Feel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issues not yet discussed here over the past week.
Comments close on Monday.
May 16, 2014 Free-For-All Friday 5/16/14 (121)
June 20, 2014 Free-For-All Friday 6/20/14 (34)
May 23, 2014 Free-For-All Friday 5/23/14 (101)
TopHat Cat
brianc
Avondalian
Locke
nelliebelle1197
nelliebelle1197
Moderate
Michael
brianc
Raul
Raul
Scott
Principal Greg Wiseman Canoes Through Decatur
DM –
I was in Glenlake Park early this morning. Heard a barred owl. I hope it was Hootie.
Decatur’s Coach Chuck and the Madison Lewis Scholarship Fund Featured on Fox 5 News Edge last night:
http://decaturhighsoftball.wordpress.com/
Read on Patch:
“Decatur Police Issue Robbery Alert Following Middle Schooler’s Mugging”
http://decatur.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/decatur-police-issue-robbery-alert-following-middle-schoolers-mugging
Who?
Ugh. Stuck in moderation due to the embedded link. Anyway, go the Decatur/Avondale Estates Patch for the following story (my apologies for the double post if DM releases the original).
“Decatur Police Issue Robbery Alert Following Middle Schooler’s Mugging”
I find this crime particularly upsetting because the victim was a child walking home from school in broad daylight, something that we encourage in Decatur. Hoping that the young perpetrators are caught soon, get the punishment and help that they need, and that there’s some lessons learned for us parents and for the students. Should we not allow walking home alone? Avoid giving our kids iPhones? Have them carry crime whistles (or whatever the modern equivalent is)? Tell them to call 911 if they think they are being followed? Scream loud? Sounds like the victim did the right thing giving up his phone.
When I was in middle school, this same incident would have been described as “this high school jerk grabbed me and took my stuff.” That’s not to diminish the event or excuse the perpetrators in any way, just to suggest that the event itself is nothing new. The only thing that’s changed is how we now describe and report on it.
I think the best advice to kids in the wake of this incident is the same advice currently being offered to adults: You may have got it for a cheap contract price but an iPhone (or any smartphone, really) is a computer worth hundreds of dollars. It’s best not to be out on the street using it openly at times when you can’t also be aware of and monitoring your surroundings.
A quicker refresh on my page might have kept me from being redundant, but sounds like we’re on the same page.
This blurb suggests he heard the initial yelling by the “jerk,” and his phone was in his pocket. So he was aware and not gabbing away oblivious to being followed. Just don’t want someone blaming this kid, it doesn’t sound like he did anything to provoke this altercation. It really is criminal and should be treated that way. If they got away with it once, I’m sure they’ll try it again.
You are right about trying it again. I remember a few years ago when several middle schoolers and older elementary students had their iPods stolen by older kids (if memory serves, it was in January and February – essentially their Christmas presents were stolen). Although several of the victims personally knew the thieves, no one would rat them out for fear of retribution (and getting thier ass kicked). I don’t want my kids growing up in that type of environment. There needs to be consequences for these crimes, and they need to be severe enough to act as a deterrent.
Obviously I’m not blaming the victim. I was responding to AHID’s question about how we should discuss or handle it with our kids. I can’t see how encouraging them to be aware of their surroundings and how their possessions might be attractive to bad people can be a bad thing (not that you’re suggesting it is).
I know you didn’t. I just wanted to make that clear for people who didn’t read the link.
Or, if you must give your kid a phone, make it a Blackberry. No one wants those — not even criminals.
Or Windows phone.
New suggestion for the urban dictionary: A “Steve Ballmer” is an electronic gadget no one wants.
So far, no one has targeted our $9.99 Tracfones. They are so primitive and slow for texting that even my kids don’t want to use them–perfect! The primary intent is for communication with the parental units.
Wait! According to my middle-schooler, HE is the only one who still has one of those! He’s the only one without a smartphone! You mean other kids still have the entry-level Tracfones?! Say it ain’t so…
(After hearing about the middle schooler and his iPhone, I am glad my middle schooler only has a phone that no self-respecting thug would want. )
Now hold up. My middle-schooler is the only one without a smartphone! He told me so….
