Earlier on Friday, my colleague Bonchie shared a stunning video of a melee between Miami police and protesters, which is thought to have happened on June 10th. Here’s how he described it:

In the video, you can see a man jump on the police car while others attempt to block its path. Another man hits the windshield with a skateboard. Reportedly, glass was broken onto the officers inside. It’s at that point that Miami PD decide they can’t sit idle anymore. They storm out of the car and begin to take down those who attacked the car. Other protestors join in and try to hit the officers with skateboards and fists.

And things just devolved from there. As he mentioned, the Miami Herald reported it broke out during a protest “against police brutality,” and included a video of their own.

‘Miami PD don’t PLAY’: If you’re looking for more footage of cops kneeling you’ll want to skip this video because HOLY COW (watch) https://t.co/toHhM9Fd2i via @twitchyteam

— 🇺🇸 The🐰FOO 🇺🇸 (@PolitiBunny) June 12, 2020

As if they don’t have enough things to deal with, now there’s a new wrinkle for the Miami Police Department to worry about — and it involves their Chief.

President S. Jean-Poix is inviting all Media and community leaders to join him on June 12, 2020, from 4pm to 5pm at the Black Police Pricent (480 NW 11 St) as he holds a press conference to discuss systemic racial issues in policing and its relationship to the Miami Police Dept. pic.twitter.com/JrIDauM6xg

— Miami Community Police Benevolent Association (@mcpba1946) June 11, 2020

The Miami Community Police Benevolent Association, a union representing black police officers, held a press conference Friday afternoon, calling for Miami police chief Jorge Colina to either resign or be fired from his position, for what they claim was a racial slur he used twenty-three years ago.

WSVN reported:

The head of the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association produced a reprimand that says the police chief received from police disciplinary review board about a racial slur he allegedly made.

….

“He used the N-word back in 1997,” Saint Jean-Poix. “This is not the type of language you should use. There was a reprimand and one thing I found was that everyone’s story lined up. We also have issues where some staff were using the N-word and the Chief never did anything about it. We believe Colina has shown some excessive vices and is tone deaf to us. I want to take this before the City Commission and he should be dismissed.”

But, this isn’t the first time the union has taken issue with Colina or his department, according to CBS Miami.

Last November, the Miami Community PBA claimed Colina’s department unfairly treated black officers and said there was a lack of black officers in leadership.

Colina countered by saying he has the most black staff members in the history of the department. More than a quarter of his command staff is black.

And now, Chief Colina is pushing back, telling CBS Miami that there’s one, basic problem with the union’s claim — and it completely explodes their argument:

Colina said, “I was teaching a class, and I started the class by saying I was going to be using language that could be very offensive.”

He also recorded and released a video, speaking directly to his officers, about what actually happened in 1997:

Colina said, “I was given a reprimand for tact and consideration for the language that I used. Not because I’m a bigot or racist but because they aren’t happy with some of the language that I used.”

“When you’re working undercover you may have to act and say things that you wouldn’t normally otherwise whether they make you uncomfortable or not, and then I gave many examples of what that could be,” he said.

His conclusion about the union’s attack on him is regretfully no surprise these days to many conservatives: “You have a group of individuals that would take the murder of George Floyd and use that for their own self-serving purposes to push their own agenda is disgusting.”

Watch as Chief Colina gives his side of things, and some of his officers speak up for him, via CBS Miami: