View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2007 > October
October 2007
That’s head-butt. Not butt-head.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Governor Sonny Perdue headed up to Washington this week, to plead his case with whoever it is that looks into droughts, about this feud with Alabama Governor Bob Riley and Florida Governor Charlie Crist.
Crist is arguing that reducing or restricting water down the pike will affect the freshwater mussels and some guy named Sturgeon, thus affecting the delicate bio-stuff along the area of the Apalachicola River at the Gulf of Mexico. It also creates hydropower to operate a coal-fired power plant. The water from Lake Allatoona helps power a nuclear power plant in southern Alabama.
On the other side, regionally speaking, Lake Lanier provides a small service to Georgia residents called drinking water!! The lake is about three months from showing us where all those lost car keys went.
Now we’re at a point where everyone is running up to Washington and telling mommy what the other one did and waiting to say “Nah-Nah — Mommy likes me best!” to the loser. By the time we find a solution and then correct the original solution, meaning spend the next millennium in court, the lake will be gone. On the upside, the housing market will show a slight surge thanks in part to the new houseboat-trailer communities sporting marketing themes such as Real Simulated Maritime Living at Holiday Marina and Dude Ranch.
I think we need to adopt the “Desperate-Measures-for-Desperate-Times approach on this crisis and cut to the chase. One word, although hyphenated:
Smack-Down!
Sonny Purdue is bald. You know why he’s bald? He’s bald because he’s been butting heads! You know any ex-football players who don’t? Ever been to a football alumni get together? Shake hands, grab a beer, butt heads, and eat some BBQ. Hell, their wives and kids butt heads! A very clear message is sent when you’re prepared to butt heads! This is a fight we can win.
We set up a 3-way match called “Mussel-Mania” with one rule: Winner takes all the water.
Here’s the Fight Card:
Gov. Bob Riley
Governor Bob Riley? I don’t think so. He’s a pretty boy. This guy has staffers in charge of hair mousse. I look at him and say “Who butts heads with fabulous hair like that?” He raised cattle for 25 years and no head butting? Cows like to head-butt! True they don’t like to be tipped but the Governor had the opportunity to be in the Head-Butting Hall of Fame if only he didn’t mind messing up his hair.
No, this man can’t have our water.
That leaves Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Jr.
Okay Sonny, Riley is gone. Bad hair day. One left and the water is ours!
Here’s your motivation: Charlie Crist played football. Yep, just like you, he played college football. Charlie played football at Wake Forest so he won’t fold like Riley. You’ll need to get him on the mat then challenge him to something that will strike fear in his heart! Get into his head!
What is the most dreaded football drill of all? The Oklahoma Drill. Why? They set you up like two freight trains, head on and when the whistle blows, somebody has to mow down the other somebody. Turf war. You’re either the run-over-er or the run-over-ee and over-ee is not pretty.
Challenge him to an Oklahoma Drill and show up wearing nothing but a thong, a parachute, and a Viking helmet with incense burning in each horn. You’ll get his attention—and remember, Wake Forest is in the ACC.
Now go get our water!
Pulling mussels from their shells
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The reason my boat drags the bottom of Lake Lanier is because I’m doing my part to save the freshwater mussel. I don’t mind doing that but I can’t figure out how the freshwater mussel affects me other than taking all the water out of Lake Lanier. I did some research on freshwater mussels and here is what I found:
Freshwater mussels (several allied families, the largest being the Unionidae) and saltwater mussels (family Mytilidae) are not closely related at all—if any, only by marriage or by bad decisions during family reunions.
Unionidae is a family of freshwater mussels, found world-wide living buried in mud, silt or sand in rivers, streams and lakes. The shell is described in big words, at least four to five syllables, and when one visualizes it, the word gross comes to mind. Basically they lie half-buried in the sediment and pump water and oxygen in and out— much like my Uncle Randolph used to do when he got drunk on his “special medicine” delivered every Friday evening from Dawsonville, Georgia.
To reproduce, mussels do things like “eject sperm from a mantel cavity” through the “male’s excurrent siphon,” which some mussels refer to as “Little Elvis.”