Y’all are a stitch. Nearly every parent I know insists they are practically the only hold-outs against a tide of indulgence and consumerism, and that all their kid’s friends’ parents are the ones continually raising the bar on birthday parties, clothes, gadgets, vacations, etc.
We’re such suckers. I can just see the kids all getting together and plotting, “If we tell them that EVERYone has a smartphone, then they’ll think that we ought to at least have a cell phone or iPod or iPad. They’ll even think they’re being a frugal and careful parent…”
Dont hate on the Windows phone. I’ve had a Nokia one for a couple years and really like it. I am not a big App guy, so dont really miss that….
I beg to differ on viewing this as just a High School bully thing. While that may have been an accurate description in the past, I think these days it is more. The propensity to have guns and moreover the desensitization to their usage makes it something different.
I think it’s the same basic dynamic we all saw (and maybe experienced) in our various eras of middle school. There was no gun or any other weapon in play here. But since you brought it up, obviously you are correct in that younger miscreants are more likely to have guns these days. BUT right alongside that, we’ve got children walking around with $600-700 phones. In my day, this kind of “mugging” might have netted a calculator (which would not have fit into anybody’s pocket) or maybe a transistor radio (AM only). Unless the younger kid was extremely unpopular, his older/bigger siblings and/or cousins and/or neighbors would have formed up a posse and retrieved the loot or at least retaliated somehow. The whole thing might or might not have gotten onto adults’ radar. (If it did, one of their primary responses would have been that the kid had no business bringing a radio to school in the first place.)
Anyway, my point is that maybe it’s not such a good idea to raise the stakes on youngsters by kitting them out with high-end luxury items, during a time of life when they need to be starting to move about on their own and look after themselves but are still a lot more vulnerable than they will (presumably) be as adults.
Wishing I’d hung onto that useless old bike helmet now, as the “don’t blame the victim” and “my child has a right to carry an iPhone” rocks begin flying thick and fast.
Repeat after me: “It is not the victims’ fault!” “It is not the victim’s fault!” “It is not the vicitim’s fault!”
Frankly, your excusing this behavior by assigning any of the blame to the victim only contributes to and encourages these criminal acts. Could the victim have been smarter? In this case, as the iPhone was concealed and he/she was aware of his/her surroundings, the answer appears to be “No”. IMO, it woudn’t have mattered if the victim had been flashing the phone singing “nanny nanny boo boo”. The victim’s actions are irrelevant as the perp in this case and every single one of these cases made a conscious decision to assault the victim and steal the phone.
Frankly, your insistence on chastising me for things I didn’t say and views I didn’t espouse is …actually, it’s consistent.
(and reminiscent of that electric Gibbets & nelliebelle thang! :0)
STG, you are right to point out that there was no gun involved. However, in the abstract sense I think all street thugs are influenced by the culture of violence often epitomized in armed robberies. One person’s propensity to use his gun may well desensitize another to the deviance involved in other forms of physical intimidation.
I am not downplaying the seriousness of this at all, but this is Bullying 101 and not a mugging. Big kid takes from small kid. iPhone is the new lunch money.
Not sure I totally agree. Stealing a couple of dollars in lunch money is bullying. The motivation for stealing an iPhone that is worth several hundred dollars is not the same. That is about financial gain, and given that the amount taken isn’t immaterial, it is a crime.
Obviously I didn’t have iPhones growing up. But, I remember getting a nice bike that probably cost $250 to $300 when I was 13. If some older kids had assaulted me and taken that, I wouldn’t have thought of it as bullying. I would have thought of it as theft.
Yup, I see your point and understand the distinction, but I don’t think a high school bully sees the same distinction. A little kid has something the bigger kid wants and the bigger kid takes it. The difference in value I think is indeed immaterial to what the bully is doing. The use of his power over the smaller kid is more what seems to be in play here and hopefully they catch the kid and deal with him as a budding bully and not as a hardened criminal lest he become a full fledged thug. Now, introduce a weapon into this mix, and I’ll completely change my tune. In that case, my opinion is that the bully has already transitioned to thug.
You all define bullying differently than I do. To me, bullying is about picking on a particular victim purposefully to cause harm. Punching that victim is assault. Stealing money or an iPhone or a car is theft, albeit stealing ranges from petty to grand theft. Bullying is horrible but assault and theft are also crimes.
I think this part is important also. A line is drawn when you reach out and put your hands on someone. Of course, the internet changes the bullying conversation drastically, but that’s a whole other conversation. People may have shoved smaller kids back in lockers in the old days, but I feel like that’s not ok either. School should be a safe place to learn, and if you can’t keep your hands to yourself so students can do what they are there to do, then you can’t be there, it really is that simple.
Btw, to Chachee’s comment, I agree just because they looked young doesn’t mean they were Decatur students, or a student at any school. They could be baby-faced thugs or dropouts.
Can we get the phone kill switch that I’ve been reading out here and there already? It seems like it would totally end this phone theft issue.
I know the victim of this crime and this person is the most responsible middle schooler I have every met (including during my own middle school years). I feel terrible that this has happened. Just becasue the muggers were high school aged, does not mean they were high schoolers. I have no major point here other than to stand up for the victim and reiterate others’ thoughts that this is not a simple case of bullying.
I reported an assault last week and in the course of conversation with the 911 dispatcher she asked if I (we) wished to press charges. Unless the victim pursues this it will go nowhere.
Make sure you program the City of Decatur police number in your kid’s phone. From what I heard, if you dial 911 it goes to Atlanta PD. Speed is of the essence in catching the perps. That number is 404-373-6551
911 from a cell phone may go to Atlanta, DeKalb County or Decatur depending on which tower picks it up. Programming the other one into a hot key (I use the “2” key) is a good idea for everybody.
In addition to that I’d recommend installing an app like Prey, that will use the GPS on the phone to locate it if stolen.
Can you install an app like that on a cheap Tracfone? Probably not, huh? Probably also not necessary given that we’ve established below that thugs couldn’t be bothered to steal Tracfones and besides there’s only 3 students left in Decatur who don’t have an expensive smartphone.
neither of our kids have smart phones – so that brings the total to 5 kids without smart phones in Decatur.
My middle-schooler does not have a phone at all. Does that mean I win?
Yes, you win! But mine loses the Tracfone periodically–does that count? Believe me, the fireworks and tears over losing a $9.99 phone are much less than what would happen over a $600 phone that was $300 after signing a humongous contract. And to everyone’s disappointment, the darn phone always shows up again….
If it makes you feel better, my daughter’s iPhone was stolen/lifted/acquired by someone at McDonalds as a result of her carelessness. The phone was insured, which kicks replacement down to the same cost as when you sign your contract: $200. I told her that her phone wasn’t my responsibility so she had the choice of buying a cheap replacement or paying the $200 deductible to replace her iPhone. She chose the latter and worked off the cost by babysitting.
Her sense of responsibility with the new phone is markedly improved. Sometimes you just gotta touch the stove to get the message…
So what did you do between when she lost the phone and when she earned $200 for a new one? Even at today’s rates, that’s many hours of babysitting, no? If my children are free ranging (not quite as popular a term since the crime wave…), I like to be able to reach them and vice versa. Hence the cheap phone with minimum minutes and time solution.
(Anybody else still stuck at: Scott’s kid was at McD’s?! :0)
Oh, Deanne, you’s gonna get it! The honest truth is that the marionette strings we installed on her at birth keep coming undone. She will have to awkwardly flop around for a while until she learns the hard stuff herself…
AHID, I fronted her the money at 6%.
Aha! Brilliant! I’m trying that!
My 6th grader doesn’t either. I hear about it a lot that all her friends have them and so on to which I reply, “good then you can use theirs if you really need to call me.”
+1
Good call, Chachee.
