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The Beast, coda: Trial of the Beast
Feature Story
[Published in The Blue Paper newspaper on October 4, 2013.]
The Beast, coda: Trial of the Beast
This is a sequel to the three-part story:
The story up to now: Five years ago this week, a 3-year old girl was attacked (Facing the Beast) with a tree saw on William Street by a troubled eccentric neighbor (Face of the Beast). Fortuitously, a passing bicyclist disrupted the assault, and the attacker entered “the system” (Caged Beast).
When we last looked in on Christopher Cornelius Farrell he had been shipped back to Key West from the South Florida Evaluation & Treatment Center on the mainland. He’d been declared competent to stand trial, and his trial had been scheduled for just after his 50th birthday, during the week of May 27, 2013. Did I mention he had dismissed his public defenders and was preparing to defend himself? Seriously? Yep.
I had been off the Rock during the “can we go to trial?” hearing so I had not witnessed it (the only hearing I missed over the 5 years). I’m told that Judge Wayne Miller tried hard to talk him out of defending himself, but to no avail. Nevertheless, he (more…)
Into the GREEN
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on March 14, 2013.]
Into the GREEN
A couple of months ago I recapped my previous year’s contributions to KONK Life. Anyone who follows this column knows that its focus rambles all over the map, rarely ever on the same topic in consecutive columns. I’ve heard from some of you that you like it that way, and I too like and follow other columns of similar ilk. But I also feel the time has come for me to concentrate my focus — and that focus should target the GREEN spectrum.
As many of you know, a while back – at the time that I embraced the Green Party — I set up a Facebook page to share news and observations of GREEN issues, local, national and global. It has featured several of my green-related columns from here (most recently the one before this one) and lots and lots of news and views from all over. That Facebook page is the “GREEN Reactor” page (also easily accessible from outside Facebook via “GreenReactor.net”). I established the page as a place to segregate the GREEN stuff that I would have posted to my own Facebook wall (timeline) — so that people on my Friends list wouldn’t have to deal with it if they weren’t interested.
But for those who do see the importance of staying informed about GREEN issues (yep, I’m trying to shame the rest of you… *smile*) it just takes (more…)
More Sides Now
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on January 31, 2013.]
More Sides Now
Last summer I wrote a BOTH SIDES NOW column here with a “point / counterpoint” discussion of a number of local hot-button issues raised in the Voice and elsewhere. Let’s do it some more…
Roosevelt Project
Point: I never see anybody working on Roosevelt Boulevard. That project probably won’t be finished until after I’m dead. And why didn’t they tell us how much trouble it was going to be?
Counterpoint: Ain’t armchair quarterbacking fun? The TRUTH of the matter is that the project is ON SCHEDULE. Just because YOU don’t see them doing what YOU think they should be doing doesn’t change that. They’re proceeding according to their plan – a plan that they very much DID make well known to anyone who bothered to listen. (more…)
It Breaks a Village
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on December 6, 2012.]
It Breaks a Village
Hillary’s expression “It takes a village [to raise kids]” is turned on its head in Key West. The (grown) children of the community must work to foster the village itself – especially the oldest neighborhood on the island: Bahama Village. I ashamedly have to admit, though, that our neglect has broken this Village…
The Bahama Village neighborhood dates back to the earliest days of our settlement and once covered the westernmost quarter of the populated island (when New Town was a salt marsh). Many descendents of African/Caribbean settlers ended up in this neighborhood. Over time, (more…)
The Beast, part 3: Caged Beast
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on August 30, 2012.]
The Beast, part 3: Caged Beast
In my last two columns ( “Facing the Beast“ and “Face of the Beast“) we witnessed Christopher Cornelius Farrell’s foiled attempt to decapitate his 3-year-old neighbor, and learned how he’d tormented the community for years. But what happened after the Key West police arrested him at gunpoint on October 1, 2008?
I attended the arraignment of Farrell three weeks later, in Courtroom D of the brand new Freeman Justice Center – one of the first arraignments held there. Farrell sat among six or seven other prisoners, the only one in black and white striped (“crazy person!”) scrubs. (more…)
The Beast, part 2: Face of the Beast
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on August 16, 2012.]
