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THURSDAY. JUNE 2. 2022 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 9A
Letters
tot/iA Editor
To the Editor:
I’ve been enjoying the
Pickens County Progress for
nearly two years now. It is so
newsy about Pickens County.
Thanks for such a newsy
newspaper. I’m sure you’re
simply a “looked forward to”
group of people each week.
Keep up the good job.
Faye Blackwell
(Editor’s Note: Thank
you. It s nice to hear a word
of thanks for our staff’s ef
forts each week.)
To The Editor:
“...A very, very big risk for
a place far, far away...”
(speaking of Ukraine). The
world—of which we’re a
small part in land area and
population but have played a
larger role—is so compli
cated, has so many problems
that we should just...what,
back away from it, retreat be
hind walls?
I was bom in 1944, when
Americans had already found
out that backing away didn't
work. As many Americans
tried to retreat from the rest
of the world in the 1930s
(history tells me), Vladimir
Putin’s ideological ancestors
(“democracy—reject it; I, the
strongman, will decide”)
were making plans, not to re
treat from the world but to
dominate more of it. Peoples
of democracies (and some
others also attacked by fas
cists) spent years, centered
on 1939-1945, coping with
an unerasable trait of some
humans: to force others to
live as they demand, not as
the rest of us wish to live; and
to force “less worthy” others
to disappear.
That trait continues to as
sert itself, as anti-democratic
ideology takes control of
some places violently, of oth
ers more quietly. In a Europe
freed of Soviet Union domi
nation, Hungary now copies
1930s Germany in its nation
alism and central control of
once-democratic institutions.
And some openly anti-demo
cratic Americans just cele
brated it by holding their
Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC) in Hun
gary, with Hungary’s author
itarian President Viktor
Orban as a featured speaker.
As some Americans reject
elections—unless their Party
wins them—and threaten to
overturn “by any means nec
essary” any elections they
don’t win, the democracy
about which we’ve bragged
since 1787 is at a crossroads.
We can turn down the road
bulldozed by authoritarians
and yield to the threats, with
unknown consequences. Or
we can continue on the famil
iar road and trust the neigh
bors who’ve volunteered to
run our elections, carrying
out increasingly contorted
rules to the best of their nor
mal human abilities.
The trust of each other that
we once took for granted
could slip away. That would
suit some whose grasp for
raw power—and all that goes
with it—is their only satisfac
tion. If we can be made to
scream at each other, they
hope we’ll turn to a “strong
man” for “order.” We almost
did.
G. David Robinson
To the Editor:
Jasper has, unfortunately,
a very high profile eye-sore
which the city leadership has
chosen to ignore. One would
think that the mayor, city
manager, or her assistant and
the city council would ad
dress this eye-sore, especially
since they have been made
aware of this issue on several
occasions.
The eye-sore is the tall,
rusting, ill-maintained sign in
front of Cherokee Closeouts
at the comer of Pioneer Road
and Burnt Mountain Road
facing City Hall. No uglier
and dilapidated sign exists in
the city.
With the recent focus on
making the business district
attractive and desirable, this
sign remains a boil on the
face of the city.
Hundreds of visitors,
tourists, and residents drive
past this sign on a daily basis.
They city leadership should
investigate the ownership of
this sign, and make an effort
as to identifying the respon
sibility of the maintenance of
such a high-profile, and prob
ably permanent, fixture to the
Jasper profile. Obviously, the
city leadership of neighbor
ing cities such as Canton,
Ball Ground, Ellijay, East El-
lijay or even Blue Ridge
would never allow this em
barrassment to continue. Cer
tainly in Atlanta, but,
hopefully, Jasper has a higher
standard.
I respectfully request our
elected and salaried leader
ship take this continuing
issue seriously and resolve to
correct and improve this
black-eye on our community.
Thank you.
Steven B. Daniel
Letters welcomed - No letter more than 450 words; Send to
news@pickensprogress.com or Pickens Progress 94 N. Main, Jasper, Ga.
30143; All letters must have a full name that will be published, and contact info.
(Email Address or Phone Number), which will not be published.
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The Sheriff’s Beat
From the Pickens Sheriff’s Office
In addition to the above
activity from the Uniform
Patrol Division, Court Serv
ice Deputies reported the
following statistics for the
past week:
Persons Scanned at
Front Door: 781
Weapons Found: 6
Courts Held: 10
Arrests Made in
the Courthouse: 2
Civil Papers Received: 65
Civil Papers Served: 40
In the Adult Detention
Center:
Total Jail population: 69
Total male inmates: 57
Total female inmates: 12
Sex Offenders:
There are currently 66 sex
offenders registered with the
Pickens Sheriff’s Office.
Suspicious activity at a
home
A woman called for a
deputy to come to her house
to do a report. She said when
she was not at home she saw
a man ring her doorbell from
her Ring camera system.
When no one answered
the door he walked around to
the back of her house. He
opened the door to her
camper and looked inside but
did not go into the camper.
When the woman got home
she saw the man in the cul-
de-sac walking around, she
asked him what he was
doing.
The man told her he had a
friend that lived in that house
before, he did not realize his
friend had moved. The man
never went into the house or
the camper and it appeared
nothing was stolen.
Man attempting to catch
rooster found to have war
rants
A deputy was called to an
abandoned house by a neigh
bor. The neighbor said he
saw a man in a white truck
trying to catch a rooster that
is at the abandoned house.
The neighbor told the
man that one of the other
neighbors was feeding and
caring for the rooster. The
man got back in his truck and
left.
The neighbor got his tag
number and called for a
deputy to come out. The
deputy ran the tag number
and it came back to a man
that had an active warrant out
of Pickens County.
The deputy went to the
address of the man driving
the white truck and he was
placed under arrest for his
warrant.
Open containers in vehicle
Deputies were called
about a truck that was failing
to maintain its lane and peo
ple were concerned the
driver may be intoxicated. A
deputy and a trooper pulled
the car over, the driver had
one hand on the steering
wheel and it looked like he
had his other hand under the
seat.
The man got out of the
vehicle and the deputy asked
if he could check the truck,
the man said he could and
the deputy found four empty
beer cans and one that was
not opened. The man said he
had not been drinking and
driving. The man agreed to
do a field sobriety test and he
passed. The beer cans were
all thrown away.
Hit and run with one car
A deputy was called about
a truck that was wrecked but
no one was with the truck.
The deputy got to the truck
and it indeed had been
wrecked and both airbags
had deployed. There was no
one with the truck or in the
area. The deputy ran the tag
and tried several times to call
the owner, but no one would
answer the phone.
Stolen chickens
A woman called a deputy
to her home because she had
some chickens stolen. The
woman told the deputy she
had some free-range chick
ens roaming around her
property.
The woman said some
time during the previous
night someone had stolen
three of her chickens. The
woman said her dommer
“Dominique”chicken, a red
hen, and a grey hen were all
missing, but she did not
know who would have taken
the chickens.
Littering at Good Samari
tan Drive
A deputy was called be
cause someone left a tan
loveseat out in front of the
gate at the local thrift store.
Furniture is not to be
dropped off and left during
off-hours. The person was
concerned the loveseat
would be a road hazard and
someone might hit it.
The loveseat was not in
the way of traffic at that time.
The Pickens Sheriff’s Of
fice responds to many calls
for service every day. The
following incidents are a few
deputies respond to each day.
False name given
A deputy pulled a car over
because it had a taillight out.
When the deputy got to the
window to speak to the
driver, she said she did not
know the light was out and
she didn’t have her license
with her.
The deputy asked her for
her name and birth date so he
could check her license on
the computer in his car.
After he put in the informa
tion a picture popped up that
did not look like the woman
driving the car.