Mrs. Malady and I attended the salute to the 1965 Trinity High School Bulldogs at the high school yesterday evening, and want to say “thank you” to the Decatur Bulldog Boosters for granting the team the recognition they earned 48 years ago, and for inviting the community to take part. It was a great time and a moving salute to that undefeated championship team.
Those gentlemen–this is a word I don’t get to use often enough– are all in their mid-60s now and they looked like they were having a helluva good time, sharing laughs and memories, saluting the coaches of that 1965 team and some of the Trinity teachers who helped shape them all those years ago. The teachers got a standing O from the players. All seemed grateful for the lessons they learned that championship year.
Well done, Decatur Bulldog Boosters. Go Bulldogs!
Thanks Mr. Malady. I also attended and was impressed with the comments by the players and coaches and the participation of the current DHS football players. After the presentation, I had a long conversation with a former AJC sportswriter who said the THS quarterback was considered the best player at that position IN THE COUNTRY but no SEC coach would recruit a black quarterback (in 1965). The player went to Michigan State instead. I’m hoping that because of this recognition, the Trinity players, cheerleaders, and students will become more involved with helping Eddie Fowlkes and others preserve their great traditions as part of the Decatur Sports History project. Congratulations to the 1965 Trinity High School football team! (Sent from my new fancy smart phone. Please excuse any errors. Phone is way too smart for me)
I’d hate to be accused of being a fan of a fad that originated in NYC, but you should totally try the Maple Bourbon Cro-Dough from Revolution Donuts…Mmmmmmm!!!
Wow, didn’t know about this. Time to go back for a Revolution fix!
I felt the same way, Bulldog, but I had to try it. Glad I did!
The “Who?” was in reference to the post about the owl. I screwed up the placement and now it’s not funny, just out of place.
I made the connection, and I thought it was funny.
I just don’t get the fascination with Revolution. I’ve tried their doughnuts 3 different times (18 total), and find the doughnut itself bland and lifeless. Bleh. Good frostings, terrible dough. Now Sublime doughnuts are just that…
Just my $0.02 of course, and apparently in the minority. Or, maybe I just pointed out the emperor has no clothes.
Hi Fellow Decaturites!
Just wanted to share that I’m giving away my new ebook “Holy Wars!” this weekend in celebration of Dragon Con and the AJC Decatur Book Festival.
It’s a mashup parody of Star Wars & Indiana Jones/ROTLA, with a little satire thrown in.
You can download it for FREE here:
http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Wars-ebook/dp/B00DSGXYNS/
Because it’s new, I’m mostly interested in getting noticed and getting reviews. Both are much harder to come by than I anticipated!
So please tell your friends! And have a great Labor Day weekend!
Delores
Winnona Park
Dragon*Con — Decatur Book Festival — College Football — caring for my progeny — For Labor Day weekends immemorial you have been at war within me. Forever will we find ourselves at a stalemate.
Creative Loafing calls the competing Labor Day weekend festivities “Clusterfest”
It’s a good problem to have, certainly, but there are guaranteed to be a few moments this weekend when no matter what I’m doing, part of me will be wondering, “I wonder what’s going on at __________. Would I be having a better time there?”
+1
Don’t forget Drive Invasion at the Starlight Drive In: http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2013/08/29/banzai-drive-invasion-2013-celebrates-aliens-of-the-1980s
And, the lesser known Black Gay Pride: http://www.thegavoice.com/community/7-community-organizations/6587-atlantas-black-gay-pride-community-events-aim-to-inspire-educate
Didn’t want to leave any festivals off of your list!
Hungry… thinking about lunch. Best salad in downtown Decatur?
The roasted lamb sandwich at Sawicki’s has some greens on it. In my book, that makes it a salad. And it can’t be beat.
In the immortal words of Ron Swanson, when presented with a salad: “There’s been a mistake. You’ve accidentally served me the food that my food eats.”
I know, I know, but with a probably-debaucherous weekend approaching, I thought I’d start it off on the light side.
Vegan: Old Native American term for “crappy hunter”.