The Beast, part 2: Face of the Beast
In my last column (“Facing the Beast”) I related my encounter with Christopher Cornelius Farrell, as he was attempting to cut off the head of a three year old girl on a William Street sidewalk. But who is this guy?
I can find no record of when Farrell first showed up in Key West. But by the early 1990s — in his late 20s — he was ensconced in the two story building at the corner of William and Southard Streets diagonally across from the big Albury house (now being restored after the death of the last Albury, Bonnie). Farrell seems to have always been unemployed – nobody seems to know how he could afford the place.
In the summer of 1993 Farrell went to court on a Trespassing charge and was adjudicated guilty, (more…)
The Beast, part 1: Facing the Beast
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on August 2, 2012.]
The Beast, part 1: Facing the Beast
I recently caught a YouTube video of new Spider-Man Andrew Garfield’s Comic-Con speech, where he described how Spidey shaped his life. How Spidey inspired him to do good. I too was a young Spider-Man fan. Perhaps Spidey had influenced me as well a few years ago when fate placed me in the right place at the right time.
I’d left the gym after a vigorous workout and was warming-down on my bike-ride home. Nice ride through the cemetery (before the “locked gates” brouhaha) and then down Southard. As I passed William Street I heard a girlie-squeal to my right. (more…)
The Unforgotten
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on July 19, 2012.]
The Unforgotten
Conchs and long-time locals all have their tales of our Island’s past, recalling such famous scions of Key West history as Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Shel Silverstein or Bum Farto. Those of us with a shallower history here also have memories of departed icons of the Island. Generally they’re more touristy ones — but icons nonetheless. Here’s a batch of them that have disappeared from our streets over the last decade or so…
The Cookie Lady. Marilyn Kellner sailed into Key West in the 80s and quickly started (more…)
Both Sides Now
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on July 4, 2012.]
Both Sides Now
I’ve done a few ‘reactions’ and ‘reactionaries’ columns in the past, where I answered questions and points made in our Island Voice column and other local voice columns. But sometimes the issues that are raised really need to be examined from multiple points of view. They’re not necessarily open and shut cases. Today I’ll look at some that have come up recently, and try some “point--counterpoint”… (more…)
Pickleball: A Fierce Sport for the Laid Back
front page article by David Lybrand
[Published in Key West Citizen's Solares Hill on July 1, 2012.]
Pickleball: A Fierce Sport for the Laid Back
In Key West it’s not unusual for a story to dribble out in bits and pieces. That’s what happened when somebody saw details of the upcoming Higgs Beach park renovation. They saw that a tennis court was being removed and two pickleball courts were being added. An outcry arose:“We can ‘t trade one of our 6 courts for such foolishness!”
Before we discuss what the pickleball foolishness is all about, let’s (more…)
Crimes and Punishments
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on April 5, 2012.]
Crimes and Punishments
Enough with the trivialities (ref my last column). it’s time to get serious. Dead serious…
Dateline Wednesday, March 21, 2012:
Today, former Big Pine Key resident Keith Weitzman stood before Judge Fowler and pleaded guilty to a charge involving his action that killed someone. He had fallen asleep driving on US1 on Cudjoe Key and veered into a car carrying three California men. One didn’t make it. FHP Lt. Kathy McKinney was quoted: “People don’t realize [sleepy driving is] just as dangerous as getting behind the wheel drunk,” His sentence: $500 fine and community service.
Today, in another Key West courtroom, (more…)
Crusader Torment
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on March 1, 2012.]
Crusader Torment
I didn’t attend the trial of Norma Jean Sawyer but I can state categorically: if she goes to jail, there is no justice in this town.
Back in the 1990s, Norma Jean Sawyer voluntarily took on a task that nobody would step up to. She put her life managing a small mortuary on hold and rededicated it to saving residences in Bahama Village for the families who had owned them for generations. For those families who were being approached by people with briefcases full of cash offering to buy them out (at bottom dollar) if they’d move away. To allow them to become cheaply-renovated gentrified residences for sale to speculators at top dollar. (more…)
People On The Street
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on February 16, 2012.]
People On The Street
“There but for the grace of God go I.”
Could it happen to you? Many who are in that boat never thought it could. But unless you have very generous friends or family, you just might be one accident or illness or lawsuit away from living on the street. That guy you passed on the sidewalk yesterday certainly was. He never thought HE would be homeless one day.