There’s more. The female takes it into her mantel cavity through the incurrent siphon; all the while listening to the male’s mating noises sounding remarkably like Barry White singing “Can’t get enough of your love, babe.” The fertilized eggs eventually move to a host fish, also known as dumb fish who don’t know something is hanging off their gills, until they are juveniles at which time they drop to the sediment and do what most teenagers do—which is mostly nothing.
According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press (October 15th), the Corps of Engineers has been asked to reduce the water flow to these areas. The Corps contends the water flow is needed for two species of federally-protected freshwater mussels in Florida and a coal-fired power plant. Instead of decreasing the flow, they increased it. They are pumping 37,400 gallons of water into Florida every second, the equivalent of an Olympic-size swimming pool every 20 seconds. Last week the Corp released an average 1.5 billion gallons a day. On Thursday, the Corps released more than nine times as much water downstream as entered the lake by rainfall or feeder streams.
Aside from my selfish reasons of not wanting to tube in the mud, it seems like the Corps of Engineers need to sit down and look at some of the solutions proposed. If for no other reason, we don’t want the lake to dry up exposing all those bodies dumped in it over by the dam. (I know nothing.)
Another reason is the certain impending doom to dozens of goobers with their metal detectors looking for money and valuables eaten by the evil man-eating, fast-evolving giant carp and catfish, which live down at the bottom of the dam and probably ate those bodies I know nothing about. (Note to goobers: My car keys are about fifty feet into the cove off Charleston Park. My wallet is close by.)
What if these freshwater mussels become extinct? Other things have become extinct and we’re OK with it. Fortunately for us the dinosaurs were here before us. What if it were the other way around? What if we went to all this trouble back when and actually saved the dinosaurs? What a mess that would be. Sooner or later we would try to domesticate them and that means house-training them and taking them for walks (talk about a big poop-bag) and just how are you going to teach them not to hump your friend’s leg before someone gets killed?
Cops as targets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometimes I get on the soapbox. This is one of those times, so up front, know this is my personal opinion and doesn’t represent anyone other than myself and perhaps my Rottweiler, Roxy, born of Satan, who stalks innocent victims for my barbaric rituals, now held on Tuesday nights since Monday Night Football started back.
There has been a lot of attention given to a number of police-related shootings in DeKalb County over the past year or two. The new DeKalb Police Chief, Terrell Bolton, has increased in-service training from 20 hours to 30 hours per year. “We are putting officers through live-fire situations that are forcing them to re-holster, that are forcing them to constantly re-evaluate situations to see if de-escalation is appropriate,” DeKalb’s Jim Helms said.
That response is what people want to hear because we don’t want to be known as gun-happy police. It’s an appropriate statement as well because police officers already train in those situations. Shoot-Don’t Shoot scenarios have been used in training for years. F.A.T.S. training, using video simulators with lasers to track shooting trajectory, have been in use for many years. Part of the scenario involves no-shoot situations. On the firing range there are situations where you must decide if or not to shoot.
Look at this trend. Last month, three police officers of the Odessa, Texas, Police Department were killed during a domestic-violence call. The man who shot the officers was said to have done it in a matter-of-fact manner. In an article in the Oct. 15th USA Today, as of a week ago, 60 police officers have been fatally shot this year. This is a 54% rise from the same period last year.
Already this year there have been more fatal shootings of police officers than in all of 2006. Almost a third of those killed were shot in the head, neck, or shoulder region suggesting that the shooters took into account the officers were or most likely were wearing body armor, suggesting among other things, that criminals are more violent and aggressive than ever before. Several weeks ago, a sweep by the Atlanta Police yielded a number of machine guns.
Machine guns!
We live in a country that at times seems consumed in violence. Take the number of police-related shootings, not just fatalities but shootings, and multiply it by 50, and you’ll get a good number of close calls that could have resulted in a fatal shooting if not for the officer’s discretion based on training and experience. Those near misses don’t make the news.
I hear more and more about of taking more power from the street officers by way of placing an even longer checklist, as to when they can and cannot pull their weapon. It all makes sense in theory but at a certain point when the officer is more afraid of the consequences of defending his or someone else’s life than the actual deadly threat, he or she has put themselves into a deadly risk situation, even greater than it is now.