It seems to come and go from their menu but, when they have it, the roasted beet salad at Mac McGee’s is hard to beat.
The best salad is in Avondale Estates at the Waffle House: mixed greens with marinated and grilled chicken.
The salads at 246 for lunch are awesome. Not cheap, but really delicious.
Corner Salad at the Corner Pub. I never get tired of it.
I never tire of the Corner Salad either… they have amazing ranch dressing. And you can get it with grilled chicken for a square meal!
The lemon arugula chicken salad at U Joint is my fave.
Decatur BOOK Festival? Dang. I thought it said Decatur BOCK Festival.
Is the burger at the Marlay House a great burger or should I steer toward something else?
They call it the D14 burger. I have it all the time and think it is perfect … like something I would grill myself.
The D14 is the only burger I will eat in Decatur. It is perfect.
Steer toward something else. LOL. I see what you did there…
based on a “Best Sandwich” post on DM a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by Lee’s Bakery on Buford Highway and tried their pork banh mi and a bowl of udon soup.
i now hold whomever recommended Lee’s personally responsibility for any relaxed fit jeans i may purchase in the future as well as any elevators stalling between floors due to exceeded weight capacity.
caveat emptor
ONE OF US. ONE OF US.
waiter walks up to the table and asks for my order. i tell him it’s my first visit and would like to hear his recommendations. a woman in the table next to mine turns around and gives me five minutes on her favorite orders, permutations, and combinations.
about two minutes into her rhapsody, waiter gives me a “i’ll just leave you two alone” look, and walks away.
I also blame posters on DM for my new addiction to the banh mi at Lee’s Bakery. And I never seem to have cash when I go, so I end up with at least three sandwiches to meet the ten dollar card minimum.
Not sure which of us it was, but glad you enjoyed it.
I recommend Combo #1 with the special sandwich and beef pho. Don’t ask what is in the sandwich, just eat it. So good.
Thanks, now I have to go to Lee’s for lunch.
By the way, the Decatur Farmer’s Market now has a Korean booth on Wednesday. It serves BBQ beef and spicey pork buns–meat, cilantro, and other stuff (kim chee?) in white sticky, fluffy buns (name?). I think they’re delicious. There’s also spicey and not-so-spicey kim chee; I’ve tried the latter and liked it.
Join CrossFit, and then you can do both, though not at the same time.
Farewell, Seamus Heaney. Easily my favorite contemporary poet and someone whose work I would refer to time and again and associate with key moments in my adult life. Rest in peace, sir.
“The Otter”
When you plunged
The light of Tuscany wavered
And swung through the pool
From top to bottom.
I loved your wet head and smashing crawl,
Your fine swimmer’s back and shoulders
Surfacing and surfacing again
This year and every year since.
I sat dry-throated on the warm stones.
You were beyond me.
The mellowed clarities, the grape-deep air
Thinned and disappointed.
Thank God for the slow loadening,
When I hold you now
We are close and deep
As the atmosphere on water.
My two hands are plumbed water.
You are my palpable, lithe
Otter of memory
In the pool of the moment,
Turning to swim on your back,
Each silent, thigh-shaking kick
Re-tilting the light,
Heaving the cool at your neck.
And suddenly you’re out,
Back again, intent as ever,
Heavy and frisky in your freshened pelt,
Printing the stones.
A huge loss. Thanks for posting.
. . . and while I’m dragging the rest of you down with me, the next stop on our tour of gustatory debauchery is The Breakfast Club on Tybee Island, where, for the next four days, i’ll be setting a very bad example for my impressionable spawn.
yes, I’ll take, “Things That Are Criminally Good” for $1000, Alex.
good to know, i’ll be down in savannah this weekend and was planning a day on tybee.
If you will be on Tybee, you need to try the Crab Shack.
i have before. still have the coozy at home. we stopped there on our way out. perfect finish to a ridiculously fun weekend on little tybee.
Try Sundae Cafe for dinner. It’s fantastic.
