MIAMI – As many wondered whether the vandalism of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper's car was retaliation for a recent controversy involving a Miami officer, many law enforcement officers called for an end to the bad blood between the departments.
Ever since FHP Trooper Donna Watts pulled over Miami police Officer Fausto Lopez on Florida's Turnpike at gunpoint last month and handcuffed him, a rift has escalated between the two agencies.
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Al Llapur, a retired police officer who spent 25 years at the Miami-Dade Police Department, many of them as a supervisor and trainer, said most officers want the animosity to end.
"Most officers don't want to see this. We'd like to see this all go away," Llapur.
As photos were released of the vandalism of FHP Trooper Joe Sanchez's police cruiser, showing that someone had covered the car in human feces, some questioned whether the incident was related to the recent controversy. Click here to view photos of the vandalized car. (Warning: Graphic)
Sanchez, a former Miami commissioner, onetime mayoral candidate and current FHP spokesman, is not being permitted to speak about the incident.
"Legitimate police officers that do their job right, that obey the law, that are just trying to go out there and do a job, they're the ones who lose out because now people are looking at them differently," Llapur said.
"I think it's time to let it go and let the court system handle it, and we need to move on and do our jobs that we've been tasked to do," said FHP union chief William Smith.
Investigators are not sure who was responsible for the vandalism to Sanchez's cruiser.