What I don’t like is listening to the wave of sentiment, from the proverbial activist, whose answer is more restrictions, more taking away the discretion, from the officer as to when he or she can use the weapon to defend his or her life.
These shooting incident examinations will show that deadly-force situations present themselves at a moment’s notice. It’s quick and it’s never like you see on the tube. It happens so fast. By the way, don’t confuse activist with expert. Some are pitifully uninformed.
Every shooting situation should be examined to see why it happened and what could have been done differently. What does prove successful is training, training, and more training. Regardless of how well versed an officer becomes in deescalating a situation, chances are good that he or she, at some point in their career, will come across someone who, fueled by drugs or booze, or just snaps, comes out with a weapon and intends to use it. I don’t want that officer to lose the edge in a deadly-force situation, because they’re worried about the repercussions. Taking away more and more discretion from police officers is not the answer to deadly-force shootings involving police.
We made this culture and we are products of it. That includes the violence we see every single day. That violence targets police officers too. Those statistics suggest that they’re targeted more than ever before. You cannot solve this problem by taking more and more away from the police officer on the street. It won’t work.
Arrest Report: Lost in the woods
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We have a tip sheet for narcotics violations complaints located on our section on the website at www.sandyspringsga.org. Go to Emergency Services-Police.
These are some, but not all, incidents reported to the Sandy Springs Police over the past week.
Man Victimized by Raging Libido
If you’re going to jail for a few years, a person entering the fast-paces world of felony crime should give some thought to how you’re going to explain how you got caught, when you get to prison. I think that some guys don’t get paroled on the first time simply based on the how dumb they were when they got caught.
Haikeem Velente Williams, age 18 from right here in Sandy Springs, and walked into the Inserection Adult Video Store just after midnight. Haikeem put a bandana over his face, walked in, and pulled a gun on one of the store employees. He demanded money from the register, which the employee bagged for him. He then demanded money from the safe. The employee said he did not have access to the safe so Haikeem, cleverly remembering he was in an adult video store, decided to load up on videos. As he was pointing the gun in one direction, he was thumbing through the DVD rack in the opposite direction. The employee saw this as a great opportunity to grab the gun, which he did, and then toss Haikeem, all 126 pounds of him, on the ground. The other store employees held him until the cops got there.
Robbery
A man reported that he was walking home from his sister’s apartment when a car pulled up and three Hispanic men, one with a rifle, got out. They robbed him of several items, including $300 cash. The three suspects were all in their late teens to early twenties, either bald or close cut hair, white shirts and baggy pants. The vehicle was a gray Dodge Caravan Van. The victim said the man with the rifle told him “This is how we do it in California.”
A man reported that he stopped his car on the side of Franklin Road to check his map around 10 p.m. He was approached by four black males who opened his driver’s door. One man pointed a gun at him and demanded money. The victim was punched several times. The victim then accelerated and drove off. The suspects were described as wearing white and black t-shirts and dark pants.
It looks like the same guys hit another victim at the Sovereign Place Apartments in the 4800 block of Roswell Road around 10:30 p.m. He was in his car, in the parking lot, when they approached him demanding money. The victim was struck several times in the back of the head by the suspect’s gun. (Pistol whipped.) He declined medical treatment. The suspects were seen getting into either a Honda Accord or Mitsubishi Eclipse. He said two of the men had shoulder-length dreadlocks.
Burglary
Someone entered the Knuckle-Up fitness gym on Roswell Road and took $100 and a paycheck from the register. The video was viewed and an employee said that he recognized the person in the video. The detectives are viewing the video and will be taking warrants for the suspect.
Theft*
A man reported that he let his previous employee stay with him. The previous employee stole the man’s digital camera and a Home Depot credit card. $700 was later charged to the card.
The resident called the police and reported that during an open house on Wedgewood Way a woman was allowed to use an upstairs bedroom. The resident later discovered that medication had been taken from the area. The woman was described as white, 5-5” and just over a hundred pounds. She appeared to be 47-52 years old and wore an ivory shirt with khaki colored pants. The resident said that he learned this same woman was responsible for similar thefts from the Northfield Subdivision in Alpharetta last year.
A homeowner on Haven Court said that after his real estate agent showed the house to a client for the second time, jewelry, valued at $5,000 was missing from the master bedroom closet dresser.
If you think about it, what a great way to case a place and steal stuff! We have worked thefts from homes including thefts of large sums of cash from unlocked wall safes as well as bedroom and office thefts during or as a result of real estate or otherwise Open House Day. Be sure to secure everything including access to rooms that you do not want people walking through.
A homeowner on Estate Way reported jewelry missing after having several people in the home doing work. The loss was reported at $50,000.
Girls and Guys Fighting and Being Lost in the Sort-Of Woods
The short version: Lavel told police that he got into an argument with a guy named Stacy outside his apartment hallway. Lavel said Stacy hit him in the thigh with a sock filled with metal. The officer noted no physical signs of injury.
Kermit reported that Lakeisha punched him in the back of the head, poured water on him, and then threw a water bottle and then a baseball glove at him. Lakeisha then left the location accompanied by her aunt.
Johnathan said that while they were in a limo in the parking lot of the Mardi Gras Club on Powers Ferry Road, he was assaulted by Steve in their limo. Steve was not a friend of Johnathan but was in the limo along with six or seven other guys. Steve was angry because he brought a girl from the Pink Pony along in the limo. Steve hit Johnathan but Johnathan pushed Steve and then ran away. Unfortunately, Johnathan got lost, for about an hour, in the 15 square feet of wooded area behind Mardi Gras.
Relying on his survival instincts, Johnathan managed to find a ride to Smyrna where he called the police who politely told him they weren’t interested because none of the nonsense happened in Smyrna and to report it to SSPD. The officer filed a report titled “Simple Assault” only because we can’t title it “Silly and Stupid.”
As we all are, you’re probably concerned about the girl from the Pink Pony. No word.
Over at the Starbucks, James said that Dhaval accused him of hitting his car in the parking lot. James denied it so Dhaval said he was going to “kick his ass.” James called Dhaval a “Jackass” so Dhaval restated what he said before about the whole “kicking-of-the-ass” thing. The officer said the two men never hit one another and were told to separate. (Not exactly Pay-Per-View is it?)
Arrests
Eric Gichaga Kariuki, age 22 from Summit Drive in Sandy Springs, was arrested when he tried to pass a check at the “Ace Checks Cashed” store. The check was pitiful in nature, having been crudely altered by using tape and so on. It was made out to Kariuki for over $900. The actual owner of the check was called, confirmed the forgery, and came to the location, as did the cops.
Stewart Shawn, 37, from Summit Springs Drive in Sandy Springs, was arrested after stealing three cans of Copenhagen tobacco from the Chevron station on Roswell Road. When the clerk yelled for him to pay, he ran, got into his car and drove away. An officer, close by, stopped the car after the driver drove away with a woman (clerk) banging on the trunk of the car.
Terrance May, 25, from Colquitt Road, Sandy Springs, was arrested at the Target on Johnson Ferry Road for shoplifting in this manner: He put three CD’s down his pants and then paid for a couple of other CD’s.
An officer stopped a car for a defective headlight. The tag info came back showing the car was not insured. The officer spoke to the driver, and also smelled marijuana. The driver had a suspended driver’s license, so he was going to jail. One of the passengers gave a false name, but the officer recognized him as Shane Woods, age 17, from Treelodge Parkway in Sandy Springs. Shane had some funky looking $100 bills in his shoe, where we all carry large sums of money, and they turned out to be counterfeit. The driver of the car, Washawn Johnson, 23, from Treelodge Parkway was arrested for Driving with a Suspended Driver’s License and Defective Equipment.
Scam Alert
A woman reported the following: She started receiving e-mails regarding the fact that a relative of this e-mail(er) had died and he or she needed help getting the money. She didn’t respond. She later received, via UPS, three Visa Travelers checks worth $500 each with instructions to keep 10% and mail the rest to a Maryland address. She did the right thing and turned the checks into the PD.
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.
Know him? I sleep with his wife!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Small World
On October 3rd, around 6:30 p.m. at the QT Store on Roswell Road, Officer Caudell spotted a man sitting in a car, drinking a can of beer. One law says you can’t have an open container in the car and another law, the law of common sense, says that if you do violate the first law, do it discreetly when a police car is nearby. The driver, Robert Ratterree, age 30, from Flowery Branch, GA violated both laws. Officer Caudell is a new officer, who came to us from Hall County Sheriff’s Department which is where Flowery Branch is located. The officer recognized Robert as the same Robert he arrested a couple of time before in Hall County for DUI. Robert, when asked, said he was not Robert but in fact Cody.
Officer Caudell then reminded Robert / Cody that he had arrested him before in Hall County. Robert finally told him he used his brother’s name because he had a couple of warrants out on him, which he did, and didn’t want to go to jail, which he did.
I stopped a guy once who dropped my name on me. He asked me if I knew Steve Rose and I said that I most certainly did and he was an outstanding guy. He said he was friends with Steve and wanted to know if I would give him a break. I said I would if he would just give Steve a call and have him get back to me. He said he misplaced his number. I told him I’d be happy to call him on the radio if he liked. He looked like he didn’t really want me to do that.
I asked him if he could read and then politely leaned over a bit so he could clearly read my name tag on my uniform. He said ‘Where do I sign?”
Signs You Need to Stop Watching ‘CSI’
An officer was called to Hollyfax Circle on a fight call resulting from dog poop. The dog pooped and the poop was scooped and then the man then walked away.
A woman came out and accused the man’s dog of pooping on her doorstep on a previous pooping occasion. She accused the man’s dog of pooping on the doorstep, and then, according to the man, poked him on the cheek with her finger and fingernail, causing an abrasion.
The woman, after poking them man, was said to have grabbed the bag of poop and walked over to the other crime scene and compared it with the poop on the doorstep. The man then regained possession of the bag of poop and walked away, calling the police a short time later.
The officer in this report used the words “poop” and “pooping” a total of nine times—beating the old record of using the word “poop” or “pooping” seven times back in 2003.
* Crime and Punishment*
A man reported that he and his girlfriend got into an argument on Summerbrook Drive. The girlfriend bit the man and then broke the bedroom door and then the bedroom window. She threw his TV onto the ground and then tried to jump through the window, which she did, but not before she injured herself. She was last seen running through the woods.
A man said that while he was in jail, his girlfriend took his living room furniture and slashed two of his tires. She then called him and laughed at him. (He was in jail for domestic violence.)
A homeowner on Huntcliff Trace reported that someone tried to enter the home by breaking the glass on the rear basement door. The burglar couldn’t get the door open due to the dead bolt being locked. Nothing was taken. Take note: Use that deadbolt!
A woman reported that someone took $1559 cash that she had hidden, in her closet. She thinks that another woman, who was staying with her on and off, may be on the short list of suspects having access to the apartment. I don’t even need to comment here.
A man on Roswell Road eported that someone set up an account with AT&T with his personal information (DOB and SSN) and then didn’t pay the $119 owed on it. He found the ID Theft after running his credit history. People: Check your credit history, at least annually. This could have been $11,119 if he hadn’t caught it in time.
A medical office on Johnson Ferry Road filed a report documenting that the office manager resigned after paying herself $10,000-$15,000 more than her salary during a six-month period. She has pledged to pay the money back.
Arrests
Virginia Ready, 72, of Sandy Springs was arrested for Aggravated Assault after a dispute with a neighbor over a no trespassing sign she had placed in the ground. The argument, over whose property the sign was on, escalated. Ms. Ready went back into her house, got a gun, walked back outside and fired a shot into the ground in front of the neighbor, causing dirt to spray onto his face and clothing. When the officers arrived, they spoke with both parties. The officer retrieved the gun and arrested Ms. Ready for Aggravated Assault. The report indicated an ongoing verbal dispute between the two.
Carlos Hernandez, age 34, from Marietta, was arrested for Shoplifting at the Target Store on Johnson Ferry Road. Carlos had taken six bottles of cologne including Tommy Girl, Adidas, and Roots Spirit. Carlos was then arrested. But he smelled fabulous.
48-year old Raul Steven Hernandez, 48, was arrested after he put a bottle of Listerine down his pants and tried to leave a store on Johnson Ferry Road.
