Miami! A town where you can stroll through South Beach in fashionable clothing, or—if you happen to be a black male—you can be shot by the police. Either/ or.

The issue (the shooting one, not the fashion one) has come to a head in Miami, the NYT reports, mostly because seven black men have been shot and killed by the Miami police in the past eight months. Also, it was probably not a great idea, while this was going on, for the police chief to participate in the production of a reality show about Miami cops in which he approvingly said his officers were "predators."

And it was terrible timing for one of the stars of the show to go out and kill an unarmed black man, Travis McNeil, a few weeks after the show's trailer debuted.

The officer who shot Mr. McNeil is Reinaldo Goyo, a member of the city's elite gang unit who appeared in the "Miami's Finest SOS" video. (The TV show has since been shelved.)

Saying on the video: "I've got some style. I've got some flavor" while wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the words "The Punisher," Detective Goyo says he and his partner inherited the nicknames Crockett and Tubbs after the lead characters in the 1980s TV show "Miami Vice." "It's got a nice little ring to it," he says.

Another cop "shot and killed two men within nine days last August." Whereas the Miami police chief before the current one once had an entire department go nearly two years without firing a single shot. The current chief sounds perfect for his officers. They would make an awesome paintball team I bet.

[NYT. Photo: AP]