View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2007 > October > 11 > Entry
Whoooee, what a weekend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday
Around 4 p.m. a construction crew hit a 4-inch natural gas line down on Roswell Road and Dunwoody Place. When you hit a 4-inch line, you’ve essentially handed us, (us meaning public safety and the gas company), and the poor people who are about to be gridlocked in traffic, a bad afternoon. It’s bad enough the line gets hit on an afternoon but hitting it on a Friday is just wrong. Roswell Road was shut down and detours began. Fortunately, cars were able to sneak around over to the Northridge area but after a long week and finally you see the end of the week, right down the road, just across the river, and boom—let’s add another hour to your drive.
They got it fixed at around 11 p.m.
Saturday
Same crew hits another line at the same location. This time it was a 2-inch line and four hours of delay but the nearby church, which had a festival going on to raise some money, essentially went out of business for the day. The bank across the street, also having an event, met a similar end. Aren’t there maps to show you where the lines are? To me it would be cheaper to have someone there holding a big sign so the bulldozer guy can read it: “Don’t Dig Here!” How much money do these guys have to pay when they hit these things?
Teenage Social Scene
Saturday was homecoming for my son’s high school. He had on the new shirt, pants and tie. His date came over and we took pictures, then Detective Sandy and I drove them to dinner. This reminded me of when I had girls going to the prom or homecoming. It reminded me of how grown up the girls looked in formal or semi-formal dress and I remembered how uncomfortable it made me to think that this kid was now—well looking a little too adult.
I can also remember looking into the eyes of my daughter’s date that night, wondering if anyone rented wood chippers on Saturday evenings. Remembering that prompted me to give my son some good advice. I told him that it isn’t easy for a father to see his daughter looking so grown up and there was a slight chance that “he will try to kill you. Good luck.”
Sunday
Going to Talladega is one long day and for some, a long week. I’ve never seen so many campers, good ol’ girls, and beer in all my life. I’ve been to only two NASCAR races, both at Talladega, some twenty years earlier. Bobby Allison tore out about fifty feet of fence after going airborne and into the fence. It took a couple of hours to fix it. I had gone with a friend of mine who owned a gas station. He took his mechanics in his new motor home. The delay in the race was enough time for the three mechanics to pack on an extra six-pack or so. It took us two more hours to find them after the race. One was in jail, one we found under another motor home and the third, we found in 1993. Talladega is one long afternoon. Here’s a brief history.
Hernando De Soto, a Spanish explorer seeking gold, landed in Tampa, Florida in 1539. He and his army of 800 to 1,000 men came across Alabama in 1540. During his trip, the Native Americans told him about a large Native American city in the area that is now Alabama. He was told of a city named Coosa, meaning “Land of Many Bubbas” to the Creek Indians.
In 1719, Benjamin Hawkins, the Native American agent for the territory South of the Ohio River, traveled through the Coosa district and reported the Creek’s method of livelihood, in Talladega, which was running around a large oval track, while many others, wearing native headgear, displaying the number of a competitor. It was here that the phrase “Whooooooeeeeeeeee” was first recorded.
Years later, the Indians used wagons with interchangeable wheels to compete. Eventually the costs of the wagons and parts were so high that many competitors made deals with local hunters, traders, or fishermen, agreeing to display their wares in exchange for offsetting the cost of preparing a wagon. The earliest record of a race winner was in the late 1700’s when the winner, Montogo, roughly translated to “Restrictor Plate,” told the crowd that he could not have won the race without the help of Benjamin Hootman, maker of “Hootman Furs”, for buying new wagon wheels. He then poured Blueberry Muskadine wine on Hootman’s head.
Just looking This week’s crime activity e-mall report will include the poor schmuck who robbed the Inserection Store on Roswell Road. He robbed the clerk and demanded more money, to which the clerk told him he could not access the money. The robber decided to take some adult DVD’s instead. With one hand holding the gun, he reached back with the other and began thumbing through the DVD’s. He eventually turned too much attention to the DVD’s and the clerk realized the robber was no longer looking at him so he grabbed and wrestled the robber down and called the cops. You can receive these reports if you like, by e-mailing me to be put on the e-mail network.
Comments
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By Bobby Guest
October 11, 2007 10:12 PM | Link to this
Keep up the good work. I had a good friend from Fairburn, Ga. who was buried a couple months back, Mr. Robert Trent, who was a retired Jailer. He was a fine friend to an “ole Alabama” boy. We talked long hours about our jobs. I retired from the RR after nearly 36 years and his law enforcement made for many hours of entertainment conversation.
By T.A.Lisman
October 12, 2007 8:38 AM | Link to this
Darn it. If those crew had just called us to find those lines, we could’ve saved them and everybody else a whole lot of headache!