District Attorney Scott Ballard, Griffin Judicial Circuit, was the featured speaker for the NAACP on Saturday. He conveyed a number of attention-grabbing points to the audience.

Ballard said he had been meeting with Fayette County Board of Education officials and the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department to find out how his office can do a better job working with matters concerning local youth. He also sees the formation of gangs as a major concern. Ballard stated he is aware of gang activity locally in some of the middle and high schools. He stressed that his office was looking for ways to offer students alternatives to gang related activity.

Ballard also expressed great concern over increases in illegal drug trafficking, in particular methamphetamines.

“Fayette County is very enticing to people selling drugs,” Ballard said. “We’ve had an absolute explosion of meth cases in the county, and I’m assuming that’s because meth usage is up in Fayette County.”

Several members of the audience expressed concerns over possible discrepancies in bail amounts and sentencing between white and black persons arrested on drug charges. Ballard promised he would look into the matter.

Some local parents expressed their concern about the possibility of discriminatory racial profiling with the application of the new Fayette County Board of Education program concerning random swabbing of students for drug usage. Ballard admitted he had not been consulted by the Board of Education on the use of such a program.

One parent complained that her son had been pulled over six times by police and had never once been given a traffic ticket. “I’m sure there is some racial profiling,” Ballard remarked. “I’d like to see the day when it doesn’t matter.”

Upon hearing a complaint about the treatment of African Americans in the local courts and the need for more African Americans in the DA’s office, Ballard acknowledged that only three of his office’s employees out of a total 33 were black. He also said there was no diversity training for employees in his office.

Ballard told the audience his office does have investigators to look into complaints against law enforcement officers regarding racial bias with enforcement of the law. He expressed a willingness to work with the NAACP Legal Redress Committee if there are any cases of concern to the organization.

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