Wednesday, January 15, 2003

I resided in Peachtree City from 1987 until 2001 when a career change dictated a move to Covington in Newton county 60 miles away, but a world away in law enforcement. Let me explain: Nov. 2 last year my son and eight of his so-called friends were out illegally making plastic bottles explode in yards. They apparently did this twice and one of the eight was bringing him home in a golf cart when pulled over by Gestapo-garbed police who reported it as if terroristic devices were being flung to hurt people. Aloof and arrogant, when I asked questions the lead officer said he didn't have time to discuss it with the likes of us.

My son was tried and sentenced to six months to two years of probation, 60 hours of community service, a remedial program at cost of $240 plus court fines of $214.

The primary perpetrator was given a lesser sentence and six of the eight were not even charged though they were equally guilty and the police have all of their names. My son will serve his sentence but what has been accomplished in this county?

Some of you may remember when I ran a teen center as an entertainment alternative for 13- to 20-year-olds but a hostile city government, an arrogant police department that circled like buzzards around to try to roust the youth who attended and a biased owner who felt the youth center was a deterrent to the community all forced me to close Jitterbuggers in November 2000.

What has the city done since then? A call to City Councilman Dan Tennant in fall 2002 said they were seeing about getting a consultant hired to study the matter. When I wrote to Mayor Steve Brown I got back a curt reply the city was doing a teens' needs assessment. This has been done numerous times in the last 10 years with no positive action ever done by the city.

Our kids are forced to leave the county, to ride around aimlessly and, yes, to fall to temptation of creating their own amusement sometimes against the law. I still own homes in Fayette and my kids reside there with their mom and I am there every weekend so I still have a major vested interest in what happens to our kids and property.

Contrast this occurrence to what is not happening in Newton County, the 11th fastest growing county in America. On Thanksgiving Day 2002 at 11:15 a.m. a group of four 12-to-13-year-old males attacked our home in Covington with attempts to look in the window and then threw rocks with enough force to knock stucco off the exterior wall just missing a large picture window where my fiance was standing. If it had been a few inches further it would have shattered the window and could have proven potentially lethal to her.

A neighbor across the street who witnessed and heard my fiance's screams reacted. As the boys ran down the street laughing at what they had done, he took a digital picture of the youth who threw the rock. The information was conveyed to the Newton County Sheriff Department, the investigator, and now to the police captain.

To date no calls have ever been made to us without me initiating an inquiry, no follow-up, no increased police visibility, no apparent concern other that to say that part of the county never has any problems, no arrests despite a witness and documentation of the crime! Is vigilantism the next step?

Please let all know I am all for our law enforcement but punishment should fit the crime and in turn all criminals should be caught and punished whether in Peachtree City in Fayette County or in Covington in Newton County.

Richard Thompson

Covington