Letters from the Issue of November 15, 2007

Kemuel Speilburg

Via Web commentary

Bad Choice of Words

New Times eats its words: Regarding Francisco Alvarado's November 8 feature, "The Grow Me State": How could you publish that "Miami Cubans, the same demographic group that made the Magic City a cocaine mecca in the Eighties," are also responsible for growing marijuana? Oh, please! How could you let a mediocre writer without talent offend a whole community when only some people are involved in an illegal business? Mr. Alvarado is a disgusting snake who is using this paper to attack an entire community. Do you really think Cubans are the only group that produces drugs? Or are you too scared to name all the other ethnic groups that make drugs? Of course you are, because you're cowards. Typical of people like you and your commercial paper.

Anthony Guasch

Miami Beach

Osama Paints the Town

C'mon, Luis is no Osama: It is a shame that a known terrorist and murderer is being glorified by Cuban-American extremists, as Janine Zeitlin mentioned in her November 1 article, "Cuban Painters and Fugitives." Luis Posada Carriles is a man who blew up an airplane, killing 76 innocent people. He also "slept like a baby" after claiming responsibility for arranging to have a bomb placed in a Havana hotel, killing an Italian tourist. Can you imagine Saudi Arabian exiles sponsoring an Osama bin Laden art show, or Iraqis in America having a Saddam Hussein exhibit? However, I do admire Cuban dissidents such as Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo and Osvaldo Payá, who advocate a peaceful solution to the situation in Cuba.

Curt Bender

Via Web commentary

Deceitful Cop

Or at least that's what Jay says: Francisco Alvarado's October 4 article "Welcome to Surfside" missed the point.

Police officers who lie are dangerous to every one of us. Politics have no place in dealing with untruthful cops. Numerous public documents and sworn statements from former Surfside Police Ofcr. John Davis's personnel files and private employer statements clearly show him to be a chronic liar. Davis lied on his Surfside employment application. Florida Department of Law Enforcement standards term this a serious violation that must be reported. It is an offense considered so serious that the FDLE is considering revocation of his police credentials. He omitted an Adult Abuse Ex Parte Order of Protection requested by his wife and served against him (Marion County CV394-172DR) and further failed to include the fact that he was detained by police in Quincy, Illinois, for kidnapping his child the day the protection order was granted (April, 19, 1994). Then there are the charges of brutality and discharging of a firearm. Had any of those been revealed, he never would have been hired, according to the sworn statement of former Chief Shawn O'Reilly. How safe would your wife or daughter be if she were pulled over by this admitted womanizer?

Who knows what a danger and liability Davis is for the town. In the state attorney's investigation of drug-planting charges, he took the Fifth.

Jay Senter

Miami

Not the Red Baron

Münchhausen, you silly rabbit!: I had a blast reading Janine Zeitlin's portrait of the guarimbero en jefe Robert Alonso in her October 11 article "Guarimba!" It seems Alonso has a bit of the Baron Münchhausen in him. Perhaps not, but Münchhausens are thick on the ground in the exile ghettos.

En todo caso, muchas cosas buenas.

Ramón A. Mestre

Sunnydale

Timoney Is Tops

Says Norman da man!: I was outraged at Tamara Lush's article about Miami Police Chief John Timoney that appeared in your September 20 issue, "America's Worst Cop."