Key West Lou / FEDERAL LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST KEY WEST’S NEW YEAR’S EVE CURFEW

We have become an extremely litigious society.

Key West finally understand the responsibility theirs was re the spread of coronavirus. The Commission passed weak laws and then failed to enforce even them. The bar and restaurant owners were running the City. The City Commission quaked every time the bar and restaurant owners complained.

The City Commission has another responsibility besides accommodating bar and restaurant owners. The health of its people. Key West has the highest number of COVID-19 cases than any other Keys community. No other City even close.

Key West was facing a 50,000 person tourist onslaught for New Year’s weekend. Hotel reservations were at 93 percent.

The tourist have been coming weekends to party because their home communities in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties will not permit them to do so as they could in Key West.

Key West had become the Dodge City of Florida.

The 10-6 nightly curfew was passed. Bars and restaurants closed at 10. People off the streets by 10:30.

Almost immediately, the hotels experienced something like a 50 percent cancellation.

Key West bar or restaurant owner Andrew T. Day decided he was not going to take the curfew sitting down. I do not know the name of his establishment. I could find no one who did know. I am not suggesting he is not such an owner. Rather that I am ignorant as to the name of the business he runs.

The lawsuit was filed thursday or friday in federal court against the City of Key West, Mayor Johnston, and City Manager Veliz. A high powered Miami lawyer is representing Day.

Day claims the New Year’s emergency curfew order violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. The Complaint alleges Day’s “rights are being taken away from the plaintiff for 8 hours per day for three consecutive nights.” He seeks a temporary restraining order for the New Year’s weekend.

I have not seen the City’s responsive papers yet. I assume it will claim the City has an obligation and a right to protect it citizens from coronavirus.

Today is monday. Thursday, New Year’s Eve. The Judge will have to decide the case via a temporary restraining order between now and then. Day seeks an order till trial that his rights have been violated, he can remain open, disregard the curfew, etc.

Similar cases have been brought throughout the United States the past few months. Decisions have come down on both sides of the issue.

Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the criminal element seeking to bring in marijuana to U.S. shores did so via planes and boats. The marijuana bales became known as “square groupers.”

The game is on again!

In addition to marijuana, cocaine.

Last wednesday, a fisherman came upon a 75 pound bale of cocaine 15 miles south of Sugarloaf Key. Street value $850,000.

The fisherman turned the cocaine over to the Sheriff’s Department who in turn transferred it to the U.S. Border Patrol. The Border Patrol has responsibility for the cocaine catch.

In 1989, the Joint Interagency Task Force South was established. It is headquartered at the Naval Air Station in Truman Annex. Its major responsibility is illicit drug trafficking. Its roster includes the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and the FBI.

The Coast Guard fills the top leadership position. A Coast Guard Admiral is presently in charge of the Interagency Task Force.

Is drug trafficking returning to the Keys in the same volume it was 30-40 years ago? I doubt it. However the government must be vigilant to make sure it does not.

I appreciate one bale of cocaine does not make for a resurgence of the problem. However there have been several other episodes in recent months.

Bales of marijuana were found in August and September washed up on Keys shores. In July, 50 pounds of cocaine washed up near Grassy Key. Early in July, 29 bales of cocaine were discovered in waters off Marathon. In October, 30 pounds of marijuana were discovered in waters off the Keys.

Paul Waldman of The American Project recently wrote what 2020 revealed to us. The title of the article: What A Miserable 2020 Revealed About America.

The thrust of his article can be summed up in one sentence from it: “It exposed an impotent political system, a deadly mythology of rugged individualism, and a Republican Party without shame.”

It appears 63 year old Anthony Quinn Walker was responsible for the Nashville Christmas Day bombing.

Walker a self employed computer guru.

It appears the explosion was Walker’s way of committing suicide.

Except for Walker himself, no one was injured or killed. The property devastation extensive covering several blocks. As if the area had been bombed by planes in war time.

The 8 police officers who roused residents that there was to be an explosion are heroes. Unquestionably. Make note, it is good to have an incident of consequence where the police did their job, were on top of the problem, and saved many lives. No blacks shot in the head or chocked to death.

The 8 officers consisted of 6 whites, 1 black, and a female.

They are heroes because they knew they only had 15 minutes or less to get everyone out of the buildings. They had to move their asses and make each resident immediately understand to move or die.

A job well done!

Enjoy your day!

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