Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, June 21,2023
FAYETTE VIEWS
A4 Fayette County News
Good Police Work
Requires Public
Commitment
This story got my attention, as many news stories
shared via social media are designed to do. The headline
was intriguing. Some would call it click-bait, but if it works,
it works.
“Police say a man and his friends ran up a $100 tab, but
he left his phone behind and got arrested for murder.” Ok,
I read that tweet and I was intrigued. The headline on the
accompanying story from Atlanta’s
WSB TV indicated that the man had
“dined and dashed” at a local seafood
restaurant and ended up facing mur
der charges.
To quote Will Farrell’s character
Ron Burgundy from the movie An
chorman, “That escalated quickly.”
Given that another attempt to dine
and dash from an Atlanta area res
taurant recently ended in the shoot
ing of a security guard over a
Valentine’s weekend dinner, I was curious if this was the
same case, a trend, or if the former charges had escalated
to murder.
It turns out this was a separate incident. A group walked
out on a check at the Juicy Crab in south Cobb County, but
one in the group left his cell phone behind at the table. Per
the article, someone from the restaurant was aware enough
to see the group leaving and was able to get the tag number
of the car in which they left. Police were called.
The responding police officer found the phone, which
had an unlocked screen that displayed the phone’s owner
in a preset selfie picture. Running the tag number, a name
was generated that matched a driver’s license photo with
the one on the phone. That name was run through the Geor
gia Crime Information Center’s computer database, and it
reported back that the suspect had an outstanding arrest
warrant for murder.
A few hours later, the suspect’s car was identified by li
cense plate readers in nearby Brookhaven. Brian Fort was
arrested and sent to DeKalb County jail, with charges pend
ing for murder, theft by receiving stolen property, and pos
session of a firearm by a convicted felon.
So how does this move from an interesting viral news
story to a column? What struck me from the article was a
quote from Cobb County Police Department praising the
original responding officer.
Noting the exceptional initial police work, officer Arron
Wilson was candid about how modern policing doesn’t al
ways allow for an in-depth review of relatively minor
crimes. “All he had to do was come here, file a report, and
go to the next call; the case would have been sent to an in
vestigative detective.”
See Haper, A6
CHARLIE HARPER
Right Wing
Media - Dividing
Our Nation
“The Justice Department will continue to do everything
in our power to hold accountable those criminally respon
sible for the Jan. 6 attack on our democracy.” -Attorney
General Merrick Garland.
As a fiscal conservative and social issues progress, I get
online newsletters from both sides. On the left, there is a
minority view that we don’t need to
balance the national budget. I
strongly disagree. But on the right,
there is just a glaring, plain lack of
truthfulness, even when the facts are
right before our eyes.
And, because many Americans
limit their news sources to those they
already agree with, their dishonesty
is exacerbating the tribalism that is
destroying our national unity.
As one example, let’s review the
American Patriot online newsletter,
examining one recent article about Ashli Babbitt’s mother.
Keep in mind that this is a typical column in the right-wing
online sphere.
Babbitt was the woman shot while breaking into the
Capitol. Her mother was arrested for allegedly punching a
vocal, but peaceful, counter-protester at a Memorial Day
march by Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection apologists.
Along those lines, the American Patriot describes
“peaceful Trump supporters who have been unjustly im
prisoned for more than two years now over the Jan. 6 fed-
surrection.” But anyone with a television understands that
the Jan. 6 riot was a violent, right-wing insurrection de
signed to overthrow our nation.
This typical American Patriot description of “peaceful
Trump supporters” completely ignores the facts. As a direct
result of the actions of hundreds of violent radical right-
wing extremists, there were 138 police injured, both physi
cally and mentally. Five died as a result, most of suicide due
to extreme trauma.
Arguably, the most alarming death was USCP Officer
Brian Sicknick, sprayed with a dangerous chemical by
rioters. He subsequently suffered mortal strokes as a result.
Four Trump supporters also died at the scene, one of
whom was shot violently breaking into the Capitol. The
others passed away due to medical issues and a drug over
dose.
And this was not just a spur-of-the-moment riot. The
insurrection was promoted by our former President and
planned by his most radical supporters. Evidence has been
presented in court that the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers,
Three Percenters, and other right-wing radical groups had
JACK BERNARD
Whataboutisms: Some Parlous Examples
The Democrats are “pooh,
poohing” the Republicans’ defense
of Donald Trump by whingeing
about whataboutisms by Repub
licans.
I have been keeping up with the
whatabouts
for years and
decided to
scuttle around
through my
whatabout ar
chives for
some epic
whatabouts.
Some of you
may be too
young to re
member a few
of these, so ask your dad.
Whatabout Hillary in her base
ment hunched over a private
server with about a zillion emails
blasting out leftist propaganda and
other top-secret desiderata to all
corners of the world? When some
“deplorable” (a Hillary vulgar
ism ) Republican whistleblower
snitched on her, credit though to
her quick criminal mind; she im
mediately began acid washing
some 30,000 of the most classi
fied, top-secret emails imaginable.
After applying a good hard
drive washing, she remembered
the cell phone that likewise con
tained more of the same. This poor
excuse of a Guignol (no offense to
Punch and Judy) grabbed the nea
rest implement of destruction
which happened to be a hammer,
whereupon she pounded the hell
and emails out of her blackberry.
The F.B.I., ala, James Comey,
gave her a tepid shame on TV but
declared that no reasonable prose
cutor would prosecute her.
Whatabout Hillary’s lug of a
husband Bill, who purloined 79
classified tapes and secreted them
in his sock drawer? He was exon
erated under the Presidential
Records Act.
