Florida politicians, they only found room for seven cards.

Now, weirdness: For what may be the first time ever anywhere, this week in Miami a couple of dumb hoodlums tried to sell a stolen shark to a fish market. The shark was apparently alive as they dragged it through the streets — and even took it onto the Metromover, an elevated trolley that runs in a circuit around downtown Miami.

Rob Orta, an employee at Casablanca Fish Market, told television station WSVN that the men offered his business the shark.

“But we don’t buy sharks off the street,” Orta told the station.

Wildlife officials later determined the animal was a nurse shark. The case could result in misdemeanor charges of improper killing and disposal of an animal and selling a shark without a license.

One resident of the area where the shark was dumped said he didn’t know what was going on at first.

“It was a relief that it was a shark,” said Keith Smith. “When I first saw it, I thought it was a body because of all the shootings that have been going on.”

For more on Miami corruption and weirdness see here and here.

(Thanks to Margaret Griffis and Jen Mass for the tips.)