Pixiq

One of the greatest things of running this blog is the people I meet. Over the years, I’ve met several very cool readers visiting Miami from all parts of the country as well as readers in various parts of the country outside Miami.

This year was no different. I had a great time taking photos with JT. And I will never forget EK and his crazy whip in Austin.

And thanks to JM, who was recently visiting Miami from New Hampshire, I will be speaking at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum in late February.

As I mentioned in my last post, meeting Mickey Osterreicher was also a very cool experience.

But there is one guy who deserves his own video.

And that is Davy Vara.

I got to meet Vara after the Emily Good incident in Rochester, which was one of my biggest stories this year, winding up on the Drudge Report and from there going everywhere else.

Vara was one of the videographers who recorded Rochester police using little pink rulers to issue tickets to cars parked more than 12 inches from the curb at a public meeting in an act of retaliation.

He is a Cuban-American who spent his childhood years in Miami before moving up to Rochester with his family. Check out his Youtube channel.

His aunt still lives in Miami, so he brought his family down over the summer for a visit. It turns out, his old neighborhood where his aunt still lives and where he was staying is my neighborhood.

We were within walking distance from each other.

I invited him to lunch at my local Cuban joint, Sergio’s, for Cuban steak sandwiches, then to Cuban pastries at Gilbert’s bakery.

He told me how in 2004, he was arrested for harassment after sending a police officer a video he had produced documenting a case in which that officer killed a man.

But he also sent that video to all the news stations and anybody else who would want it.

It has hardly harassment but he entered a plea deal anyway to avoid serving a possible year in jail.

I shot the above video with a Flip camera and a pocket tripod. The lighting was excellent. And it captures a place where I drink coffee almost every day.

So here you go, Davy, Merry Christmas!