Miami police captain Javier Ortiz suspended after claiming he’s black

A Hispanic police captain in Miami has been suspended for claiming he was a “black male” during a city commission meeting, department officials said.

Javier Ortiz was “relieved of duty with pay” on Wednesday pending an investigation, a police department spokesman confirmed to The Post.

Ortiz, who previously oversaw the department’s SWAT operations, is expected to be off the force indefinitely, Deputy Police Chief Ronald Papier told the MiamiHerald.

Papier refused to indicate why Ortiz is being investigated, but the development follows Ortiz’s comments on Friday at a city commission meeting during which he claimed he was black instead of Hispanic while addressing allegations of discrimination within the police department.

“I am a black male,” Ortiz said, according to the Herald. “Yes, I am. And I am not Hispanic.”

Ortiz, the former president of the city’s police union, claimed he had black ancestry while citing the “one-drop rule,” insinuating that anyone with a single black ancestor is a person of color.

Ortiz’s remarks led the NAACP’s Miami Dade branch to write a letter to city officials, including Mayor Francis Suarez, calling for his ouster while characterizing the comments as “racially and culturally insensitive, disturbing and untrue,” the Herald reports.

“Ortiz’s behavior is a stain on the city of Miami and

especially to the officers who work arduously to perform their sworn task to protect and serve in a fair and impartial way,” the letter read.

Suarez was out of town Wednesday but is expected to discuss Ortiz’s suspension with police brass on Friday, the newspaper reports.

The president of the city’s police union, meanwhile, said he couldn’t guarantee that Ortiz would have its support moving forward.

“I am embarrassed and saddened by Javier’s public comments,” Tommy Reyes told the Herald. “He can identify however he’d like, but I do not believe he is a black male. Ultimately, when the time comes, it will be up to our members if he will receive representation.”

Ortiz — an outspoken cop who has been criticized for calling 12-year-old Tamir Rice a “thug” after he was shot by a Cleveland cop in 2014 — claimed he was a white Hispanic man when he first applied to the Miami Police Department, records cited by the Miami New Times show.

The officer later claimed on paperwork in 2014 and 2017 that he was a black man, the New Times reports, citing records obtained by the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association.

Ortiz, for his part, insisted Friday that the controversy wasn’t “news,” he wrote on Twitter.

“People love making stereotypes,” he wrote. “It’s actually refreshing to be who you are, like an American.”