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Miami 1980. Rok niebezpiecznych dni
Miami. Odcisk na palcu Florydy, latarnia morska dla ofiar kubańskiego ucisku, nieatrakcyjny skrawek Ameryki. Jak to możliwe, że z miasta skazanego na porażkę stało się jednym z najważniejszych punktów na mapie USA i bramą łączącą uporządkowaną Północ z pogardzanym Południem?
Choć problemy wzbierały już w latach siedemdziesiątych, to właśnie w 1980 roku przez miasto przetoczyła się ich kulminacyjna fala. Napływ tysięcy imigrantów z Kuby, kolumbijscy narcos przemycający przez Miami tony kokainy, oszuści piorący miliony dolarów, zbuntowani czarni, rozgoryczeni ubóstwem i nieustającą agresją policji. Lokalne skandale, zamieszki rasowe i kryzys migracyjny – w ciągu jednego roku Miami przeżyło upokarzający upadek, z którego musiało się podnieść bez pomocy z zewnątrz. Koniec 1980 roku przyniósł jednak nadzieję. Trudne doświadczenia ostatnich dwunastu miesięcy zmusiły wszystkie departamenty policji oraz włodarzy miasta do wprowadzenia gruntownych zmian, a zmęczonych przemocą mieszkańców – do integracji. I to właśnie z traumy 1980 roku narodziło się współczesne Miami.
Nicholas Griffin przez siedem lat pracował nad materiałem dotyczącym tego roku, kiedy ulicami Miami rządził chaos i bezprawie. Jego książka to skrupulatna i doskonale udokumentowana kronika burzliwego przełomu w historii miasta i hołd złożony tym, którzy zrobili wszystko, by rok niebezpiecznych dni już nigdy się nie powtórzył.
Choć problemy wzbierały już w latach siedemdziesiątych, to właśnie w 1980 roku przez miasto przetoczyła się ich kulminacyjna fala. Napływ tysięcy imigrantów z Kuby, kolumbijscy narcos przemycający przez Miami tony kokainy, oszuści piorący miliony dolarów, zbuntowani czarni, rozgoryczeni ubóstwem i nieustającą agresją policji. Lokalne skandale, zamieszki rasowe i kryzys migracyjny – w ciągu jednego roku Miami przeżyło upokarzający upadek, z którego musiało się podnieść bez pomocy z zewnątrz. Koniec 1980 roku przyniósł jednak nadzieję. Trudne doświadczenia ostatnich dwunastu miesięcy zmusiły wszystkie departamenty policji oraz włodarzy miasta do wprowadzenia gruntownych zmian, a zmęczonych przemocą mieszkańców – do integracji. I to właśnie z traumy 1980 roku narodziło się współczesne Miami.
Nicholas Griffin przez siedem lat pracował nad materiałem dotyczącym tego roku, kiedy ulicami Miami rządził chaos i bezprawie. Jego książka to skrupulatna i doskonale udokumentowana kronika burzliwego przełomu w historii miasta i hołd złożony tym, którzy zrobili wszystko, by rok niebezpiecznych dni już nigdy się nie powtórzył.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published July 14, 2020
139 people are currently reading
1395 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Griffin
31 books25 followersNIcholas Griffin is the author of seven books. He has written for film, TV, newspapers and magazines. He currently has two works, Ping Pong Diplomacy and The Year of Dangerous Days, under option for film and television. A soccer addict, a carnivore of books, Griffin lives in Miami Beach with his wife and two children. And his dog. The dog is very important.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
September 18, 2020
Fascinating account of Miami in 1980.
This book is so well researched and beautifully written that it reads like a fast-paced novel. It is also a reminder that drugs, racial divides, and poverty have the same roots. The problems Miami faced are a distant mirror of today’s problems. I loved this book and will seek out others by him, a terrific read.
This book is so well researched and beautifully written that it reads like a fast-paced novel. It is also a reminder that drugs, racial divides, and poverty have the same roots. The problems Miami faced are a distant mirror of today’s problems. I loved this book and will seek out others by him, a terrific read.
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May 15, 2022Tej książki również łatwo nie jest ocenić poprzez gwiazdki, bo jest to można powiedzieć przerażajace podsumowanie zapamiętanego roku 1980 Miami.
Sama nie wiem co do końca o tej książce uważać, bo sposób pisania autora mi do końca nie przypadł i dość ciężko było mi przebrnąć przez całą tę historię, ale też nie tylko z tego powodu - bo po prostu temat był bardzo trudny, krwawy i przerażający.
Nie umiem określić czy mi się podobała. Mam do niej bardzo ambiwalentny stosunek. Na pewno na kimś, kto nie interesuje się historią i nie lubi, ta pozycja nie zrobi wrażenia i się przy niej strasznie wynudzi.
Choć też szkoda, że autor nie dodał teraźniejszości Miami, które przecież pod zupełnie każdym względem się nie zmieniło.
Sama nie wiem co do końca o tej książce uważać, bo sposób pisania autora mi do końca nie przypadł i dość ciężko było mi przebrnąć przez całą tę historię, ale też nie tylko z tego powodu - bo po prostu temat był bardzo trudny, krwawy i przerażający.
Nie umiem określić czy mi się podobała. Mam do niej bardzo ambiwalentny stosunek. Na pewno na kimś, kto nie interesuje się historią i nie lubi, ta pozycja nie zrobi wrażenia i się przy niej strasznie wynudzi.
Choć też szkoda, że autor nie dodał teraźniejszości Miami, które przecież pod zupełnie każdym względem się nie zmieniło.
July 17, 2020
This is a stunning book. It’s the story of how one crisis after another pummeled Miami in 1980. Since that was an election year, and Miami was seen as a sort of national embarrassment, there wasn’t much help forthcoming from the Feds. We meet Arthur McDuffie, a black ex-Marine beaten to death by fifteen policemen. We meet Edna Buchanan, a local reporter who unravels the cover up. We see much of the action through the eyes of the county captain of homicide. Then the book does something surprising - it begins to tell the story of a city. You meet the mayor trying to hold the city together as racial tensions rise, as a tsunami of cocaine money and bloodshed come crashing down. You meet the money launderer casually driving around town with a million dollars in the trunk of his Chevy - every day. And then, as if things couldn’t get any worse in Florida, Fidel Castro sends 125,000 immigrants Miami’s way - including 4,000 of his most violent prisoners. It’s torturous to watch the city suffer and begin to tear itself apart, but amazing to watch it reinvent itself and change course on its own without help from DC. It’s not that I didn’t know that immigration, drugs and race weren’t old issues in this country but it’s extraordinary how contemporary a forty year old story begins to feel. My favorite book of the year so far.