One last ditty about Bill. I can’t
resist. He blew up a pharmaceuti
cal plant in the Sudan proffering
that the plant was producing
chemical weapons for Osama Bin
Laden, when, in fact, it was a des
perate attempt to upstage and de
flect all the talk about Monica’s
blue dress.
There were no chemical
weapons. It was all a lie. So what if
he wiped out a few innocent Suda
nese to cover up the scandal
caused by his inflated libido?
That's just old Bill.
You know the rest of the story;
he went on to a legacy of being the
most infamous White House wom
anizer since the steamy love affairs
of J.F.K. and Marilyn. Old Bill,
poet that he was, smirked about
his new adage, "Ask not what you
can do for your interns; ask what
your interns can do for you." Isn’t
that just too rich?
Whatabout Hillary’s fairy tale
about Bosnia? Ostensibly, Hillary's
Bosnian trip was to allay the Bos
nian's fear that the Serbs were
planning a mass cleansing (a eu
phemism for “genocide”). Hillary
described in animated detail how
she was under fire at the Sarajevo
airport while in the company of
her then 16-year-old daughter,
Chelsea.
Hillary, with the aplomb com
mon among inveterate liars, ex
plained how she dodged sniper fire
in the cause of Bosnian freedom.
In a speech in Washington, Hil
lary opined: "There was no greet
ing ceremony, and we were
basically told to run to our cars."
As it developed, the whole story
was a grotesque confab by the First
Lady of Prevarication. The real
truth of the matter is that at the
time of her visit to Bosnia in 1996,
that tragic phase of the Bosnian
war was over. No snipers. No gun
fire.
Whatabout Sandy Berger, Slick
Willie’s National Security Advisor,
who grabbed an armful of highly
classified documents from the Na
tional Archives, destroying some
of them, and stuffing the really
top-secret ones down his pants. He
received two years’ probation and
paid a fine.
Whatabout old Joe:
Classifieds in his garage; classi
fieds in Delaware, classifieds in
UPenn archives. A classified here
and a classified there; you could
almost put it to music, ala, Old Joe
Biden had a farm, eeyi, eeyi, O!
Plutarch got it right, and I par
aphrase: "I do not need a leader
who changes when I change and
nods when I nod; my shadow does
that much better.”
Hey Joe, read some Greek po
etry during beddy-bye over a glass
of warm Metamucil.
JAMES
STUDDARD
We Can Be Heroes
“We Can be Heroes
Just for One Day.” - David Bowie
I’ve known a lot of heroes in my
life. Many of them I’ve written about
because I believe it’s important that
their stories are known. Heroes like:
•The late William Gatlin of Grif
fin, who served
our country as a
soldier in the
U.S. Army in
World War II.
He spent more
than a year in a
German stalag
and didn’t earn
his freedom
until the war fi
nally ended. He
received a Purple Heart for his brav
ery.
•The late Glenn Thurman of
McDonough, who, like William Gat
lin, served our country, only in
another branch of the military: the
U.S. Marines.
•Nick, a good friend of mine,
served in Vietnam. When he re
turned, he was never the same - and
regrettably, I don’t mean that in a
good way. War can do that to a man,
I’ve been told. That kind of thing
should never happen to a hero, but
sometimes it just does.
•My father, Harvey Ludwig, made
a career of the U.S. Navy. My father-
in-law, Fred Johnson, served in the
U.S. Army. My “other” father-in-law,
Lee Martin, did as well. They were all
heroes to me, not only for their serv
ice to our country, but also for the
way they treated their fellow man. Al
though they’re no longer with us,
their respective influences live on in
the people whose lives they touched
during their lives.
William, Glenn, Nick, Harvey,
Fred, Lee. All heroes, each in their
own way. But by no means does it
imply that one has to serve in the mil
itary to be thought of as a hero.
Otherwise, what name other than
hero would you call:
•Sabrina Crawford, who gener
ously founded Gigi’s House, a faith-
based home dedicated to serving
young girls who are victims of sex
trafficking, because there was a need
- and because it was the right thing to
do?
•Sherrie Stoddard, who unself
ishly donated one of her kidneys to a
young man she barely knew for no
other reason than she could - and be
lieved it was the right thing to do?
•Hank and Shelly Arnold, who in
troduced Coweta FORCE to the local
community so they could provide re
covery support services for individ
uals and family members impacted
by addiction because they wanted to
make a difference - and knew it was
the right thing to do?
•Lori Whitney, who began Hoping
Forward, a program for adults with
special needs to make them feel like
they are a vibrant part of their com
munity - because she saw that it was
necessary - and knew in her heart it
was the right thing to do?
They’re bona fide heroes. Sabrina,
Sherrie, Hank and Shelley, Lori -
every single one of them, each in their
own special way.
But the roster of heroes doesn’t
end there, not by any means:
•What about the young men and
women on the side of the road pick
ing up trash because they want to do
their part in the betterment of their
community?
•And the gentleman who lets the
woman behind him in the checkout
line jump in front of him because he
can sense she needs to hurry to at
tend to something urgent?
•Or the woman who pays for the
meal of a couple with two crying in
fants who look like they could desper
ately use a break?
If you were on the receiving end of
these acts of human compassion and
kindness, besides “Thank you,” what
else might you say to them in return?
“You’re my hero.”
Of course.
***
We can all be heroes.
According to the Oxford diction
ary, a hero is “a person who is ad
mired or idealized for courage,
outstanding achievements, and
noble qualities.”
Certainly, bravery is one of the
characteristics of a hero. But don’t
think, for one second, it’s the only
one.
You can be a hero just by making
a choice.
A choice to do the right thing.
SCOTT LUDWIG
See Bernard, A6