I’m NOT a “bleeding heart” liberal. But I am extremely sympathetic when it comes to people down on their luck. I might not give them the change from my pocket, but I will fight on their side against those who want to kick them when they’re down. It’s really the right thing to do, and it’s also a matter of Karma, because it COULD happen to you — or me.
An old Army buddy of mine had skills, a decent job, a small happy family and a decent house. Drank one too many one day, crashed his car, drowning his wife and kid and maiming a bystander. Lost his job, and soon after, his house. He never expected he’d be on the streets. It’s that “easy”.
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As a prime destination for the housing-challenged, Key West hosts more than its fair share of the homeless population. Anyone who’s lived on the Rock long enough knows how much stress this excess can have on our island. Back around the turn of the century, removal of encampments in the protected mangroves was a regular story. The “Bridle Path” across from Smathers Beach (as well as several other areas) was strewn with makeshift campsites. Something had to be done, and something WAS done: the City took Neil’s advice from his “People on the Street” song, where he sang “People on the street, need a place to go”.
Quickly (perhaps too quickly, from a permitting point of view) a Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter (KOTS) was born, on the property of our County “detention center” (jail) on Stock Island. It provided that “place to go” each night for about 150 with no place else to legally sleep. More importantly, it provided the City with a legal basis for disallowing the tents and sleeping hovels the homeless had been using on various public properties. The courts had held that we can NOT just run a homeless person out of town for sleeping on public ground – we HAVE to make sure that they have an alternative. With KOTS they do. So now, if you’re sleeping in an alley, you can’t claim a “right to sleep here” violation when challenged by the police.
On the same token, the courts have struck back at municipalities that try to enact an outright ban on begging. This is clearly a free-speech issue. You cannot order people to only speak what you want to hear. However the courts have held that you can regulate such “pan-handling” by limiting it to certain areas. As long as it’s not outright banned, and the areas are not completely isolated, you can regulate speech. And so again, this is what the City has done. Perhaps the currently defined “boxes” aren’t enough to withstand a court challenge, but the City is on a track that they feel can be defended.
The worst thing we as One Human Family can do is to adopt a total NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”) attitude. Certain communities are trying hard to interfere with facilities to help our homeless brethren get through their transition back to productive lives. Anonymous posters to the Voice and other forums call for total bans on begging anywhere – and even loading up homeless on busses for a forced ride out of the Keys. Others decry soup kitchens, implying that having to hike miles to stand in line for your next rudimentary meal is some kind of a free ride. What planet were these incessant whiners born on?
I have no doubt that the whiners will be the first in line at the soup kitchen when THEIR fortunes turn. You and I could be there right beside them.
Re-Intro-duction
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on January 19, 2012.]
Re-Intro-duction
Those who know me from other newspapers have heard some of this, but for my first KONK Life column, let’s start with a brief review…
My “internet handle” has been Reactor for about 20 years. The roots of that nickname come from: 1) my relentless work ethic; and 2) my strong social media reflex impulse. The connection to a not-so-well-known album by musical sage Neil Young (whom I venerate) also comes into play.
Around the time I became a full-time Keys resident I expanded the handle to Key West Reactor. So if you see that attached to a Facebook or blog comment or in a forum somewhere, it’s almost certainly me. (Unless it’s something that really pisses you off, in which case it was probably hijacked….)
And now I’ve modified the handle a bit for THIS newspaper, for obvious reasons. ‘Nuf said about that. (more…)
{ Key West Senior Care blog }
This is a special case post, just directing you to the
Key West Senior Care blog
That blog is another repository of all of the letters to the editor, editorials, and radio appearances that I undertook during the push by the Florida Keys Assisted Care Coalition (FKACC) to have a portion of the Truman Waterfront assigned to them, during the second half of 2007. The repository is in reverse date order and includes additional editorial content by me that was only posted to that blog.
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Follow-up: The blog was discontinued at the end of 2007, however the lease process and RFP handling continued for at least 4 more years. I wrote a new article for the Blue Paper on this topic in 2011 ( HERE ). As of the time of this follow-up, the lease agreement with the selected builder is still being negotiated.