November 22, 2020
"The Year of Dangerous Days" is an amazing book about the most tumultuous year in Miami's history. It's deeply researched and filled with fascinating characters and scenes. It's got a couple of flaws, but they weren't enough to kill my enthusiasm for what Nicholas Griffin has accomplished here.
Griffin traces the course of three things that changed Miami in one year. Two of those were events: The acquittal by a white jury of the police officers who were charged with beating to death Arthur McDuffie a Black ex-Marine who had led them on a high-speed chase on his motorcycle, and the subsquent days of rioting over the verdict; and the Mariel boatlift, in which Fidel Castro sent thousands of Cubans across the Florida Straits, some of them prisoners and mental institution inhabitants. The third thing wasn't an event but a trend: The rise of cocaine smuggling from South America and the vast tide of money that accompanied it and had to be hidden somehow.
Griffin finds a good way to draw readers into this three-handed story by focusing on some of the people involved: Miami Herald reporter Edna Buchanan, who goes from being the cops reporter to feeling like a war correspondent amid the rising tide of murders that accompanied the drug trade; Marshall Frank, the head of the homicide squad who also played in the orchestra; Maurice Ferre, the city's first Latin mayor, whose ambition was to turn the city into a vital link to Central and South America; and money launderer Isaac Kattan, who routinely handled millions of dollars and constantly had to be alert to losing it (at one point someone stole his car, which contained millions).
As the New York Times review of this book pointed out, there's never a dull moment in Griffin's narrative, and even a long-time Floridaphile like me learned a lot from this book. I docked him one star for two reasons, one a quirk of his writing and the other a big hole in the story.
The quirk: Griffin often tosses in a sentence or two on each page which is contained in quotation marks but it's not clear from the text where the quote came from. You have to look in the end notes to find the source. That grew somewhat tedious. It would have been kinder to the reader to make the attribution easier to locate.
The big hole: One of the minor characters in the story is a Colombian hit man Anibal Jaramillo, who throughout the book kills several people and appears to get away with it because Frank's homicide squad has a hard time keeping up with the many drug-related murders. Then, according to the book, he slips up and is caught in a minor crime, and his fingerprints match those taken from the scene of a double-murder. Jaramillio is convicted of the crime and sent to Death Row. Griffin then includes a scene where Jaramillo delivers a briefcase full of cash to his attorney and suggests bribing the Florida Supreme Court justices. Without further explanation, Griffin then says the justices overturned his two death sentences -- and his convictions as well, and ordered him freed. The implication is that they WERE bribed, but he offers no proof of that, nor even any evidence. It's true that in the 1970s, Supreme Court justices were caught in bribery and kickback schemes, but I've not seen any stories alleging bribes freed a hitman. Ironically Jaramillo's overturned convictions are cited by several anti-capital punishment organizations as evidence that Florida's system is flawed and bloodthirsty. Bottom line: Griffin should have included far more details, if he has them, about how Jaramillo was exonerated, or else admit he can't prove bribery occurred.
Griffin traces the course of three things that changed Miami in one year. Two of those were events: The acquittal by a white jury of the police officers who were charged with beating to death Arthur McDuffie a Black ex-Marine who had led them on a high-speed chase on his motorcycle, and the subsquent days of rioting over the verdict; and the Mariel boatlift, in which Fidel Castro sent thousands of Cubans across the Florida Straits, some of them prisoners and mental institution inhabitants. The third thing wasn't an event but a trend: The rise of cocaine smuggling from South America and the vast tide of money that accompanied it and had to be hidden somehow.
Griffin finds a good way to draw readers into this three-handed story by focusing on some of the people involved: Miami Herald reporter Edna Buchanan, who goes from being the cops reporter to feeling like a war correspondent amid the rising tide of murders that accompanied the drug trade; Marshall Frank, the head of the homicide squad who also played in the orchestra; Maurice Ferre, the city's first Latin mayor, whose ambition was to turn the city into a vital link to Central and South America; and money launderer Isaac Kattan, who routinely handled millions of dollars and constantly had to be alert to losing it (at one point someone stole his car, which contained millions).
As the New York Times review of this book pointed out, there's never a dull moment in Griffin's narrative, and even a long-time Floridaphile like me learned a lot from this book. I docked him one star for two reasons, one a quirk of his writing and the other a big hole in the story.
The quirk: Griffin often tosses in a sentence or two on each page which is contained in quotation marks but it's not clear from the text where the quote came from. You have to look in the end notes to find the source. That grew somewhat tedious. It would have been kinder to the reader to make the attribution easier to locate.
The big hole: One of the minor characters in the story is a Colombian hit man Anibal Jaramillo, who throughout the book kills several people and appears to get away with it because Frank's homicide squad has a hard time keeping up with the many drug-related murders. Then, according to the book, he slips up and is caught in a minor crime, and his fingerprints match those taken from the scene of a double-murder. Jaramillio is convicted of the crime and sent to Death Row. Griffin then includes a scene where Jaramillo delivers a briefcase full of cash to his attorney and suggests bribing the Florida Supreme Court justices. Without further explanation, Griffin then says the justices overturned his two death sentences -- and his convictions as well, and ordered him freed. The implication is that they WERE bribed, but he offers no proof of that, nor even any evidence. It's true that in the 1970s, Supreme Court justices were caught in bribery and kickback schemes, but I've not seen any stories alleging bribes freed a hitman. Ironically Jaramillo's overturned convictions are cited by several anti-capital punishment organizations as evidence that Florida's system is flawed and bloodthirsty. Bottom line: Griffin should have included far more details, if he has them, about how Jaramillo was exonerated, or else admit he can't prove bribery occurred.
May 10, 2022
Wstrząsające podsumowanie pamiętnego roku 1980 w Miami - czasu krwawych zamieszek o podłożu rasowym, którego punktem zapalnym, aczkolwiek nie jedynym powodem, było brutalne pobicie ze skutkiem śmiertelnym, czarnoskórego ojca rodziny i byłego żołnierza marines Arthura McDuffie'ego, przez policjantów DSPSD. Proces grupy, który okazał się sądową farsą, skutkującą uniewinnieniem oprawców, doprowadził do serii makabrycznych wydarzeń skoncentrowanych w wielokulturowym tyglu dzielnic Overton i Liberty City, które stały się kanwą dla jednego z wielu wątków przejmującego reportażu Nicholasa Griffina.
Pozostałe wątki, które splatają się na ten, pełen przemocy i terroru obraz rzeczywistości lat 80, skupiają się na historii, jaką zapoczątkował incydent w ambasadzie peruwiańskiej w Hawanie, który doprowadził do istnej inwazji imigrantów z marginesu społecznego Kuby na Miami a dopełnieniem tego armagedonu były prężnie i niemal bezkarnie działający w tym rejonie przestępcy z kolumbijskich karteli z Cali i Medellin.
Reportaż zabiera nas w samo jądro tych wydarzeń, Griffin analizuje przyczyny, ale też nie szczędzi dosadnych opisów zaistniałych skutków - morderstw na zlecenie i publicznych linczów, sugestywnych sprawozdań z najbardziej odrażających wydarzeń tych dni (opis tłumu mordującego i bezczeszczącego zwłoki braci Jeffereya i Michaela Kulpy, których jedyną winą było, że znaleźli się w złym miejscu i złym czasie, czy rekonstrukcja egzekucji dokonanych przez kolumbijskiego mordercę Anibala Jaramillo, to rzeczy, które zagnieżdżają się w głowie czytelnika na długi czas).
Zagęszczenie zdarzeń zaistniałych w tym okresie sprawia, że "Miami 1980" bardziej przypomina relację z terenu ogarniętego działaniami wojennymi, niż reportaż z cywilizowanego, XX-wiecznego miasta. Książka Nicholasa Girffina jest najlepszą pozycją z tej kategorii, jakie czytałem w tym roku i jednym z najlepiej napisanych reportaży, jakie przeczytałem do tej pory. Polecam czytelnikom, w których kręgu zainteresowań leżą fabularyzowane dokumenty filmowe w rodzaju serialu "Narcos" oraz interesującym się wciąż świeżym - niestety - tematem przemocy na tle rasowym w Ameryce. Ostrzegam jednak, to lektura dla czytelników o stalowych nerwach!
Pozostałe wątki, które splatają się na ten, pełen przemocy i terroru obraz rzeczywistości lat 80, skupiają się na historii, jaką zapoczątkował incydent w ambasadzie peruwiańskiej w Hawanie, który doprowadził do istnej inwazji imigrantów z marginesu społecznego Kuby na Miami a dopełnieniem tego armagedonu były prężnie i niemal bezkarnie działający w tym rejonie przestępcy z kolumbijskich karteli z Cali i Medellin.
Reportaż zabiera nas w samo jądro tych wydarzeń, Griffin analizuje przyczyny, ale też nie szczędzi dosadnych opisów zaistniałych skutków - morderstw na zlecenie i publicznych linczów, sugestywnych sprawozdań z najbardziej odrażających wydarzeń tych dni (opis tłumu mordującego i bezczeszczącego zwłoki braci Jeffereya i Michaela Kulpy, których jedyną winą było, że znaleźli się w złym miejscu i złym czasie, czy rekonstrukcja egzekucji dokonanych przez kolumbijskiego mordercę Anibala Jaramillo, to rzeczy, które zagnieżdżają się w głowie czytelnika na długi czas).
Zagęszczenie zdarzeń zaistniałych w tym okresie sprawia, że "Miami 1980" bardziej przypomina relację z terenu ogarniętego działaniami wojennymi, niż reportaż z cywilizowanego, XX-wiecznego miasta. Książka Nicholasa Girffina jest najlepszą pozycją z tej kategorii, jakie czytałem w tym roku i jednym z najlepiej napisanych reportaży, jakie przeczytałem do tej pory. Polecam czytelnikom, w których kręgu zainteresowań leżą fabularyzowane dokumenty filmowe w rodzaju serialu "Narcos" oraz interesującym się wciąż świeżym - niestety - tematem przemocy na tle rasowym w Ameryce. Ostrzegam jednak, to lektura dla czytelników o stalowych nerwach!
June 9, 2025
I was sad when this book was over. It's remarkably thorough and well-researched but the author is also a very gifted story teller. What could have been a super dry slog was instead an exciting page turner full of interesting information.
I feel like I understand Miami better now, yet I just read a book about murders and race riots and other crazy, action-packed stuff. Basically required reading if you live in Miami and an excellent read even if you don't.
I feel like I understand Miami better now, yet I just read a book about murders and race riots and other crazy, action-packed stuff. Basically required reading if you live in Miami and an excellent read even if you don't.