Grab some coffee at Tybean – they serve Batdorf & Bronson – same as Dancing Goats.
After Breakfast Club, you may not need to eat for the rest of the day but other Tybee food highlights are pizza at Huckapoos and lunch on the deck at AJs.
For the past few months, if you go in person to pay your DeKalb water bill by check, they’ve changed the procedure:
Before, they just took your check, asked for a phone number and processed the transaction and printed a recipient..
Now, you first show ID, then they scan the check, then print a voucher for you to sign, then print the recipient, and staple your original check to it and hand it back.
That makes more steps for the clerk and you, but the first time it happened, I’m like, well, maybe they get the money faster. But, the transaction hits my bank account at the same time as it used to take a check, so there’s no advantage to the County.
And, I guess if you pay by mail with a check, their process is still the same as before.
Maybe our former County CEO made a deal with a transaction processing company.
I went to the court complex over at Memorial and 285 yesterday to pay a ticket. Felt like the third world in terms of buildings, upkeep, landscaping, productivity and service. What a hell hole. But it was a terrific incentive to never get a ticket again or, at the very least, to always pay online. Which I suppose is what they want so… I take it back. Genius!
What is the “pay online” thing of which you speak?
Scott, don’t answer!
And if he does, nobody listen! Never pay online to DeKalb County for any kind of traffic ticket. They WILL screw it up. I’ve dealt with 3 in the past two months. Pay IN PERSON or go to your court date. Do anything else and you risk having your license suspended through absolutely no fault of your own.
Ignore this warning at your own peril…
Ha! Apparently my experience confirms this.
In the event this is a serious question: Assuming you don’t have to make an appearance in court, almost all fines are payable through the DeKalb website.
In the event this is a sarcastic question: My online payment got clusterf*gged and I had to go down there in person because no human there is reachable via phone.
I drop off water bill paymenst after hours because I fear what’s behind the doors. I tried to pay water online and it was an extra +/-$4 fee to use the online service. They really don’t want to make that process easy for anyone.
For the past few years, I have made DeKalb property tax payments online, which, if they are debited from your checking account, have no surcharge, and the process worked fine.
I’ve been paying the water bill through my regular online bill pay and, so far, it’s worked great. Just entered my account number and their address. I do keep an eye on it though because they’re QUICK to turn off the water if they think you’re not paying.
Don’t fear what’s behind the doors! As you enter, on the counter straight ahead is ye old wooden payment box. Stuff it in and done! (Put mine in on Mon and it cleared the bank on Tues.)
More examples of how DeKalb County is a third world county. I swear if it wasn’t for Decatur & its geographical location (very desired) this county would be completely bankrupt. Don’t get me started again about getting the water (the freaking water) turned back on after I bought this house. What a bunch of morons.
Not sure if you know that the county complex at 285 is the site of the very first Home Depot in the world. I guess the neighborhood turned for the worse and they sold it to the county.
thank god for our first world heaven-hole. should we build a wall?
A final reminder that this Sunday, 1 September, is the deadline for signing up for the brand new Oakhurst Community Choir, a non-audition choir open to all adults and teens, which will rehearse on Wednesdays 7pm-8.30pm at the Solarium, 321 West Hill St, beginning 11 September. There’s no membership fee – the only cost is $6.49 for your sheet music. This semester, we’ll be learning a series of carols to perform at the Christmas tree lighting in Oakhurst Village in December.
To sign up and order your music, or receive more information, email [email protected]
Thanks!
Does anyone know what the drilling rig at Arcadia across from Winn Way is doing? I assume gas line replacement.
Maybe they’ve started hydro- fracking here in GA?
There’s a sign up that the center lane of Arcadia is going to be closed Sept 3 – 6. Think it’s the gas line again. They still have to extend it across Sam’s crossing.
It is the AGL pipeline project. They have to drill down, then go under MARTA’s tracks to connect to the other side.
anyone know the deal with using the agnes scott track? i thought it was open to the public after 5pm. a few weeks ago there was a sign up saying you had to purchase memberships due to rising cost of maintenance but then last week the gate was open and the sign was down. last night it was locked again.
