About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 2023)
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
