Emerge from an alley the wrong way, keep quiet about your middle name, commit a traffic violation on a scooter – do any of that stuff in the Classic City and you’re likely to become Public Enemy No. 1. The Red and Black will call for your hide (and your head coach’s).
Do that kind of stuff elsewhere, though? No big deal. In some places, they even make you a public spokesperson for a traffic safety campaign.
Get The Picture 
“ACC Police: Committed to stopping traffic violations. Real crimes….eh…. not so much.”
LikeLike
+1. I would make a comment about an unsolved murder/arson, but I’m pretty sure the ACC is making sure to forget that one.
LikeLike
Not just one, but murder doesn’t pay the city’s bills, man. Revenue. It’s all about the Benjy’s.
You can get away with murder in this town… just don’t be drinking underage while you’re doing it or you’ll have some serious fines to pay.
LikeLike
AMEN – KEEP PREACHING BROTHER! http://www.wedgeorgia.com
LikeLike
I swear, if I was Florida or Alabama and I was in a recruiting battle with UGA for the services of a player, I’d just hand them a brochure for the Gainesville or Tuscaloosa Police Department. I’m not necessarily a believer that the ACCPD goes out and actively targets football players. I think that they just go out and actively target UGA students. The fact that they’re unwilling to use their discretion to let someone walk on minor issues like the ones mentioned above just speaks to how small they are. Short of domestic battery, sexual assualt or murder, there aren’t many things that officers HAVE to arrest you for. Likewise, from the most minor traffic offenses, officers CAN arrest you. It’s all about discretion. ACCPD cops don’t seem to have much of it.
LikeLike
Growing up in Athens and now returning from time to time, I always marvel at the amount of police you see in a town that size. When I departed Athens in the late 1970’s, it was the UGA Police and the Athens Police with the Clarke County Sheriff just starting their build up. The UGA cops for the most part were pretty cool if you were pulled over by them. I remember once going down Gaines School Road at 75 or maybe 80 (I was still in high school and stupid, what can I say). I was pulled over by a UGA cop who checked to see if I had any tickets. I hadn’t. He let me off with a warning. In another stupid move, a friend of mine accidentally gave an Athens cop the finger at Five Points one night. That cost us a good twenty minutes in the parking lot of Sons of Italy, entertaining for those on the terrace. The cop was mad. My friend explained it was not him he was sending the finger to, he just got in the way; it was a former girlfriend who had done him wrong, which was the truth. The fact the man actually listened to him, took some pity on him, reminded me that I’m responsible for anything that happens in my vehicle and then let us goes on our merry way has always stuck with me. I don’t see that happening in Athens now or just about any other place.
LikeLike