Dawg,

You guys may be shorthanded, but everytime I'm late and doing 65 down Ebenezer Rd. one of you dudes makes an appearance. Keep up the good work.

I drive 65 down Ebenezer Rd every day, twice a day, and sometimes more. I haven't been stopped there in several years. Sorry you've had such bad timing with them!

Actually, I've been lucky, I see them before they see me it seems. Last one was Wednesday, around 6pm. He already had one pulled over. On Ebenezer you either watch for the cops or the deer.

that you are that short staffed. All that does is make your job a lot more difficult. Not to mention a lot more dangerous. It also makes our citizens more of a target for violent crime due to the fact that with as few deputies as there are, the county cannot be properly safegaurded. Keep up the good work depdawg!!!

I know you are short staffed. I hope with new people on the county commisson we can hire more deputies, and lock down the county.

You all are doing a great job with very little resources. Let's hope you get the help you need.

I give it less than ten years. I was at the Pavillon on Friday and for a minute there... thought I had ended up on Candler Road in Decatur/Dekalb county. Scary as heck.....

I know that Randall hangs around Coleman's alot.
Guess the robber had it timed right.

on the criminal element that has been knocking on our door for years. Thank him for keeping it out for so long.

Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah.
THANK HIM? Not on your life. The criminal element has ALWAYS been here. Johnson is just loosing control of his cronies.

What did you get arrested for????

You must go to his blog to talk to him. Dude's new to the internet.

In any event, if you find his blog you'll see he and his dad were arrested by our evil sheriff because they killed their neighbor's dogs.

We've developed some info on the herb shop/cremery guy. More to come later today.

I'm guessing this is the story about him being killed Tuesday in Cobb County, during another robbery?

Are criminals no longer afraid of Fayette? In times past Randall Johnson would say "They know where the county line is."

Where did we go wrong ?

It's not that criminals are "no longer afraid" of Fayette, it's more of the fact that the more uneducated and poverty stricken opportunists enter the area, the more desperate they become. The working class folks aren't getting any richer these days, so that means the spending of discretionairy income is slowing, or even coming to a halt. This carries a domino effect. Those that relied on the middle income income spending on goods and services to make a below poverty level living of their own, are now becoming desperate.

When people began confusing the faster, more accessible reporting of crime with an increase in crime rate is where we went wrong. This site is sadly amusing in that way. Rather than having to wait to see your neighbors for gossip about what happened and having to read about it once a week in the Wednesday issue of the Citizen, we now have it as soon as it's available online. The result is a perception that we're in the midst of some "crime wave" or that criminals are no longer "afraid of Fayette."

Go check your GBI crime statistics. Fayette County has had a relatively static crime rate for the last 20 years. Go ask your neighbors who DON'T read thecitizen.com; the only "crime wave" is what's perceived on this board. It's laughable to watch the knee-jerk racist and xenophobic backlash on this board to every little story about a store being robbed somewhere in the county. I've been here since 1980 and recall just as much- or, more to the point, little- crime of notariety then as now.

You're right: we all need to see the stats.

You don't actually cite any hard facts, but insinuate that *were* one to check them out we would see that crime is not on the increase.

It sure doesn't look that way. And I just can't see how the quicker access to reporting explains it. Nor do I think either that xenophobia or racism are to blame or that the concerns of local citizens are "laughable."

I'll go out on a limb and say that you are mistaken. I fully expect the facts to support the contention that there has been a rise in violent crime in the county.

I shall, of course, stand open to correction.

Though I do remember many years ago before there was an influx of crime into this county when you could leave the top down on your car with your wallet/purse and keys left in your car in Fayetteville and all of it would still be there when you were done grocery shopping. Not so anymore.

Seems like I remember that too.
You can't trust anybody around here anymore.
More "people" moving in equals more crime.
It's sad that things have changed so much.

Erin