June 1, 2022
W trakcie lektury pierwszych rozdziałów “Miami 1980. Roku niebezpiecznych dni” zawaliłam parę osób z instagrama wiadomościami jak rewelacyjny reportaż czytam i że oto najprawdopodobniej szykuje się nowy ulubieniec w serii Amerykańskiej Czarnego. A trzeba było słuchać się mądrzejszych, kiedy mówili, żeby nie nie chwal dnia przed zachodem słońca, a z ostatecznym werdyktem wstrzymywać się do ukończenia książki. Bo koniec końców dzieło Griffina w znacznej mierze okazało się rozczarowaniem. Po części zrzucę tu winę na polski tytuł i jego nieprecyzyjne i nie oddające treści książki tłumaczenie (w oryginale “The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980”). Takie skrócenie tytułu pomija jego istotną część wskazującą trzy główne zagadnienia, o których traktuje książka (zamieszki, uchodźcy, kokaina). Nie powinno więc dziwić, że gdy pierwsze kilkadziesiąt stron w pełni poświęcone było sprawie linczu białych policjantów na niewinnym czarnym obywatelu to byłam pewna, że oto mam do czynienia z literaturą faktu z nurtu true-crime. Wtrącę w tym miejscu, że pod piórem Griffina jest to true crime najwyższej jakości. Wręcz pokuszę się o stwierdzenie, że autor ma wyjątkowy talent do pisania o sprawach kryminalnych. Umiejętnie potrafi zainteresować i bez reszty wciągnąć czytelnika w przedstawioną historię, opisy zarówno konkretnych zdarzeń jak i miejsc czy osób są tak żywe i obrazowe, że można się poczuć jakby się było świadkiem prezentowanych wydarzeń. Griffin sporo uwagi poświęca osobom zaangażowanym w morderstwo czarnoskórego, kreśli ich sylwetki ze swadą, nie szczędząc omawiania cech charakteru, stylu ubierania czy skróconego życiorysu z uwzględnieniem co ciekawszych anegdot. Taki zabieg jeszcze mocniej angażuje czytelnika w wydarzenia z Miami. Problem zaczyna się po kilkudziesięciu rozdziałach, kiedy nagle ni z tego ni z owego Griffin wyskakuje z kompletnie innym tematem. W jednej sekundzie, gwałtownie z rasowej kryminalnej historii, w której już głęboko i solidnie jesteśmy zanurzeni, autor zabiera nas do innej “sztuki” - tym razem o uchodźcach, by w końcu po kilkudziesięciu kolejnych rozdziałach zaprezentować przed nami ostatnią już odsłonę swojej książki - tym razem traktującą o biznesie narkotykowym. I owszem, w pewnym stopniu te trzy opowieści wzajemnie się przeplatają, mają punkty wspólne (inne poza oczywistymi miejscem i datą wydarzeń - Miami 1980), jednak są one znikome. Nie ma gładkich przejść pomiędzy tymi historiami, a nawet więcej - spokojnie każda mogłaby posłużyć za materiał na osobną książkę. I właśnie tak mi się czytało “Miami 1980” - jak trzy różne, oddzielne reportaże. I tu dochodzimy do problemu numer dwa - a mianowicie kompleksowości i dogłębności omówienia przez autora relacjonowanych historii. Pomimo, że w samą lekturę mocno się wciągałam, czytałam ze szczerym zainteresowaniem i przy końcu każdej kolejnej strony (z niepowodzeniem) obiecywałam sobie jeszcze tylko jedna i robię przerwę, to nieprzerwanie towarzyszyło mi poczucie niedosytu. Nie mogłam pozbyć się wrażenia, że te reportaże są dosyć powierzchowne, zdarzenia opisane są pobieżnie i Griffin mógłby znacznie więcej wycisnąć z tych historii i bardziej się w nie zagłębić. Nie mogę jednoznacznie stwierdzić, że “Miami 1980” mnie rozczarowało, bo tak jak wspominałam czytało mi się naprawdę dobrze, skutecznie wciągało, jednak ja potraktowałabym ten reportaż jedynie jako wstęp do tematu, bazę do dalszych poszukiwań bardziej szczegółowych informacji o wydarzeniach z Miami A.D. 1980. Jako zachęta do pobudzenia ciekawości sprawdza się książka Griffina doskonale.
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June 9, 2021
A fascinating look at the 1980's in Miami. I was alive during this time and witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly of the 80's. In this book, Griffin describes in detail the tragic case of McDuffie who was murdered by the police. I remember the riots. I remember them vividly because my father, never seeing something like that was terrified and gave me my 20 gauge shotgun to sleep with in the room. He told me "if someone comes through that window, you know what to do". I was mortified. I never really heard about the details of the case, only that he was in fact murdered.
Sadly, McDuffie was beaten to death and the police officers were to blame. Although he was driving over the speed limit, was shutting off the light to try and outrun the police and driving with a suspended driver's license. Whatever the case may be, the police were wrong.
As is still the case today, the response to some tragedy is usually worse than the original issue. This is precisely why I feel that protesting that includes blocking streets where people are not involved, don't want to be involved, and/or don't even care about the issue is so dangerous. Michael and Jefferey Kulp who ran their car through one such protest leaving a young girl pinned to a wall. However Michael and Jefferey Kulp were tortured for hours. Jefferey getting shot, stabbed, concrete blocks slammed on his head, his ear and tongue cut out and much more. It was truly medieval. The reality is that families lost loved ones on all sides of this incident. Violence begets violence begets violence. No one wins. The McDuffie riots, in my opinion, did more harm to race relations during that time than any other issue of its time. Whites and Hispanics remembered the horrific scenes on the streets of Miami. Many families told their kids to be careful around black people as they could not be trusted. This was not the case at my house but I remember a lot of friends where that was the norm. I am sure, many Black families also thought their children about the dangers of the police due to the McDuffie killing. It would be nice to all acknowledge this and try to move on. Seems that is not the case and we have only doubled down.
Never in my days, did I ever think I would be alive to hear about separate black and white graduation, dorms, businesses, etc. Today we are self-segregating. Society in the name of "progress" has urged people to identify with a race and create echo-chambers, very much like what we see in prisons where you have Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, etc and they must fight for a manufactured issue created by those in power that have a vested interest in keeping everyone separate and stupid. Hopefully we can pull through this and stop flushing motion of this society.
Additionally I learned about Hector Sanyustiz which I owe my family to. Because of his valiant and desperate move to ram the gates of the Peruvian Embassy in Cuba which was the impetus of the Mariel Boat Lift which is how my wife and her family arrived in this country. Many people know about the Mariel Boat Lift from either family or even the movie Scar Face but very few that I have asked knew anything about Sanyustiz. Many of my family members arrived from Cuba during this time and it is probably the only thing I am grateful to Jimmy Carter for. My former brother-in-law made the voyage across the Florida Straits to Cuba to pick up his brother as well as my uncle and son. I remember being glued to the TV to see if there were any updates to their voyage.
The truth is there were a lot of mentally unstable people released from the sanatarium and prisoners released from prisons, but most of the folks that came here were hardworking people looking to better their lives and the lives of their families. I remember being introduced to "El Granizero" (The Snow Cone man) that created a snow cone cart our of a bike and some wood, the "Churro" man that would make Churros outside of the Zayres parking lot in Hialeah, and the "Biandero" which was essentially a mobile fresh market where the "Biandero" would pull up in your apartment building and start yelling "Biandero.. La Bianda barrata, barrata, barrata". In Cuba, there were no parts for the American classic cars. The Cubans were so resourceful they would manufacture their own parts. However there were the drugs that was "the lure of easy money.... it was the smuggler's blues" ~ Glenn Frey.
We had family and friends that became millionaires overnight. The strip bar trips where we would drop 10s of thousands of dollars, nightly dinner at the Forge in Miami Beach, boats, trips, cars, motorcycles and anything your mind could think of. I remember that for 2.5 years, I did not own a car. I would grab one of the many cars available (Ford Bronco, Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham and El Dorrados, AMG Mercedes Benz, Porsche 911 Carrera, etc). Many smart dealers made money and used it to go legit but most allowed greed to take them to jail or the cemetery. My father sold airline tickets from the house. He made a lot of money selling these people tickets for world tours. The club scenes was crazy. Walking into the bathroom, you would see cocaine everywhere. Dude would be snorting lines off of the urinals with $100.00 bills. Miami Jai-Alai on Saturdays was the normal thing to do. Thousands of dollars were dumped there. All the drugs you wanted. We would go to Broward County as a teen and hit the teen clubs with loads of cocaine. As ugly as I am, I was like Brad Pitt. I scored probably more than he did. I enjoyed the life style but new that hanging with these people would soon bring my life to an end. When they offered me $10K to go to Haulover marina to trailer a boat that was in the water and once I delivered it to its destination, I could keep the brand new Ford Bronco, I knew I was being set up. Got away from all of it.
The reality is that Miami was a shit-hole. No one wanted to be here unless you were 100 years old. It was a retirement community. The drugs built Miami. Many legitimate businesses made a lot of money. Best thing was not to ask if it was blood money. I had carpet business. There was a customer that lived on Brickell Key. I would replace his white carpet in his giant apartment every month. Regardless of what the situation. Once, he was traveling the entire month. No one was even in their apartment after I installed the carpet the month before. I asked him if he wanted to skip this month and he said NO!!! Come put some new carpet. I made 10's of thousands of dollars from him alone yearly.
Sadly, McDuffie was beaten to death and the police officers were to blame. Although he was driving over the speed limit, was shutting off the light to try and outrun the police and driving with a suspended driver's license. Whatever the case may be, the police were wrong.
As is still the case today, the response to some tragedy is usually worse than the original issue. This is precisely why I feel that protesting that includes blocking streets where people are not involved, don't want to be involved, and/or don't even care about the issue is so dangerous. Michael and Jefferey Kulp who ran their car through one such protest leaving a young girl pinned to a wall. However Michael and Jefferey Kulp were tortured for hours. Jefferey getting shot, stabbed, concrete blocks slammed on his head, his ear and tongue cut out and much more. It was truly medieval. The reality is that families lost loved ones on all sides of this incident. Violence begets violence begets violence. No one wins. The McDuffie riots, in my opinion, did more harm to race relations during that time than any other issue of its time. Whites and Hispanics remembered the horrific scenes on the streets of Miami. Many families told their kids to be careful around black people as they could not be trusted. This was not the case at my house but I remember a lot of friends where that was the norm. I am sure, many Black families also thought their children about the dangers of the police due to the McDuffie killing. It would be nice to all acknowledge this and try to move on. Seems that is not the case and we have only doubled down.
Never in my days, did I ever think I would be alive to hear about separate black and white graduation, dorms, businesses, etc. Today we are self-segregating. Society in the name of "progress" has urged people to identify with a race and create echo-chambers, very much like what we see in prisons where you have Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, etc and they must fight for a manufactured issue created by those in power that have a vested interest in keeping everyone separate and stupid. Hopefully we can pull through this and stop flushing motion of this society.
Additionally I learned about Hector Sanyustiz which I owe my family to. Because of his valiant and desperate move to ram the gates of the Peruvian Embassy in Cuba which was the impetus of the Mariel Boat Lift which is how my wife and her family arrived in this country. Many people know about the Mariel Boat Lift from either family or even the movie Scar Face but very few that I have asked knew anything about Sanyustiz. Many of my family members arrived from Cuba during this time and it is probably the only thing I am grateful to Jimmy Carter for. My former brother-in-law made the voyage across the Florida Straits to Cuba to pick up his brother as well as my uncle and son. I remember being glued to the TV to see if there were any updates to their voyage.
The truth is there were a lot of mentally unstable people released from the sanatarium and prisoners released from prisons, but most of the folks that came here were hardworking people looking to better their lives and the lives of their families. I remember being introduced to "El Granizero" (The Snow Cone man) that created a snow cone cart our of a bike and some wood, the "Churro" man that would make Churros outside of the Zayres parking lot in Hialeah, and the "Biandero" which was essentially a mobile fresh market where the "Biandero" would pull up in your apartment building and start yelling "Biandero.. La Bianda barrata, barrata, barrata". In Cuba, there were no parts for the American classic cars. The Cubans were so resourceful they would manufacture their own parts. However there were the drugs that was "the lure of easy money.... it was the smuggler's blues" ~ Glenn Frey.
We had family and friends that became millionaires overnight. The strip bar trips where we would drop 10s of thousands of dollars, nightly dinner at the Forge in Miami Beach, boats, trips, cars, motorcycles and anything your mind could think of. I remember that for 2.5 years, I did not own a car. I would grab one of the many cars available (Ford Bronco, Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham and El Dorrados, AMG Mercedes Benz, Porsche 911 Carrera, etc). Many smart dealers made money and used it to go legit but most allowed greed to take them to jail or the cemetery. My father sold airline tickets from the house. He made a lot of money selling these people tickets for world tours. The club scenes was crazy. Walking into the bathroom, you would see cocaine everywhere. Dude would be snorting lines off of the urinals with $100.00 bills. Miami Jai-Alai on Saturdays was the normal thing to do. Thousands of dollars were dumped there. All the drugs you wanted. We would go to Broward County as a teen and hit the teen clubs with loads of cocaine. As ugly as I am, I was like Brad Pitt. I scored probably more than he did. I enjoyed the life style but new that hanging with these people would soon bring my life to an end. When they offered me $10K to go to Haulover marina to trailer a boat that was in the water and once I delivered it to its destination, I could keep the brand new Ford Bronco, I knew I was being set up. Got away from all of it.
The reality is that Miami was a shit-hole. No one wanted to be here unless you were 100 years old. It was a retirement community. The drugs built Miami. Many legitimate businesses made a lot of money. Best thing was not to ask if it was blood money. I had carpet business. There was a customer that lived on Brickell Key. I would replace his white carpet in his giant apartment every month. Regardless of what the situation. Once, he was traveling the entire month. No one was even in their apartment after I installed the carpet the month before. I asked him if he wanted to skip this month and he said NO!!! Come put some new carpet. I made 10's of thousands of dollars from him alone yearly.
November 23, 2020
Well, this was well-written and contained a lot of detail with which I was unfamiliar --- even though I lived in Miami in 1980.
