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Grex Agora41 Item 180: NY priest rams construction worker
Entered by polygon on Mon May 13 18:10:49 UTC 2002:

This story came the other day from my friend Ken Follett, writer, poet,
stonemason, and VP of a New York City firm that works on historic building
exteriors.  It has not hit the media yet as far as I know. 

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This morning we had an altercation on a project at a Catholic church we are
working on in which the priest, apparently with deliberation, drove his car
into one of our workers, a young fellow and father. The priest was crushing
the kid between his car and a dumpster that the kid was trying to move out of
the way so that the priest could drive out of his garage. The kid seems to be
ok, though he threw up several times afterwards and complained of back pains.
His partner was up above on the sidewalk bridge and saw the whole thing
taking place and started yelling at the priest to stop. The priest got out of
his car and told the fellow up on the sidewalk bridge several times that he
is a mother fucker.

Our foreman heard the shouting and came around and caught the priest swearing
and pushing the men around on the sidewalk. He told them that they would lose
their jobs when he got done with them and that he would have them in their
church on their knees praying forgiveness.

Both of our guys are Hispanic Catholic, the guy hurt is quite religious,
quiet, shy, meek, humble are the words that come to mind. It was difficult to
tell if the guys were more upset by the incident with the car or by the
priest's foul language.

We arrived, called the police to file a complaint, and people from diocese
security and facilities showed up to investigate. Half the day used up. The
priest then said that the guys were lying and that something was going to
come down from on high (which is scary since we are working on scaffolding)
and do them bad for lying.

Seems to me if you adhere to representing a belief system that puts a soul to
damnation for leading the innocent astray that there could be a problem here.

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8 responses total.

#1 of 8 by jmsaul on Mon May 13 18:18:07 2002:

Sounds like the priest needs to go to jail.

Is this *the* Ken Follett?

#2 of 8 by polygon on Mon May 13 20:40:24 2002:

He's *the* Ken Follett as far as I'm concerned, but if you mean the
British novelist, no, not the same guy.

#3 of 8 by drew on Mon May 13 20:40:43 2002:

So why doesn't his Deity, like, zap him with a lightning bolt?

#4 of 8 by polygon on Mon May 13 20:48:34 2002:

A couple further updates:

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God knows what this man's intentions are... we certainly are puzzled. I'm
worried though that we are not yet completed with the project and besides
the normal dangers of construction work we have a crew worried about the
resident wacko priest. We sent everyone home with a day's pay and told them
to relax. There were a few things I thought to say to the priest, but kept
silent. You know how they say to watch out for the quiet ones. 

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The Diocesan security officer was curious why the police had not hauled
in the priest for assault. I think the police were more interested in if
our worker is legal, being of Mexican origination. He is legal, only he
does not carry any identification with him. Cripes, I'm legal and I would
never think of going anywhere without $10 and identification.

I'm not interested to pursue the situation further. The Diocese
immediatly red flagged that there may be litigation... I assured our
contact with the diocese that all we want is to be left alone and for the
incident to be on record in case there is a problem in future. I also am
hoping that the priest, who may have thought that he was not being
watched, will realize that when he does something that not only the
owners of the company, but the police and the diocese will be watching.

#5 of 8 by jmsaul on Mon May 13 21:29:44 2002:

Re #3:  Yeah, that's the one I was wondering about. ;-)

#6 of 8 by albaugh on Mon May 13 21:56:48 2002:

Just a coincidence that the upcoming NYPD Blue episode involves a priest?

#7 of 8 by senna on Mon May 13 23:44:47 2002:

This is an eybrow-raiser.  Awfully slick for an account of recent events. 
What's the significance?

#8 of 8 by polygon on Tue May 14 00:56:57 2002:

Ken's accounts of his activities are always like that.  I have posted
others before.  He's a fabulous writer who happens to work in the
construction industry.

He is also the founder of the Bullamanka-Pinheads email list (PIN-heads
refers to "Preservation Industry Network", an informal NYC area
organization of building tradespeople who work on historic buildings.  The
membership of BP includes architects, builders, museum people,
conservators, stonemasons, etc., from all over the world.  See
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?SUBED1=bullamanka-pinheads&A=1

A spoof he wrote, about preserving a 1950s concrete sidewalk in a Long
Island suburb, generated a furor that landed in the pages of "Historic
Preservation" magazine.  Another one he wrote, about some fictional
characters who try to save a historic plastic port-a-potty that was used
at Woodstock, got him practically thrown out of the staid Preservation-L
email list. 

Ken was also briefly jailed in his youth for allegedly desecrating the
American flag (which was never his intent).

Ken is vice-president of Apple Waterproofing and Restoration, Inc., with
offices in Brooklyn.

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