Eric Edwin Jones, 41, of Sandy Springs was arrested for Possession of Marijuana after officers found him drinking alcohol and loitering behind the Citgo Station. This is a known drug transaction location.
Hugo Montero-Perez, age 26, from Sandy Springs, was arrested for stealing two floral arrangements from Target as his wife slipped a set of sheets under the baby in the stroller. Hugo and his wife Alicia Ayala Villa, age 21, were taken to jail. The child was turned over to a relative.
Richard Tyler Irwin, 25, from Alpharetta, was arrested for Trafficking Heroin, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Drug Related Products, Drugs Not in Original Container, and traffic charges following a traffic stop. Matthew Robert Taylor, 25, was also arrested. He is charged with Possession of Heroin, Possession of Drug Related Objects, Drugs not in Original Container, and CCW.
Pedro Reyes, 21, of Sandy Springs was arrested for Disorderly Conduct for hitting a guy in the face when the guy opened the door that Reyes was knocking on. (Yet another reason to look through the peep-hole first.)
Scam alert
A woman reported that she was returning to her place of employment and was in the parking lot, in her car, waiting for a parking spot. A woman, described as a heavy-set Hispanic female, knocked on her driver’s door and told the victim that something was wrong with her rear tire on the passenger side. The victim got out and walked around to the passenger-side rear tire and saw the woman doing something with the tire. She saw a hole in the tire and so she told the woman she had a flat tire coming on and couldn’t do anything about it at the time. She walked around and got back into her car and discovered that her tote bag and contents were gone. The female was last seen walking away from the car. She was 5’ 5” wearing a black short-sleeve shirt with the Guess logo on it. There was no mention of another suspect who, it appears, was very fast. This occurred at the Petco parking lot at 5933 Roswell Road.
Not In This Report
John Mark Karr and or his activities including where he walks, sits, or eats. Stop calling. I can’t do anything about it.
Prunes, prune juice, related prune stories, stuffed Santa stories or theories related to the “inner” meaning of the prunes.
Beware:
Our grocery-store thieves are making a return. They have hit Kroger at 227 Sandy Springs Place and the Publix at Roswell and Abernathy recently.
Good cop vs. non-cop
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every once in a while you see a news story of someone impersonating a police officer. A young woman was robbed by a man who followed her and then pulled her over while she was on her way home. He asked for her license, walked back to his car, and then returned and took the contents from her wallet. She said he had a large knife in his belt.
This method is well documented all over the country. Years ago, Cherokee County authorities arrested a man who used a blue light to pull over and then sexually assault women. He placed a blue light in the dash of the car.
The term “Blue Light Rapist” has been used in cases throughout the country to describe this particular method of trickery used by sex offenders or robbers. Fortunately, In the case of the woman stopped in Barrow County this past week, all the man wanted was her money and credit cards.
What do you do when you’re being pulled over?
Police vehicles are required to have blue lights and at least six-inch letters that say “POLICE” on the car. Some traffic cars are black or dark and have red or dark gray lettering but they must have the departmental ID on the car.
Some departments still use a number of ‘slick-tops’ but most have mounted strobes on the top and all over the car. They light up like a Christmas tree. Police uniforms vary but will display the patch of the department as well as the badge of the department, whether cloth sewn on or a metal badge. The badge and patch show the name of the department. The uniform will display the name of the officer, usually the last name or initials and last name.
Unfortunately, real badges are out there. Badges can be purchased at Goober conventions and are probably traded around more than we know. Patch collecting is done by both civilians and police officers. The fact is that someone could stop you and be wearing a real badge.
Being pulled over by the cops is not on the Top 10 list of things that give you a warm and fuzzy feeling. It’s a rather stressful situation, even more so if you’re just leaving the “Most Beers Drunk in an Hour” contest with a blue ribbon.
But there are things you can do that are considered acceptable when pulled over.
For instance, you are on a remote area at night and the blue lights come on behind you, if you want to drive a short distance to an area that is lighted, it should be okay if you’re not intending to drive fifty miles or do so at 80 mph. We call that a chase. Don’t do that. Turn on your flashers while you change locations.
