Tag Archives: Law

Decently and in order? Prayers do not match Commission behavior @ LCC 2013-09-10

The invocation didn’t match what the Commission did
at

the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 10 September 2013,
or at many another session, for that matter.

The invocation included this:

…we can gather here and not have to face the fear arrest or threat.
That we can express our opinions openly.

I guess Minister Commissioner John Page hasn’t heard of

Ashley Paulk’s Greatest Hits
which include

a not-so-veiled threat of arrest right there in that
same chamber Continue reading →

Minimum wage law increased to livable wage? @ VLCoC 2013-09-04

Rep. Scott doesn’t want any federal laws about employment.

Alvin Payton
(Valdosta Mayor Pro Tem and City Council District 4)
asked:

What is your view or your stance on this current minimum wage law being
increased to livable wages?

This was at the
Chamber Federal Legislative Lunch
with Rep. Austin Scott (R GA-08) yesterday.

Answer from Rep. Scott: Continue reading →

Reopen the KJ investigation

I agree with the pathologist who did the second autopsy
and found new evidence,
Dr. William Anderson:

“My recommendation is to redo the investigation,” Anderson said
Wednesday morning. “Open it back up and find out what happened.”

Jordan Conn wrote for Grantland yesterday,

A Death in Valdosta,

Multisport athlete Kendrick Johnson was found dead in his Georgia
high school’s gymnasium in January. Authorities ruled it an
accident, but Johnson’s family believed something very different
— and a second autopsy appears to support their suspicions.

I don’t always agree with Rev. Rose, but I still do on this one:
the number of people colluding to cover up a thing like this would
be most impressive.

However, the GBI is involved, and after

the Quitman 10 are now several
years without a “speedy” trial, GBI involvement taints the case.
So with the new evidence let’s see a new investigation.

The Grantland story is confused about Continue reading →

Prohibition will bring both law, legislature and executive into open contempt –The Economist 22 September 1923

Alcohol Prohibition didn’t work.
Prohibition of marijuana and other drugs actually failed in much worse ways than alcohol prohibition did.
I don’t always agree with The Economist, but about this I do:
it’s time to end the failed War on Drugs and ramp down the
expensively bloated U.S. prison system.

Uncle Sam Will Enforce Prohibition,

Our September 22nd 1923 issue examined the impact of America’s
experiment with alcohol prohibition. The newspaper encourages a
similarly liberal approach to drug control today.

We wrote: “A law is not necessarily a good or wise law because
it aims at doing something which is desirable. If it is impossible
of strict administration, it will not only fail in its object, but,
what is far more serious will bring both law, legislature and
executive into open contempt.”

Continue reading →

Video released of guards beating prisoner with hammer in 2010

GBI finally released video of prisoners being beaten with hammers by guards
after the

2010 prisoner strikes

for wages
instead of working for free for things like

call centers and building weapons.
Two guards

pled guilty in 2012
to conspiracy, assault with injury, and coverup.
But GBI mysteriously hasn’t been able to identify
the guard seen in this video beating handcuffed prisoner Kelvin Stevenson
with a hammer.

Mary Ratcliff 29 August 2013,

Video released of Georgia guards beating prisoners with hammer,

At the beginning of this video, you hear a prison guard shouting,
“”Get down! Just get down! Get down! Get down!”
presumably to the other prisoners. That exclamation is followed by,
“Oh (inaudible) guy over there with his hands hitting him …
and a damn hammer!”

The deplorable beatings you’re witnessing occurred Continue reading →

Watkins family on other cases

It’s not so much what you know as what you can prove,
says a concerned father, and the mother wants better representation
for others whose children like her daughter have gotten caught

in a felony with little if any evidence at school.

Mrs. Watkins said after her daughter was
tackled at school be a deputy,
she found “there are a lot of children in the judicial system
that may not have good representation.”
She and Mr. Watkins and George Boston Rhynes
are starting an organization to at least show concern.
George said in one visit to juvenile court
he encountered two families with problems with
probation and law enforcement knocking down doors and searching without
search warrants.

Mr. Watkins wants to help people know their rights.
Things we older folk may have done as children now there
are laws against, and the children and their families
need to know things like the difference between a felony
and a misdemeanor, and the importance of writing things down.
“Details is all that matters.”
Later he noted that Continue reading →

Mrs. Watkins says her 14-year-old daughter was charged with a felony at Pine Grove Middle School despite no evidence

Mrs. Watkins said a sheriff’s deputy used excessive force against her
daughter and despite no evidence her daughter was charged with a felony.
George Boston Rhynes asked:

If your child would have been been caught with what her child have experienced,
wouldn’t you want
somebody in Valdosta and Lowndes County
and the state of Georgia
and the state and the nation
to know what had happened to your child?

According to Mrs. Watkins,
between 11AM and noon on 14 May 2013 she
Watkins was called by the principal of Pine Grove Middle School
saying her daughter had assaulted her.
When Mrs. Watkins got there Deputy Robert Adkins
told her he was going to charge her daughter with several charges,
even though he had no statement from anyone.
When she got home, she found a facebook video of two children
attacking her daughter, who wasn’t attacking anyone, and the teacher
was never struck, which the deputy also confirmed he had not heard happened.
Yet Mrs. Watkins said none of the other children were charged
and her daughter was charged with a felony.
See for yourself what she said, in a lot more detail:

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

Citizens sue city about sewage

I wonder who else is sick of

sewage?

AP, today,

Sick Of Spewing Sewage, Georgia Neighbors File Lawsuit,

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division responded to a
Rochelle resident’s complaint of waste spewing across portions of a
10-block area in March. The agency concluded there had been a major
spill of more than 10,000 gallons of raw sewage. A March 29 letter
from state regulators says Rochelle city officials were aware of
“frequent spill events” in the past but had made “minimal to no
progress” in fixing the problems.

The complaint and the lawsuit both started with 67-year-old John
Jackson, a retired Rochelle city maintenance worker who reached out
to state regulators and the nonprofit environmental law firm
Earthjustice. The firm filed suit on behalf of him and seven
co-plaintiffs.

Well, of course our local

county seat
and county
here are working on fixing their sewage problems…. Continue reading →

Videos: New judge, river gauge, park deed, personnel costs, pest control, and retirement @ LCC 2013-08-27

Unanimous approval for
a third no-bid contract this month for Lovell Engineering, this time for

for a sports complex in Hahira,
but surprisingly
the
opaque pest control bids
were tabled indefinitely.
Also unanimously approved were
three new fine-processing positions for the Clerk of Court,
the
Little River stream gauge,
The special presentation was for
the retirement of Gene Roberts from Public Works.
No mention of the previous morning’s presentations by
Judge John Kent Edwards Jr.

asking for a new State Court Judge
or

about fines moving from Sheriff to State Court.
Dr. Michael Noll said

Moody AFB once again couldn’t get access
to the site for the Moody Family Housing the Commission already approved,
despite the sinkhole on the adjoining land.

Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2^nd Floor

Continue reading →

New judge, river gauge, park deed, personnel costs, and pest control @ LCC 2013-08-26

The
request for a new State Court Judge
by Judge John Kent Edwards Jr. took 27 and a half minutes,
plus his

eight minute explanation of fines moving from Sheriff to State Court.
More people might have showed up to hear if anybody had known about
these items.
Commissioners asked a surprising number of questions about them
and about
the
Little River stream gauge
and the
opaque pest control bids.
Of course, then people might have seen

the proposed third no-bid contract to the same firm this month.
They vote tonight.

Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes: