The Miami Police Department rang in the start of Black History Month on Thursday with an audacious addition to its collection of cars.
The new police cruiser is decorated with images of the continent of Africa, as well as drawings of raised fists and a smattering of red, yellow, and green — the colors associated with Black History Month.
The department held an official Black History Month vehicle unveiling this week during which authorities revealed the new car following a ceremony at the Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum in Miami.
Along with a red, black, and green design scheme, there is also a design of the continent of Africa on the vehicle, along with stripes of kente cloth, all of the things one would associate the City of Miami Police Department with, naturally.
The Columbus Police Department in Ohio also made a similar move although it’s shockingly less over the top than the Miami Police deal.
"Among all of the officers who were in attendance to commemorate the unveiling were some of our very first black police officers," the department said.
But the car quickly drew criticism from online onlookers who suggested the automobile was perhaps a tone-deaf testimonial to the city's Black community.
The reveal of the car also happened as the country yet again grapples with race and policing with the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols days after he was beaten by police officers in Memphis.
Sherrilyn Ifill, former President and director-counsel of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, simply tweeted: "THIS CANNOT BE" about the Miami car.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami police chief Manuel Morales were on hand for the ceremony on Thursday at the city’s Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum, with Suarez calling it a “beautiful collaboration to commemorate Black History… and the history of African Americans and our police department and our city.”
“This is Black history,” Suarez said of the cop car.
Suarez even went so far as to indirectly reference police killings of Black people, such as that of Tyre Nichols in Memphis at the hands of several police officers, five of whom have been fired and charged with murder and kidnapping. “Obviously we’ve seen some things across the country that are shocking, that we hope and know will never be repeated in our jurisdiction,” Suarez said at a Thursday press conference, according to Miami New-Times.
“But I think part of the reason why it won’t is because we embrace our history,” Suarez said, according to Miami New-Times. “We know where we came from. We understand what the struggles were.”
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