Recommended Reading, March 2, 2025

Robert Cox

03 Mar 2025 — 5 min read

Dr. Maria Cox with Ireland First Lady Sabina Higgins at the Feltmakers Ireland "Symbols of Ireland" Exhibit at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre in Dublin

DUBLIN, IRELAND (March 2, 2025) — Before I tell you all the ways Tish James was a conniving fool in the Jarrel Garris case, let me brag on my wife a bit.

Yesterday was the opening of Feltmakers Ireland "Symbols of Ireland" Exhibit at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre in Dublin. The exhibition showcases a diverse and inspiring collection of wall art, sculptures, and wearable pieces—all crafted from sheep’s wool. The works feature various felting techniques, including wet felting, needle felting, and even combinations of both. Feltmakers Ireland is a guild member of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland promoting the growing use of Irish wool, and their book, “Exploring Irish Wool for Feltmaking” was born from a passion for this remarkable and sustainable material. The exhibition runs from March 2nd — 30th, 2025.

Loli came to Ireland knowing not a soul on the Island. She got involved in felting through my cousin. Her love of felting led her to join the committee for Feltmakers Ireland which landed her on the subcommittee for the annual exhibit at the Phoenix Park Visitors’ Center. She had the idea of "Symbols of Ireland" as the theme of the show. At the opening she had the honor of making the introductory remarks for Sabina Coyne Higgins, the First Lady of Ireland. She spent an hour with the First Lady touring the exhibit as she explained the different felting techniques on display. Sabina Higgins was a wonderful and appropriate guest as she runs a national education program to teach students about wool. Not bad for an American who landed in Ireland just 19 months ago.

The day we left New York was July 3, 2023.

It took 19 months for me to get the police investigation records for the Jerrel Garris case.

These records show many failures and misrepresentations by New York State Attorney General Tish James (not the actual investigators who were as professional as she was not). James withheld critical information and used inflammatory, politicized language that could have been written by the lawyer representing the Garris family (and maybe was 😉).

There is zero justification for failing to report the results of a DNA swab analysis to determine if Garris had his hand on Officer Bird’s gun/holster and none for reporting that Garris was in the midst of a crime spree — starting fires, menacing people and terrifying residents.

I have more records and will have additional reporting this week.

Elsewhere, New Rochelle has made the odd choice of hiring people to serve on the New Rochelle Citizen Complaint Review Board while saying city employees are ineligible. I fail to see how this makes sense — to say a person is ineligible to serve on the CCRB if you are an employee when all members of the CCRB will be employees. If the idiots running the City want to argue that they mean something different such as applicants cannot be employed by the City at the time they apply, they need to say so. Regardless, it means no one can serve more than one term on the CCRB, as all sitting CCRB members will be City employees as their terms expire. Also on the ineligible list are “current or past law enforcement employment—or those with relatives in such roles”. I have no idea what this means. Is a former spouse of a cop banned — widowed or divorced? How about a custodian at the DA’s office? How about a third cousin of an Assistant U.S. Attorney? This mixed up eligibility criteria is just another example of how the dimwits are in charge.

SEE: Applications Now Open for New Rochelle Citizen Complaint Review Board

The link below on Dr. La Ruth Gray being named recipient of the Cecil H. Parker Award for Education has a video interview that is worth your time.