Local News

Jimmy and Patty Lawrence of Cedar Key received this letter from their son, Sgt. Jamie Lawrence, an MP in the U.S. Army serving in Iraq.

Hey Pop.

Sounds like you guys are having a real nice weekend. Unfortunately, we did not realize it was even Memorial Day until after we returned from a mission and we went to eat dinner at the chow hall after being out all day.

Just as they always do this time of year, Levy Association for Retarded Citizens (LARC) clients, staff and board members assembled in the dining room of the old Otter Creek School to receive the donation check from the host of the annual Wild Hog Canoe Race fund-raiser.

For the last three years, that group has been AMVETS Post 88 of Bronson, and this year they brought a check for $6,800.

The total was just a little over last year's contribution of $6,725, and post commander Clyde McGarva felt it keenly.

"We wanted to do better by them," he said.

In the wake of the April 28 Taser incident on Dock Street, police admit that residents are talking amongst themselves. They for their part, are waiting to see if complaints roll in.

Since the night two weeks ago when area fisherman Danny Beckham was subdued with a Taser in an altercation about a friend's traffic stop, police chief Bubba Castell says he has waited for phone calls and complaints about his officers, but so far has received none.

No formal ones, anyway.

Cedar Key residents say police are out of control. Police say the most recent polarizing incident started over a misunderstanding. But the outcome leaves police and citizens on either side of a widening divide.

On April 28, Cedar Key fisherman Danny Beckham, who resides in Archer, was drive-stunned repeatedly with a Taser following a vociferous dispute with police over his double-parked vehicle. Beckham was charged with resisting arrest without violence and obstruction, and also with resisting arrest with violence.