The problem for me was that there was a hyper-focus on the mayor of the City of Miami and downtown areas (with limited mentions of other areas). No discussion of county governance at all, which gives a very stilted view of the power center in the metro area. It is clear that Mr. Griffin certainly admired Mr. Ferre, with his forward thinking and vision, but the feeling of life in Miami in 1980 was not there. Perhaps that is another book.
As a result, when I got to the end, it felt more like a paean to the mayor that somehow didn't really reflect the full picture of Miami in 1980.
The problem for me was that there was a hyper-focus on the mayor of the City of Miami and downtown areas (with limited mentions of other areas). No discussion of county governance at all, which gives a very stilted view of the power center in the metro area. It is clear that Mr. Griffin certainly admired Mr. Ferre, with his forward thinking and vision, but the feeling of life in Miami in 1980 was not there. Perhaps that is another book.
As a result, when I got to the end, it felt more like a paean to the mayor that somehow didn't really reflect the full picture of Miami in 1980.
January 29, 2022
Very knowledgeable author but something is lacking in this account of Miami. The ending wraps up the author’s point of view pretty clearly and truly but most of the book misses in its frenetic pace to achieve poignancy.
August 13, 2022
nie wiem do końca, co o tym myślę. na początku byłam zachwycona stylem opowieści i samą historią. w połowie styl autora stał się przygnębiająco nudny, przez co straciłam całą chęć do skończenia tej książki. niestety nie obyło się bez kartkowania w niektórych momentach. naprawdę interesuje mnie historia i właśnie dlatego zdecydowałam się na tę książkę, ale jestem zawiedziona. treści innych autorów przypadły mi bardziej do gustu.
niemniej jednak, rzeczowy reportaż (dla mnie zbyt rzeczowy, bo przypominał książkę od historii).
niemniej jednak, rzeczowy reportaż (dla mnie zbyt rzeczowy, bo przypominał książkę od historii).
August 24, 2022
What a chaotic year 1980 was for Miami! This book has better helped me understand the recent history of my hometown just 10 years before I was born, and the the scale of the incredible changes Miami has gone through in just a couple of decades.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Miami’s history, but especially to other young Miamians who want to understand the version of the city their parents and grandparents witnessed.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Miami’s history, but especially to other young Miamians who want to understand the version of the city their parents and grandparents witnessed.
April 19, 2021
Good story of Miami
Enjoyable, especially the money laundering. It is a well crafted book about the Mariel Boat lift, riots caused by the acquittal of law enforcement officers for killing a black man and Colombian cocaine murders. Interestingly told on how these events coalesced in a 12 month period. Perhaps it was just me but I found the writing occasionally awkward.
Enjoyable, especially the money laundering. It is a well crafted book about the Mariel Boat lift, riots caused by the acquittal of law enforcement officers for killing a black man and Colombian cocaine murders. Interestingly told on how these events coalesced in a 12 month period. Perhaps it was just me but I found the writing occasionally awkward.
March 26, 2021
I grew up in Miami. When the events of this book took place, I was 2. As I got older there was always the sideways awareness of what the grown ups in the room were talking about- then when I became a teenager, a clearer picture of that place- it’s historical significance and deep racial, linguistic and economic fault lines came into full view. This books captures the seminal happenings of 1980- it’s well researched and paints a vivid portrait. I agree with the author that there are far too few books written on Miami- and it may be that fact that made me want more from this. The author sticks to 1980 and gives a graceful coda to show the ripples from the events of that year- but it rouses a lot of topics and questions that it doesn’t fully put to bed-and only a full portrait of Miami in the 80’s could do that. There are also some word choices that felt out of place-at one point he describes Latin America as coughing up immigrants- maybe an attempt at hard boiled prose? But if the author was up for it, I’d read 800 pages more.
April 9, 2022
Niezwykle ciekawa i rozbudowana książka. Nie spodziewałam się, że autorowi uda się w tak skondensowany sposób podać aż tyle wątków i na dodatek zrobi to tak przejrzyście, że czytelnik w żaden sposób nie jest się w stanie q tym pogubić. Jak dla mnie jeden z lepszych reportaży w Serii Amerykańskiej
July 9, 2022
A compelling and readable account of a truly insane yet pivotal period in Miami’s history. That the city somehow managed to survive the chaos of the 70s and 80s gives you some hope for today.
November 19, 2023
Interesting enough but I don’t know Miami the way they describe it because i am too young
August 15, 2020
I read 50% of this book and decided to set it aside for now. Don't get me wrong there were many things I found interesting and it is an extremely important read right now. At this season in life though it just made me fall asleep every night when I sat down to read it.
This is a DNF for me.
This is a DNF for me.
August 29, 2025
I could have listened to this forever.
March 21, 2025
Very good analysis of Miami/Dade County in Florida during the early 1980s. Explains much of what has happened since then in South Florida as well as Florida.
August 8, 2025
Aside from the extraordinary detailing by the author of Miami in 1980, there is also an unprecedented amount of Jimmy Carter bashing in this book.
February 21, 2021
I really enjoyed this true story which focuses on the tumultuous year, 1980, in Miami, Florida where racial injustice, police brutality, Cuban refugees, skyrocketing cocaine trafficking and money laundering all merged together to create a city in turmoil. I live in Miami so I may have enjoyed this book more since many of the scenes took place just steps from my apartment (thankfully I didn’t live here then!) But I truly think anyone would appreciate this well researched and fast moving account of those troubled times which in many ways contributed to the international city we have finally become. Favorite scene (and I won’t go into much detail to avoid spoilers) is when a car with a trunk-load of millions in drug money pulls up in front of a bank being watched by the Feds and said car is stolen while the money launderers are in the bank. No one is sure whether it was an inside job or he was simply the luckiest carjacker in history! There is a major storyline surrounding the police beating of an innocent black insurance agent that sadly predicted behaviors of social injustice we are witnessing today. Miami is in most ways a great place to live and now I see it is thanks in part to some of the civic leaders and intrepid reporters featured in this book. This is a good read.
February 15, 2022
Odd organization of material and a comically bad opinion of Fidel knocked this one down a peg or two.