Cops call out on the radio when making a traffic stop. You can dial 911 and verify this with the call-taker and/or dispatcher if you feel that something isn’t right.
Officers carry a gun belt with all the goodies that go with it. Radio, baton, weapon, cuffs and if you’re me, two sets of reading glasses and a portable GPS so I can find my way back to the main road. If you’re pulled over and the “officer” walks up wearing noticeably little on the belt, that should trigger you to be aware. The girl who was stopped this week said she saw a large knife. Cops don’t wear large knives out in the open. That would get in the way of the gun. They wear knives but most are concealed. We call wearing a large knife where the gun should be a poor substitution during a gunfight.
Police use blue lights. Some departments, usually sheriff’s departments, will use blue and red lights. They don’t use red lights exclusively here in Georgia. Being stopped by a red light usually means a fire truck, ambulance, or other response fire vehicle is behind you.
I guess the point here is that fire truck sirens are loud and even at night you’ll know exactly who they are. By the way, what is the purpose of that light, sticking out in front of the fire truck that rotates round and round? With all of the other 75 lights and sirens going on, it seems that rotating light is rather insignificant. I think they bought those at Spencers? Can I get one for my pickup truck?
So, I suggest this: know your options. Police officers wear the appropriate uniforms and they will identify themselves to those whom they pull over. You can use 911 to call and verify the car is a legitimate police or sheriff’s car pulling you over if you are afraid that you’re being set up. Officers will be patient if you want to acknowledge, put on the flashers, and pull over in a more public area.
Keep in mind that common sense comes into play here. That alone will eliminate some of you. Don’t use this as an excuse to not pull over until the beer you just spilled on your lap dries or drive around long enough to air the car out after you just finished off a big ol’ fatty of cheap domestic stink-weed.
Chances are this will never happen to you but verifying facts is OK.
Snow foolin’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(Editor’s note: This blog was written during the very short interval between the Page One story about Stone Mountain Park making a massive snow slope during the drought, and the quick cancellation of that plan. It is being published here under the heading Stupid is Still Stupid,)
We are in a drought. The Governor wants us to take shorter showers. I read somewhere, that recycled bath water has been approved as a means of watering your yard. Something about that is disturbing somehow.
Thank goodness there are people out there smart enough not to be stupid during such extreme drought conditions. Stone Mountain Park is not among them. The front page of the AJC shows Stone Mountain Sales and Marketing VP Sonny Horton, who many believe should be the former Sales and Marketing VP, throwing a snowball.
I’m spitting on my Hostas to keep them from dying and Sonny is having a winter wonderland on the front page of the AJC.
Christine Parker, public relations manager for Stone Mountain said “We’ve already sold tickets and we can’t just stop.” She said. “”That would be like a water park just deciding to turn off the faucets.” (The only thing left out was “Duh!!”)
What part of the staff meeting led to this being a good idea?
“Okay ladies and gentlemen, let’s get the meeting to order. What’s first on the agenda?”
“Let’s build a 400-foot slope of snow.”
“Great! When?”
“Right now.”
“Wait, aren’t we in a severe drought?”
“Yes we are.”
“What about using the lake water?”
“No good! It won’t be pretty enough.”
“Anyone?”
“Maybe we should wait, you know, until THERE IS NO DROUGHT??”
“You’re fired!! Get out. Anyone else?”
“We could do it and not tell anyone?”
“I like it! Go on….”
“If someone asked why we were openly and blatantly using water, which is apparently in very short supply, to make something as, oh what’s the word?…uh, oh yeah, unnecessary, as a 400-foot snow slope, then we’ll tell them we already sold tickets and we can’t turn back now!”
“I’m diggin on this! Keep going!”
“We’ll say that we’re complying, because that means it’s not our fault, and if we say we’re complying, then it makes us look like we’re not inconsiderate and wasteful.”
“I like it. I like it a lot.”
“Anyone else?”
“Sir, this may not be the best time to make snow—“
“You’re fired! Turn in your General Lee Area parking pass and get out! Someone put this guy on Laser-Show restriction!
“OK, we move ahead and by the way, I think the public will love it because people love nothing more, during a severe drought, than to have a pleasant distraction like snow being blown on the grass at 38 gallons a minute, 12 to 18 hours a day!”