Too bad for the kids in the community who use it for practice. But I’ll bet that there’s a good reason that Agnes Scott has to limit access. Maybe even crime. It’s always in nice shape and that has to cost a fair amount to keep up.
I know that if you are a member of Snap Fitness in the Agnes parking garage on McDonough then you get access to the Agnes track (and I think the pool, too, but I don’t know anything about a campus pool).
Maybe they need to charge membership to fund a repave of the track… As much as I like going there, track has deteriorated the last couple years.
I got on yesterday by luck, happened to arrive at the same time someone else who had key-card access arrived…
Details of how the track and pool use at Agnes Scott will work now.
http://athletics.agnesscott.edu/athletics/facilities/index
Watch your small pets! My cat was attacked and killed Tuesday night (Derrydown by Craigie) by what we believe was an owl – or some other bid of prey. It happened in the backyard – fully fenced so highly unlikely it was a dog or coyote. She usually comes in at night but it was pleasant and she wanted to stay out. I bring my other cat in at night now whether he likes it or not. Has anyone else had problems recently?
Awww! Sorry about your cat.
There are also numerous hawks in the area.
Wow – sorry to hear about that. We do have lots of red tail hawks in town, who could theoretically handle a small cat. But I’m still surprised.
Very sorry to hear that. Don’t rule out coyotes, though, unless the fence is extremely tall. Raccoons and possums can also be extremely ferocious, especially when cornered.
Kathy, my heart goes out to you. RIP, dear cat.
I know that I’m late to this conversation about the intimidation of the middle schooler as well the phone theft, but I feel compelled to mention this. It’s all too easy to chalk this up to “kids being kids”. It is definitely not. Years ago my high school aged son was attacked on the square after school in front of numerous witnesses, by what the COD police officer called – a non City of Decatur teenager who took MARTA to the square. As my son walked down the sidewalk he had a drink thrown on his face and he was then punched roundly by several assailants. When we met with the police officer later we were told that the best thing to do was to forget about it, because he said if we pressed charges, it would cause more ongoing problems for my son. This was a real wake up call for me about the lack of safety in the city for us all.
“This was a real wake up call for me about the lack of safety in the city for us all.”
Marval, I feel for you on how unsettling that had to have been for you and your family. It’s not clear to me from what you’ve written if you thought the officer was wrong with what he said and you felt unprotected by our police or if it was being faced with the risk of retaliation that was the alarming part (and understandably so). Would you mind sharing a bit more about it?
Thanks for the comment Deanne.
We were saddened by the harsh reality of the situation. We completely believed the police about the problem with retaliation; we had really hoped that our little corner of the world didn’t have those kinds of problems – but as we all know, it does. When your children are small, that’s not even on the radar screen, thank goodness.
Don’t get the salad with skirt steak at Cafe Alsace. Salad greens were good but not a bite of the steak was chewable at all. Tough and filled with gristly connective tissue. Very bad first impression of that restaurant.
Stick with the French classics like quiche, crêpes, there. Cafe Alsace has a narrow niche, but one that I crave sometimes.
We were just surprised to hear the prodigious volley of fireworks concluding the Book Festival and now we’re concerned the city decided to launch off the postponed July 4th fireworks here instead of later this month as originally scheduled. Anybody know what’s up?
I need to know too! I have an upset child saying that I misinformed the family and now we missed the fireworks and IT’S ALL MY FAULT!!!
The Avondale fireworks are suppose to happen tonight (Monday).
I can assure you they’re not Decatur’s fireworks. Maybe Turner Field?
Thank you! You’ve deflated a World War Sulk going on over here.
I believe they were Druid Hills Golf Club.
AHID, you should now demand praise and glory, perhaps a little breakfast in bed or whatnot, commensurate with the prior level of blame and whining, as your informed position and attention to detail essentially saved the day.
Dare to dream!
Lazy Monday, post-book fest stories, sightings and anecdotes thread? C’mon DM!