April 13, 2021
The Year Of Dangerous Days Riots,Refugees,and Cocaine in Miami 1980 should be retitled The consequences of destroying where you live and work but It seems it should be re-titled The Great Maurice Ferre. The book goes back and fourth between what has already been written ad nauseam and is public record and is already known to us Native Miamians. It is part true crime,pseudo-history and revisionist history as well as part Glowing Biography of Democrat Mayor Ferre(known to be hostile to Local Cuban Populace.) I can only picture another book one day glowing on How Raul Martinez of Hialeah or Manny Diaz of City of Miami(Thanked in the book by the way and who has overbuilt miami vis-a-vee brickell)did for their respective cities if you can count on corruption and Selling every square of the town inch a noble thing. I was born in Miami still live here ,grew up in it 1980s and Miami was the best There was no traffic on the Palmetto On a saturday. The book while sympathetic to the rioters or at least tries to sugar coat their actions at the same time mentions the destruction it brought, Not mentioned in the book (Norton Tire is) but BF Goodrich and the many other Companies that will never return. The Protagonist of all it failed to stop, What entailed next is open to conjecture and all the events the transpired were just as senseless. Author fails to Mention the Animosity towards Cubans coming here in the 60s who were discriminated against Like My grandfather who worked Hotels as Cubans were told they were stealing their jobs, The signs that read about Non-Whites not allowed also were signs that Said No Cubans either. Not to mention the Discrimination by Non-Cuban Spanish Speaking cultures who to this day still discriminate against Cubans the same ones who paved the path for them to Come Here to Beautiful Miami and for all the "New" Historians(read hipsters) that regentrify not just the so-called urban areas but encroach on Little Havana (as Brickell is running out of space, Thanks Mayor Manny Diaz). He mentions the Herald which time and time again has failed to serve the community with one-sided coverage and only inflict the tensions the book wants to expose. Even at the start of the book he commits a big error, There is no such thing as a Kawasaki 2100 , A Z1 yes. The Author is correct in pointing that sadly Drug Money built up most of Downtown And Brickell and is right in many aspects but a short book to explain the nuisances and rivalries of a Town that like it or not 1950s/60s Cuban Exiles made into said 1980s and now metropolis is too complex. the book is recommended to the Miami Beginner ala MiamiNewTimes Rag Reader or the casual Miami Is all Palm Trees and beauty type who isn't well-versed in it's true rich history and geography. I can't complain however as it could have read like Ann Louise Bardach or Carl Hiaasen book.
August 31, 2020
The story from 1980 has many lessons for us today. The scene is Florida, today's Miami- Dade County. I had a house there and visited frequently from 2013-2017. In 1980, when so many things of import happened there, I was almost overwhelmed by my life's events, left with little time to follow news. Yet I came away with a lasting and apparently accurate idea of what went on.
The present volume hinges on a murder by policemen who were set free by a jury of six white men. The police had beaten a black man to death. Granted, by the letter of the law there were declared innocent, and granted I rely on memory and the reporting of a single writer, Mr. Griffin, but I stand by my accusation.
Next up was the riot which ensued after the innocent on all counts verdict. Upwards of 6,000 people in the black section of Miami rioted, killed, and burned the city. Such a festival of violence makes the puny disturbances we see today look awful small time. Still...our white populace hasn't learned how to be fair or just, our white cops still kill, our black commuity still self defeats in riots and our governments still discriminate. And the black neighborhood burned in 1980 has not been revived as has the rest of Miami.
Miami suffered an influx of about 100,000 Cubans brought in boats from Castro's benighted country, his jails and insane asylums. In addition, hundreds of violent, criminal, ignorant Columbians brought billions of dollars and thousands of kilos of cocaine. Today we suffer from the drug plaque, another self-inflicted disease: neither Columbians nor Vietnam nor the CIA are responsible for our drug problems. We are. We buy the stuff, jam it into our arms, cram it up our noses, swallow pill after pill. But Miami flourshes even as it has become a divided city which is beginning, I think, to cohere. Until recently the whites, the blacks, the Cubans, the cohort of other Spanish speaking communities have kept inbreeding and looking at everybody else as the enemy. Once that stupid behavior melts away Miami-Dade and all of Florida and all of the United States will benefit.
Recommended.
The present volume hinges on a murder by policemen who were set free by a jury of six white men. The police had beaten a black man to death. Granted, by the letter of the law there were declared innocent, and granted I rely on memory and the reporting of a single writer, Mr. Griffin, but I stand by my accusation.
Next up was the riot which ensued after the innocent on all counts verdict. Upwards of 6,000 people in the black section of Miami rioted, killed, and burned the city. Such a festival of violence makes the puny disturbances we see today look awful small time. Still...our white populace hasn't learned how to be fair or just, our white cops still kill, our black commuity still self defeats in riots and our governments still discriminate. And the black neighborhood burned in 1980 has not been revived as has the rest of Miami.
Miami suffered an influx of about 100,000 Cubans brought in boats from Castro's benighted country, his jails and insane asylums. In addition, hundreds of violent, criminal, ignorant Columbians brought billions of dollars and thousands of kilos of cocaine. Today we suffer from the drug plaque, another self-inflicted disease: neither Columbians nor Vietnam nor the CIA are responsible for our drug problems. We are. We buy the stuff, jam it into our arms, cram it up our noses, swallow pill after pill. But Miami flourshes even as it has become a divided city which is beginning, I think, to cohere. Until recently the whites, the blacks, the Cubans, the cohort of other Spanish speaking communities have kept inbreeding and looking at everybody else as the enemy. Once that stupid behavior melts away Miami-Dade and all of Florida and all of the United States will benefit.
Recommended.
July 25, 2020
Although nonfiction, this book is an absolute Thriller and full of Suspense. It recounts the one year of Miami to end all years. A year that literally shapes Miami to what it is today and now helps me understand the city better. It's Miami, 1980. For Miami 1980 is a year full of horrific socio-political and economic events that resonates almost like a ghost for Miami even today. From racism to police brutality to political corruption, to a massive rise in refugees from Cuba and if that's not enough- the epitome of cocaine drug lords. It starts with the brutal murder of Arthur McDuffe by police officers and then takes the reader through a compounded set of events that spiral thereafter continually involving murder, crime, money laundering, corruption and politicians and administrations who continually fail the citizens of the city- to the point where the only solution for the people for justice is to light the city on fire.
This is a book that you can't put down because you almost can't believe all of these things happened on American soil in modern times. Moreover, the cast of characters from Edna Bucchanan (the reporter from the Miami Herald) who broke the truth and brutality behind Arthur McDuffe's death to the Colombian money launderer and drug dealer Isaac Kattan to Captain Frank of Miami homicide and Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre' all weave the complex and cluster of incredible and almost impossible implosion of events that happened in one year.
