When Bank Robbery Is Not A Crime In South Beach

WHEN BANK ROBBERY IS NOT A CRIME IN SOUTH BEACH

January 26, 2012
By David Arthur Walters

There have been numerous shootings in Florida’s chic South Beach district lately including police shootings that killed men who were either armed or pretended to be armed. And a tourist was beaten to death with bare fists on the sidewalk outside a pool hall while bystanders watched and took a video of the incident. Therefore the following January 23 Incident Advisory of a “bank robbery” caused some excitement although the bank has been robbed before and its busy ATM machines are infamous for robbing tourists when the machines are tampered with by crooks.

“This morning at approximately 0915 hours, the Bank of America at 930 Washington Avenue pressed their panic alarm button indicating a bank robbery was in progress. Sector 2 + Sector 3 police officers saturated the area. The subject stated he was armed with a firearm to the bank teller and demanded money. The subject departed the bank prior to our arrival. Bicycle and ATV Officers located and took the subject into custody along the 1100 block of Washington Avenue.”

The subject was 26-year-old Arsenio Jamond Johnson. His mug shot is displayed on a website with others for the admiration of facial tattoos. A detractor on a popular social media site accused him of impersonating a black man, as if he were not black enough; otherwise not much information is available. He was most previously arrested for trespassing in Hillsborough, Florida, where he refused to name his birthplace when arrested. He was released there on $500 bond, some confidential information was received—probably his medical records—and the prosecutor dropped the case.

As for his subsequent arrest in Miami Beach for bank robbery, it appears that he was impersonating a bank robber and not really a bank robber. We are advised by the Miami Beach Police Department that he was deemed to be a ‘Baker Act.’ “He will be sent for evaluation and probably not be formally charged with the robbery.” Indeed, he is probably back on the street by now.

The Baker Act legislation provides that mentally ill individuals not be treated as criminals, e.g. restrained like criminals, if they are of no danger to themselves or others. They may be involuntarily committed by law enforcement officers to a receiving facility for psychiatric evaluation but cannot be held for more than 72 hours, at which time “the patient shall be released, unless he or she is charged with a crime, in which case the patient shall be returned to the custody of a law enforcement officer.” On its face, that provision, in Chapter 394 of the Florida Statutes, allows considerable discretion to police officers. An officer on the scene described Mr. Johnson as a “crazy dude.” Considering the facts known at this time, that he walked into the bank in broad daylight and left on foot, and was apprehended less than a minute later, two blocks away on the very street where the police station is located, we may with good reason conclude he is mentally challenged, and make a mental note of the Baker Act in case we do something stupid someday.

On January 20, two days prior to the Bank of America “incident” (it is no longer a “crime”), the FBI arrested one Cedrick Deon Swasey, 31, a convicted felon, for his role in the September 21 robbery of the Wells Fargo Bank branch at 1901 Alton Road in South Beach, a more suitable location for non-Baker Act bank robbers. Mr. Swasey was dressed in fatigues and fired his gun during that robbery. Other suspects and persons of interest are still being sought in the case.