A Miami Beach resident, veteran and repeat political candidate says city police questioned her at home over a critical Facebook post she wrote about the Mayor — and she has posted a video online to prove it.

One of the officers appears to have provided security to Meiner and two City Commission candidates at a campaign event in October.

More on that later.

In the video, which Raquel Pacheco posted to Instagram, two Miami Beach Police officers arrived unannounced at her Flamingo Park home. They questioned her about a comment she made on a Facebook post in which Mayor Steven Meiner described the city as a welcoming place.

Pacheco asked, through her front door, whether she is facing criminal charges.

“Am I being charged with a crime? OK, you are here to investigate a statement that I allegedly made on Facebook,” Pacheco said, before opening the door once the officers confirmed they weren’t there to arrest her.

The officers say they wanted “to have a conversation” about the comment, which Pacheco neither confirmed nor denied she wrote. They said they were there “to prevent someone from getting agitated or agreeing with the statement” and acting violently.

The comment at issue described Meiner as someone “who consistently calls for the death of all Palestinians” — a reference to the Mayor’s since-aborted effort to evict a theater for screening a documentary about the West Bank critical of Israel — and “REFUSES to stand up for the LGBTQ community.”

“We’re not saying it’s true or not,” the shorter of the two officers said before re-reading the post’s reference to Palestinians. “That could probably incite somebody to do something radical. That’s all we’re here to talk about, and we wanted to get your side of it.”

He then advised Pacheco to “refrain from posting things like that.”

Pacheco said she will “maintain my First Amendment rights.”

“This is America, right?” she said.

She then posted the video online, writing in part, “If you need further evidence that Miami Beach has descended into a (fascist) nightmare, you’re not paying attention.”

She later told reporters the experience felt like intimidation.

“My overwhelming feeling was that freedom of speech as I know it died at my front step yesterday,” Pacheco said in an interview with CBS News. “It’s an incredibly, incredibly sad thing.”

In a statement to Axios Miami, the Miami Beach Police Department said the visit was conducted “out of an abundance of caution,” citing heightened national concerns about antisemitism and the fact that the post referenced an elected official. The Department characterized the encounter as a “brief, consensual” check to ensure there was no immediate threat, emphasizing its commitment to constitutional protections.

A Department spokesperson confirmed that Meiner’s Office flagged the post, prompting Intelligence Unit detectives to review it. Meiner defended the police follow-up in a statement to Axios, calling the Facebook claim false but framing the response as a safety assessment.

“This is a police matter,” he said in a statement. “Others might have a different view and that is their right.”

Photos of an October campaign event that Miami Beach business owner Margueritte Ramos posted on Facebook show the shorter of the two officers leaning against a wall in a home, where Meiner addresses a small audience.

A group photo taken outside the event features Meiner and 2025 Commission candidates Fred Karlton and Minique Pardo Pope, both of whom lost their respective races. Many of the attendees wear hats that read, “Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner.”

Pacheco, a U.S. Army National Guard veteran and former Chair of the Miami Beach Personnel Board, ran unsuccessfully for the Miami Beach Commission in 2021 and Senate District 36 in 2022. While she declined in the video to confirm whether the comment was hers, it came from her Facebook account, and she previously shared posts online accusing Israel of genocide using Nazi-era language like “final solution.”

Meiner, who is Jewish, has not publicly called for the death of Palestinians. Meiner has drawn criticism for opposing LGBTQ-friendly measures in the city, including one to rename a street after San Francisco politician Harvey Milk and another condemning the Miami-Dade School Board for rejecting recognition of LGBTQ History Monty.

Former Commissioner David Richardson accused Meiner of “building a record of voting against the LGBTQ community.” Meiner said he took offense to the claim, pointing to his vote for a measure designating October as LGBTQ History in Miami Beach.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Pacheco described the police visit as an “intimidation tactic” meant to stifle her right to free speech. She has since enlisted the services of lawyer Miriam Haskell of the nonprofit Community Justice Project, who told the Herald the police “were sent to intimidate her and chill dissent, plain and simple.”

A House panel is on board with allowing older children to qualify for the state’s swimming lessons voucher program.

The House Health Care Budget Subcommittee held a hearing on the measure (HB 85) that calls for revising the popular swimming lessons voucher program to cover the cost of lessons. The program went into effect after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation in 2024.

But Rep. Kim Kendall, a St. Augustine Republican and co-sponsor of the new bill, said the original age limit on the vouchers, for children 0 to 4 years old, is too restrictive. Her proposal would allow children 1 to 7 years old to qualify.

She told the panel that many stakeholders, including swim instructors, say the original program, though appreciated, isn’t practical.

“Ages 0 to 1, the babies show reflexes that look like swimming,” Kendell said. “But they’re too young to actually lift their head up enough in order to breathe out of the water.”

In that first year, she added, children simply aren’t actually learning to swim. She said the majority of infant deaths due to drowning don’t happen in pools or open water. They are most likely to occur in a bath tub in the home.

“It’s giving a false sense of security to the parents,” Kendell said.

She said that for many children under the age of 4, they’re not using the full amount of the voucher program. Kendall said swimming classes could have more participants by expanding the financial relief to families with kids a few years older.

Kendell noted that the number of children drowning in Florida over the past decade has about doubled.

“We simply want to take a great program and simply make it more efficient,” she said.

The subcommittee unanimously approved the bill. There is a companion bill (SB 428) moving through the Senate co-sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, a Jacksonville Republican, and Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat.

Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis and Rep. RaShon Young have filed voting rights legislation that would automatically register all eligible Floridians to vote and allow voter registration on Election Day.

“For too long in Florida, we have watched politicians rig the rules, silence communities, and manipulate our elections to cling to power. The Florida Voting Rights Act is our answer to that: bold, clear, and rooted in justice,” said Bracy Davis, an Ocoee Democrat.

“This bill is about protecting Black voters, working families, young people, language minorities, and returning citizens who have been deliberately targeted and shut out of the democratic process.”

The Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Florida Voting Rights Act proposes several sweeping changes, including making vote-by-mail requests permanent and keeping a public database so offenders can keep track of requirements to restore their voting rights. It would also make Election Day a paid holiday.

The legislation (SB 1598, HB 1419) would also eliminate the state’s controversial Office of Election Crimes and Security. The Office gained attention in 2024 when state police knocked on residents’ homes to question them about signing petitions to get an abortion rights amendment on the ballot. 

The legislation has been filed for three years in a row. The bill’s original sponsor was Sen. Geraldine Thompson, who passed away in 2025 after surgery complications. The act was named after the Moores, a Black couple who were civil rights activists and were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1951.

“This legislation is about common-sense voting policy and ensuring every eligible Floridian, regardless of race, zip code, language, or background, has meaningful access to the ballot box,” said Young, an Orlando Democrat.

“Democracy is strongest when participation is fair, secure, and accessible to all. Naming this legislation after Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore honors their courage and sacrifice in the fight for voting rights, and it also honors the legacy of Sen. Geraldine Thompson, who devoted her life to preserving Black history in Florida and reminding us that progress must be protected. 

The legislation faces an uphill battle to pass in a Republican-controlled Legislature, but Democrats have continued to push the issue.

“Voting rights are a fundamental human right, the foundation of a healthy democracy,” said Jonathan Webber, Florida policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “By sponsoring this landmark state voting rights act, Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis and newly-elected Rep. RaShon Young are carrying forward the fight to safeguard access and ensure all eligible voters can participate.”