Miami Gets an Important Verdict

Miami, once viewed by the outside world largely as a pleasant retirement mecca, has survived what has turned out to be a hellish decade. In spite of its picture-post-card-swaying palm trees and pastel-colored beaches, about every four years national television news crews revisited what came to be known as “the other Miami” to broadcast the lastest--and most gruesome--examples of urban America in rage and in flames. But now a Miami jury decision has made it perhaps just a bit easier for Miami to enter the 1990s with some hope that at least its persistent racial schism can still be bridged.

A jury that included blacks, whites and a Latina convicted Miami police officer William Lozano of manslaughter in the death of two black men--one a motorcyclist Lozano shot and the other a motorcycle passenger who later died of traffic injuries. Twice previously, Miami police officers were acquitted by all-white juries in the killings of a black insurance executive (1980) and a black courier (1984). Riots and death followed, eruptions of tremendous resentment by blacks living in the deteriorating Miami toward the white and Cuban power structure living in the blossoming Miami. And after the Lozano incident in January, there was more arson and looting and death.

But the trial overcame the racially charged atmosphere, with a considerable boost from a wise judge, Joseph P. Farina, who refused to allow delaying tactics, and from city officials, who encouraged broadcast of the trial so that all could hear it firsthand.

The black community should draw some satisfaction that an unwarranted shooting has been properly condemned. Miami has shown the nation some of its uglier moments. Now perhaps Miami can show other cities with racial tensions percolating just below the surface how to learn from its pain.