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Pearson supporters make familiar request of Miami-Dade State Attorney Fernández Rundle

Supporters of Miami-Dade State Attorney candidate Melba Pearson gathered in front of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office Saturday to call on incumbent Katherine Fernández Rundle to resign.

While the request to voluntarily give up power was largely symbolic — the Democratic primary between Fernández Rundle and Pearson is Aug. 18 and the Miami-Dade Democractic Party asked the same of Fernández Rundle last month — the gathering functioned as an airing of grievances before taking their message to the neighborhoods.

They sung a familiar song as their main theme: alleged police brutality and questionable use of lethal force repeatedly gets legal okey-dokeys from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office during Fernández Rundle’s 27 years.

Pearson worked as a prosecutor in that office from 2002-2017 before becoming the ACLU of Florida’s deputy director.

Miami resident Valencia Gunder pointed to the sentence given Jonathan Aledda, the North Miami police officer found guilty of negligence in the shooting of healthcare worker Charles Kinsey in 2016. Aledda’s punishment was a year’s probation, community service and a 2,500-word essay.

Gunder said such consideration isn’t given to “our young men who make mistakes. They don’t do it for our children who make mistakes in in school. They don’t do it for the homeless. They don’t do it for the impoverished.”

No one being arrested or prosecuted in the killing of Gunder’s goddaughter, Jada Paige, also left her dissatisfied with Fernández Rundle.

“There are many families who deal with gun violence, intracommunity violence and this office fails to get them justice,” Gunder said. “So we’re not safe anywhere as long as she’s in office. We’re not safe in our communities. We’re not safe on the beach. We’re not safe at the library. We’re safe nowhere as long as she’s in still in the office.”

Crystal Foster remains furious that it has taken Fernández Rundle’s office five years to investigate the fatal shooting of her brother, Edward Foster II, by Homestead police officer Anthony Green. Green got cleared of any wrongdoing in his two previous fatal shootings.

University of Miami Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Armen Henderson said, “Her campaign slogan is “Keep Kathy 2020.” I agree — we should keep her in 2020. This has been a bad year. Enough is enough. we don’t want to see her in 2021, 2022 or 2023.”

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