“Anything further?”
“One thing sir, just don’t do anything stupid like have someone’s picture taken throwing a snowball next to the article on water bans extending through 2008 and the comparison that snow-making machines use the monthly equivalent of 4,924 hours running a sprinkler, 44,770 car washes, and 106,138 showers.
That might make us look like gluttons. That would be really dumb.”
“Uh oh.”
Lights! Camera grunt! Action!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday is one of those days that, like in most businesses, can go either way. If it’s really good, it’s quiet. If it’s really bad, then most likely, I’ll have already been in.
Monday is often check-in day with local television reporters. Reporters call before they go to reporter meetings. I’ve never been to a reporter meeting but I get the impression that they’re like sales meetings in the car business —when sales are down, pressure.
Reporters and criminal lawyers love cops because we give them stories and we give them clients. You’d think that in this busy town of Atlanta and the metro area, there would be many stories but sometimes things are slow out there in the asphalt jungle. These are dangerous days. On slow news days “Dog Bites Man” gets leading story status even when the dog is toothless and the man can’t figure out if he was bitten or just had a hang nail.
Most reporters, like most police officers or librarians or astronauts, are OK. Professional with fabulous hair. Even on a windy day they’re unscathed. Why? Hair spray that you could glue tiles to a space shuttle with. There’s a better chance of a strong wind ripping a reporter’s scalp off his or her head than two hairs coming out of place. They are in fact, very normal people who work long and hard hours, weekends, nights, and holidays. Off camera, I talk about my family and they talk about their families, jobs, and fabulous hair.
Here is what you don’t see when the camera turns on: the cameraman/woman. These are the unsung grunts of local news. They haul the camera, about the size of a 1959 Austin Healey 6-cylinder two-seater, and the tripod, which weighs about the same as a fairly stout cow, up the hill, in the heat, in the rain, in the cold, and in the sleet, all the while waiting for goobers like me to produce two coherent sentences in a row without forgetting what we were talking about or cutting and starting over again because we mispronounce words like “perpetrator.” Or “Tom.”
The camera folks drive the truck, edit the video, and create most of the atmosphere. He or she is the director. If the story is about police, they shoot video of a police car so that the audience won’t think the story is about the Hubbell Telescope.
The camera operator puts the mike on you, tells you where to stand, tells the reporter where to stand, reminds you to stand where he or she told you to stand, shoots the video while you talk, assures you that you’re not an idiot although you sound like one, shoots your interview from the other shoulder of the reporter, shoots video from all sorts of weird angles, all the while reminding you to ignore the fact that he or she is lying on the ground shooting up at your nostrils for effect, tells you to just talk to the reporter while he or she gets the “Chit-Chat” shot of both of you together, without sound, so it appears you’re still discussing the story. You’re really not.
I like to use this time to pitch my Amway product line, using buzz-words like “multi-level” and “recruiting” while the reporter tries to appear not creeped out.
When it’s over, the cameraperson removes the microphone, packs up the 3,000-pound camera and then heads to the truck to edit or at least set it up for editing. It is not a glamorous job. Reporters will tell you that the cameraperson is the backbone of the team. They do this because they depend on their technical expertise and they know that anyone who can lug a 6,000-pound camera up a hill could seriously hurt them if they wanted to. They are in fact the Marines of TV news.
If you think you had pressure today at work, try this. A reporter was talking about his story and was then supposed to cut to a video shot previously as he talked about the story. He talked and then set the scene for the video and then cut to the video. That was the plan only the video just didn’t happen. The video went to technical La-La-Land.
So, there he was, with dead air, no place to hide, and in his little earpiece, being told he was on his own. Like a true professional, he started talking from the few notes he had made, telling us the same thing he had just told us but in a different manner so that we listened all over again. He actually made it out OK. I e-mailed him and only made a little fun of him. I couldn’t have done that, knowing thousands of people were watching and saying “Uh-Oh,” all at once.
Me, I would have slowly eased my way left or right, all the while smiling as if nothing was wrong … just keep moving … keep smiling … thinking about how I was going to kill the technical guy … smiling … smiling.
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