It's brilliant and will surprise you with every page turn. A must read.
I would be remiss if I didn't say I saw parallels to the year 2020 that makes the book emotional for the reader regardless of where you live and what city the book is about. I read it with gusto and would read it again
This is a book that you can't put down because you almost can't believe all of these things happened on American soil in modern times. Moreover, the cast of characters from Edna Bucchanan (the reporter from the Miami Herald) who broke the truth and brutality behind Arthur McDuffe's death to the Colombian money launderer and drug dealer Isaac Kattan to Captain Frank of Miami homicide and Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre' all weave the complex and cluster of incredible and almost impossible implosion of events that happened in one year.
It's brilliant and will surprise you with every page turn. A must read.
I would be remiss if I didn't say I saw parallels to the year 2020 that makes the book emotional for the reader regardless of where you live and what city the book is about. I read it with gusto and would read it again
September 21, 2021
We all have a year in our lives that will stand out because of their horribleness. For the city of Miami, Florida, that was 1980. I was busy dropping out of college and getting married that year, and while I'd heard about the catastrophe that was the Mariel Boatlift, it seemed that it was something happening on the other side of the world.
Turns out that it was one of a trilogy of events that made 1980 a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year for Miami - the other events being the murder of a black motorcyclist by police, leading to a series of riots, and an escalating crime rate that saw Columbians murdering each other in the streets over the cocaine trade, pushing the year's murder rate over - are you sitting down - 500.
Griffin chronicles the year of 1980 with a revolving cast of characters including an intrepid Miami Herald reporter who got wind of the motorcyclist's murder before the police could cover it up; a homicide detective whose department has just been hamstrung by an FBI corruption investigation; and Miami's Puerto Rican mayor, who proved to be a more adroit politician than another character in the drama, President Jimmy Carter.
Three stars because, while it was an interesting read, to me it was pretty much a one-shot story, a book-length footnote in the history of a city I have no real desire to visit.
Turns out that it was one of a trilogy of events that made 1980 a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year for Miami - the other events being the murder of a black motorcyclist by police, leading to a series of riots, and an escalating crime rate that saw Columbians murdering each other in the streets over the cocaine trade, pushing the year's murder rate over - are you sitting down - 500.
Griffin chronicles the year of 1980 with a revolving cast of characters including an intrepid Miami Herald reporter who got wind of the motorcyclist's murder before the police could cover it up; a homicide detective whose department has just been hamstrung by an FBI corruption investigation; and Miami's Puerto Rican mayor, who proved to be a more adroit politician than another character in the drama, President Jimmy Carter.
Three stars because, while it was an interesting read, to me it was pretty much a one-shot story, a book-length footnote in the history of a city I have no real desire to visit.
May 25, 2021
I was compelled to read this book after reading a review in Reason magazine. I’m glad I did. It’s a great story about one terrible year in Miami when race, drugs, and immigration intersected.
The story is told well, overall, with a few marked exceptions: first, Nicholas Griffin, the author, left London at 18, but he brought his British form of speaking with him. The book toggled between the decimal and imperial systems of measurement, and I don’t mean measuring drugs. Additionally, windshields were repeatedly called “windscreens.”
Next, given all the research for this book, I cannot fathom how this error got in: page 207, “Anibal Jaramillo [...] on the morning of November 17 [...]” shot Graciella Gomez dead. Then, on page 222, “A month after shooting Graciella Gomez [...], on a Thanksgiving weekend [...]” he committed more murders. Even if Thanksgiving were November 28, the latest it could be, how could that be misconstrued to be a month after November 17? And how can a reader believe the other “facts” are accurate when this glaring error exists?
Still, it’s a good book, a quick read, and a message that hope is alive despite the nation’s current problems with race, drugs, and immigration.
The story is told well, overall, with a few marked exceptions: first, Nicholas Griffin, the author, left London at 18, but he brought his British form of speaking with him. The book toggled between the decimal and imperial systems of measurement, and I don’t mean measuring drugs. Additionally, windshields were repeatedly called “windscreens.”
Next, given all the research for this book, I cannot fathom how this error got in: page 207, “Anibal Jaramillo [...] on the morning of November 17 [...]” shot Graciella Gomez dead. Then, on page 222, “A month after shooting Graciella Gomez [...], on a Thanksgiving weekend [...]” he committed more murders. Even if Thanksgiving were November 28, the latest it could be, how could that be misconstrued to be a month after November 17? And how can a reader believe the other “facts” are accurate when this glaring error exists?
Still, it’s a good book, a quick read, and a message that hope is alive despite the nation’s current problems with race, drugs, and immigration.
June 26, 2024
Wild story. 1980 Miami saw an insane homicide spike as the city got really dangerous. It was dealing with a ton - the rapid expansion of Colombian cocaine trafficking, increasing awareness of police brutality, chronic underfunding in public services including the police department, competing city and county governments, racial tensions between the “Anglo”, African American and Latino communities, and then finally a massive influx of Cuban refugees from the port of Mariel in cuba encouraged by Castro. On top of all of this, there also was a concerted effort on the part of the city to define itself for business, culminating in it establishing itself as the “capital of Latin America” a safe place for Latin money for leisure, investing, commercial expansion, etc.
I overall enjoyed it a lot. However there was a ton going on and it was hard to know whether something had come to a “finish” since they’d cover something for a few chapters then pivot rapidly to another. I would’ve liked to know more about the 1980 murder trial they covered. Overall recommend.
I overall enjoyed it a lot. However there was a ton going on and it was hard to know whether something had come to a “finish” since they’d cover something for a few chapters then pivot rapidly to another. I would’ve liked to know more about the 1980 murder trial they covered. Overall recommend.
May 15, 2022
An absolutely gripping read recounting a hinge year in the history of Miami. It is a great story told by a great writer. Racial unrest and conflict, drug wars, skyrocketing crime and a refugee crisis all crammed into one explosive year. The only criticism I have of the book is that you don't need to read the acknowledgements to figure out who the sources were for it. You don't tire of the sources but in the great tradition of Bob Woodward books, the sources always come out in a positive light. It gets to be a bit much. It is difficult to imagine a better book so I would not call it a flaw but it would be great if someone at some point was able to pick up the baton and go even deeper. It would be great to know more about the officers involved in the McDuffie beatings and what became of them. Perhaps even more could be said about the impact of the Marielitos in the years that followed, although Griffin handled this well. These are all quibbles, this is a fantastic read.
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