The deputy asked her
about it and she told him she
had given him the wrong
name and birth date because
she knew her license had
been suspended. She gave
him the correct information
and she was driving on a sus
pended license.
Man walking in the road
way under the influence
Two deputies were called
out to the area where a man
was walking in and out of the
roadway. When the deputies
got to the man they could
smell a strong odor of alco
hol coming from him.
The deputies asked him
how much he had to drink,
he told them he had only
drank one beer. The man said
he would do a field sobriety
test, but after the deputies
started the test the man was
having some difficulties with
the test.
The man told the deputies
he changed his mind and did
not want to continue with the
test. He was heavily intoxi
cated and was a danger to
himself because he kept try
ing to walk where there was
traffic.
He was arrested for the
county ordinance of public
intoxication.
Faulty headlight leads to
arrest on outstanding
charges
A deputy was patrolling
the area and saw a car with a
headlight out, so he pulled
the car over. When the
deputy got up to the window
of the car he could see a
woman was driving and
there was a man in the pas
senger seat.
The woman told the
deputy she knew she had a
headlight out and her tag was
expired but she was working
on getting it up to date.
The deputy got licenses
from both of the people in
the car, the woman had a
warrant out of another
county and the male passen
ger had a suspended license.
While the deputy was talking
to both of the people in the
car he could smell a strong
odor of marijuana.
The deputy searched the
car and found a grinder and a
very small amount of mari
juana (less than 1 oz). The
woman was taken into cus
tody for her outstanding war
rant and someone else came
to pick up the car and the
passenger.
Woman arrested over tres
passing harassing cus
tomers at store
A deputy was called out
to the Tate four-way, to the
Valero because a woman that
had criminally trespassed
once before was standing
outside the door and harass
ing customers as they left the
gas station. The deputy tried
to speak to the woman but
she was flailing her arms and
saying things that made no
sense.
The deputy was able to
positively identify the
woman and she had crimi
nally trespassed from that
gas station previously. The
woman was taken to jail be
cause she was not allowed to
be on that property.
During this past week, the Pickens Sheriff’s Office responded
to or initiated 1,846 calls for service.
These numbers are taken
from the report provided directly from the 911 Center where all
calls are logged as they are perfonned. Below is a breakdown
of all dispatched calls by the call type for each incident.
Accidents
16
Suicide Threats / Attempts
5
Domestics
11
Theft / Burglary Related
9
Forgery / Fraud
2
Traffic Stops
49
Citations Issued
N/A
Animal Investigations
2
Suspicious Persons/Activity
31
Alarm Calls
8
Stranded Motorists
9
Street Hazards
5
Vandalism
5
Abandoned Vehicles
3
Extra Patrol - neighborhoods, businesses, residences 1,483.
In addition to these, other calls include search warrants, civil
service, 911 hang-up calls, assaults, disorderly persons, missing
persons, assistance with medical calls, natural death investiga
tions, demented persons, funeral escorts, harassment, trespass-
ing, and many more.
Breakdown of Charges for those Arrested:
9 individuals were booked into the Adult Detention Center on charges
from the Pickens Sheriff's Office. Out of these, the following charges
were taken by PSO deputies (note: some individuals have multiple
charges|:
Bond Violation 1
Theft by Deception 1
Probation Violation 1
Simple Assault/Family Violence 1
Public Intoxication 1
Failure to Appear 1
DUI 1
Criminal Damage to Property 2nd degree 1
Criminal Trespass 1
Driving with Suspended License 1
Sheriff office offers an anonymous tip app, Tip 411, More
information about both programs can be found at https://pick-
ensgasheriff.com/programs.
tip
411
GRISHAM, POOLE
& CARLILE, PC
Criminal Defense I Family Law
"You can't go back and change the beginning,
but you can start where you are and change
the ending." ~ C.S. Lewis
21 COURT STREET
JASPER, GEORGIA
678.880.9360
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