Episode 3: Randy Casale: His First Coming Out
Randy Casale is many things in Beacon. A friend. A basketball coach. A former Highway Superintendent. A former councilperson. A former Mayor of Beacon. After he completed all of these things, and lost his third mayoral campaign (after winning two), he went radio silence. Not much of a social media fan (he really didn’t like blogs, so A Little Beacon Blog barely registered on his radar as a news source), Randy experienced an awakening. During the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement. The current Mayor Lee Kyriacou texted him that a black bench with a blue line through it that Randy dedicated to his stepson, Dustin James, a police officer who was killed in a motorcycle accident while off duty, was going to be moved from the front door of the City Council to the Police Station.
Randy took to his Facebook to protest. It was the first time he encouraged his friends to “come out of our homes” to protest the Movement, and show support for police. Brandon and Katie reached out to him for an interview about the bench, which turned into a 3 hour long interview about everything else. The Bench. The Police Department prior to 2010, when it was being investigated by the federal government. The demotion of Reuben Simmons (summer-time intern of the Highway Department who worked his way up to Highway Superintendent only to be demoted through a few technicalities and an unsigned letter).
Honestly, a lot more was in the interview. However, at Randy’s request, we cut the interview from 3 hours to 39 minutes. It’s all good. When you’re dealing with publishing, things could get ugly. So…listen to what is here now, and let it help you in your homework.