It’s no joke! Only in Miami can a new police company form as a State of Florida limited liability company, slap a $3,000 price tag on a democracy partner with Only in Dade known criminals, and run a debate for the long-awaited Constitutional Sheriff at Miami Improv Comedy Club & Dinner Theatre. But it’s really happening!

On February 16, all registered sheriff candidates received a letter stating they were being contacted simultaneously. The letter said they needed to pay a $1,000 deposit within 5 days if they had an interest in participating in the forum. Don’t worry my friends, the $1000 deposit due by February 21 will be refunded if the police officers that don’t live in Miami don’t choose the sheriff candidate wanting to participate! Are you smelling the rotten bananas yet?

Don’t worry. In a more recent letter, the new police company has lowered its Miami-Dade Sheriff’s debate cost to only $2,500 with fewer “allocated” VIP tickets.

The email invitations to sheriff candidates were delivered by a company called Police Jobs, LLC. The all-new Florida LLC was opened in November 2023. An LLC is a shell company for limiting liability from individuals.

Its officers are two current City of Miami police office employees who run the City of Miami Police Dept. social media accounts – Nicholas Perez and Um Set Ramos.

Does anyone recognize Nicholas Perez, aka @Nick_Off_Duty?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nick Perez (@nick_off_duty)

Um Set Ramos, Ed. D.

In addition to the event promotion, the new Police Jobs LLC business appears to be a new app developer without so much as a landing page for a website. The officers were busy creating events with Only In Dade, a media outlet founded by an indicated criminal and running the City of Miami’s social media, which is involved in online controversies, including derogatory racial comments.

Both officers can be seen on taxpayers’ dime as they feature themselves on the Miami Police Dept’s social media accounts. Miami Police Department created a full-time social media team of cops in 2016. At first, they had three cops running the social media. Now, it’s unclear how many officers spend their days on social media. What we do know is the technology in a lot of their cars do not work and they can’t get 911 calls without their cell phones. We can only hope they weren’t reliant on AT&T on Thursday when there was an “outage.”

Back to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Debate invitations…

The email invitation is addressed to all sheriff’s candidates requesting participation in exchange for a $3,000 TOTAL fee. Don’t worry – the invite included an “allocation” of VIP tickets and an after-party.

Evidently, the first response was low. OR maybe they failed to inform the candidates, mostly police officers that the sheriff’s candidate event partners, sponsors, and promoters are/were indicted criminals. Police officers have a code of conduct that typically requires them to avoid known criminals.

We contacted all candidates for responses along with current City of Miami Police Chief Manny Morales. Chief Morales did not respond before publishing. In all fairness, we didn’t give him 24 hours before publishing, and it’s Friday.

Former City of Miami Police Chief Art Acevado, the chief who said the Cuban mafia ran Miami, weighed in.

“There should be no price tag on democracy. I’ve never heard of paying to participate in democracy.” ~Former Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo

Banana Republic News emailed all candidates for comment. We only received a response from Miami Dade Sheriff’s Candidate Ruaman Delarua, the only candidate with prior sheriff’s office experience.

” I am in receipt of the Only In Dade & Police Jobs poll/debate invitation for Sheriff’s Office candidates. However, while doing my due diligence and after some findings, I choose not to participate. I pride myself as the only sheriff’s candidate committed to bringing transparency and accountability to the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office to protect and serve citizens. Participating in this event would go against my personal morals and professional ethics.” ~Candidate for Miami-Dade Sheriff, Ruaman Delarua

Faithful future Sheriff Delarua is no stranger to social media himself. His son recently posted a video that has over 4.3 Million views re: the Miami Aliens:

https://www.tiktok.com/@lolbrenden/video/7320777499405962542?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7336250175612274219

According to the name “Police Jobs, LLC,” one would think they may be planning to do more than charge sheriff’s candidates to participate in a town hall. Based on his email signature, there must be a Police Jobs app coming soon:

Like most of the Miami government happenings, we’re kept in the dark with everything but ginormous billboard signs.

Okay! Let’s take a read through the Police Jobs, LLC emails to shed some light on the Police Jobs, LLC company.

The first email is written by registered authorized agent Um Set Ramos, Ed.D. He informs the Sheriff’s candidates that participating in a town hall would cost $3,000 to participate, which included 10 VIP tickets. Candidates were to pay a $1,000 deposit to participate in the poll featured on Only In Dade social media channels. The top seven winners would then be permitted to participate in the Miami-Dade Sheriff Candidate Town Hall sponsored by Police Jobs LLC and promoted by Only In Miami.

The deposit from all our Miami-Dade Sheriff’s candidates was due before any promotion on Mr.’s personal channel and the Only In Dade (@OnlyInDade) channel.

Being an award-winning technologist specializing in social media marketing since the MySpace era, I found this entire process to have a complete lack of democracy BEFORE the second email.

First Only In Dade’s Instagram channel has 1.4 million followers and an average post engagement of approximately 2,000 people.

Secondly, they are the two cops running the City of Miami’s social media marketing, using our tax dollars. The Police Jobs LLC owners have a day job in marketing and promoting the City of Miami Police Department. Seeing their new venture is also in “Police” and an “app,” they are familiar with the technology. They must understand that online polls can be swayed and even bought to get candidates they want in.

Thirdly, they do NOT live in Miami-Dade at all. Why do they care who our sheriff will be?

Fourth, they should not hang out and do business acquisitions with known criminals. Yes, Only In Dade is run by Leonardo Lastre and featured on the Florida Department of Corrections as an indicted criminal.

He was rewarded with Emilio Estafan funding and co-ownership backing for Only In Dade. Miami Herald included the duo on the 305 Influencers.

Typically, most police officers take an oath or code of conduct to avoid doing business with known criminals to prevent department backlash. Only in Miami does criminal status take one to another level, including public office and naming a sheriff.

The latest email exchange says the new debate date is Tuesday, June 18, or June 25, with a NEW reduced participation fee of $2,500 (total)! Okay, everyone! Pay up! {JK}.

The only caveat is the sheriff’s candidates are now down to 5 (five) VIP seats instead of the original 10 (ten).

“A Social Media poll will NOT decide participating candidates. The sponsors will select who participates in the event. There are more than (7) candidates willing to debate.” says Um Set Ramos.

I (Christi Tasker) tried to reach City of Miami Police Chief Morales with these questions:

1. Does participating in business or hosting a collaborative event as a “Police” business conflict with the City of Miami oaths of office or department codes of ethics?

According to Miami-Dade Sheriff Candidate Ruaman Delarua’s statement, it sounds like the does violate the code of ethics.

2. Did the officers seek the Miami Police Department’s approval of the LLC’s formation?

It’s unclear if they must seek permission to open a business while working in the police force. The word “Police” would not be mixed with actual police officers and a business.

3. Does the department allow officers further to promote themselves and police likeness or the police name with prior convicted criminals?

Another office