An alert reader passed along this story about a former Georgia baseball player. Basically, it’s Jimmy Williamson, for the win.
As a well-known athlete at UGA, Carter said it was almost too easy to make bad decisions.
“Everybody is going out, everybody is having a good time. It’s just that Athens, the Clarke-County, and especially the University Police, they knew who the athletes were,” said Carter.
Carter wasn’t the only Columbus High School alum who ran into trouble this year. Former CHS teammate JT Phillips was also arrested and dismissed from the UGA baseball team.
“That’s what I told JT,” said Carter. “I was like, look buddy, you’re not doing anything that no one else did up there. But you know, just look at it in a positive way. It can be a blessing in disguise. I know where I’m at right now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
I wouldn’t doubt that kids are getting a warning from their coaches about this once they step on campus. It’s too obvious to ignore. (The situation, not the advice, sadly.) But I also suspect that Rodney Garner, among others, will make plenty of hay with it on the recruiting trail. Mamas don’t want their babies to grow up to be jailbirds and Rodney’s got some special perspective on keeping kids out of trouble. First step is to stay as far away from Williamson’s crew as possible.
Get The Picture 
Mama’s don’t want their babies to grow up to be criminals….They want them to be Doctors and Lawyers and such. If they must be criminals, they have to be the kind that don’t go to jail. What is a “jail bird”?
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When their babies go out, get drunk, get laid, get into a fight, and get arrested, they get the first hand opportunity to see a lot of doctors, lawyers, and such performing their craft.
Just saying it’s an education either way.
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Why does this Williamson character have such a hard on for the athletes? Can’t he learn how they do it in Tuscaloosa?
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Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa. I think Williamson et al are targeting students and maybe even athletes specifically, but what I’d like to know is how they got that kid into a room for the interview with a head that big. All the cops know who and are targeting FRESHMAN baseball players? Puh-lease. You could argue getting an underage possession walking down Broad St. is targeting. The Phillips kid got behind the wheel of a car, under the influence, and drove. Indefensible. If he’s “just doing what everybody does” then we’ve got a serious problem. And anybody who refers to themself in third person, especially given the context of this article, is freaking pathetically sad. I hope this kid’s parents bust his ass. More like complete and total lack of accountability, for the win. Good grief way to ruin my morning.
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Agree completely. The vast majority of police don’t have a damn clue who the freshman baseball players at UGA are. Hell, I go to about a dozen Diamond Dawg games a year now that I’m back in Athens and I don’t know who the freshman baseball players are.
The reason there are more arrests in Athens (and trust me, this is reflected among the non-athlete student body as well) is because Athens is a bar town over a house party town. The drinking and rowdyness is in public, thus it is a lot easier to get nailed for stuff like minor in possession, drunk in public, etc.
Not excusing bad police behavior, I think there is some evidence that they are more…ahem…enthusiastic in their enforcement than some places, but the main reason is that we are a bar town where the drinking is in a well trafficked but fairly small area.
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Ed Zachary – I have no love for the UGA police but they were always out to get anybody they could. They do not target athletes. They target idiots who are not smart enough to party in a responsible manner (and anyone on a scooter). This kid needs to get a clue.
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Don’t believe Kyle Carter. Knowing some of the scuttlebutt on him from Columbus, it’s easy to get the impression that he was raised to think he was better than everyone else and that he should be able to get away with anything so long as he plays well. I’m not surprised to hear he thinks the mean ol’ UGA cops were targeting him. It probably does feel that way when you step out of Columbus into a world where people realize that your poo stinks just like everyone else’s. What a sham of a report that was, too, by WLTZ. You’ve got an athlete who claims that a university whice derives a ton of money and publicity from its athletic programs is actually targeting its athletes and you don’t even challenge him on the bullshit claim or follow up on it or place a phone call to the UGA police about it? No, his buddy JT wasn’t doing “what everyone else was doing.” He was DUI the night before one of his team’s biggest series of the year. The vast majority of students in Athens party. They don’t go out and drink and drive. When they do, they are arrested. Students who are reported for assault as Carter was get arrested. Is it any wonder that a kid can get a sense of entitlement when the media from his hometown help them turn their garbage into supposed facts?
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I live in Columbus. I am familiar with Kyle and JT. Their parents are to blame really….they have covered for them for years. They needed to go. I wish them best of luck in the future.
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The kids a grown man now. Any ass busting needed to happen long time ago.
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What’s this new rule NCAA Refs are talking about? Elbow to the head. Seems to me a helmet would do more damage to the elbow.
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“The reason there are more arrests in Athens (and trust me, this is reflected among the non-athlete student body as well) is because Athens is a bar town over a house party town.”
This is absolutely true. Also true is that the campus and ACC cops are douchebags.
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There is some truth to that. Law enforcement now in downtown Athens is like hunting in a baited field.
However, back when Athens had more of a mix of house parties, open outdoor parties, and bars spread out across town, it was common to see the local BATmobiles reeling in students next to the exit for key events.
Athens has always been that way.
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I have heard they charge people with DUI’s and keep the weed they find in the car.
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Find that hard to believe (as to pot) though I know it to be true with alcohol as my friends once got about $200 worth of beer for golf tourney when cops pull up, check the (fake) ID, confiscate the beer and say “don’t do this again”.
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Nobody, including the police in Athens, knew who this kid was when he was out of uniform. He’s just a dumbass who made bad decisions, got kicked out of school, and refuses to accept responsibility for his actions.
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You guys are all kidding yourselves if you think that ACC and University cops dont spend time and effort specifically targeting athletes and Greeks as a deterrent to regular student. Those students are used as examples in athens all day, everyday.
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“dont spend time and effort specifically targeting athletes and Greeks”
Patently absurd. Most students (and nearly all parents) are unaware of how seedy and violent the underbelly of Athens is. ACC are frequently dealing with: turf wars between the thugs in Nellie B. vs thugs in Pauldoe, hobo’s knifing and raping one another (there are numerous hobo encampments throughout Athens) and a thriving drug trade.
The reason they make so many arrests of young people is that young people are so brazen in their law breaking and general stupidity.
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So basically they’re picking the low hanging fruit.
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I don’t think UGA cops target athletes, they target everyone. The only way they are going to get out of such a sh*t job is to make arrests. That is why you have UGA cops hauling some kid to jail for stealing a $1 pastry. As an ACC resident, I am more disturbed that they now allow these kiddie cops to enforce traffic codes when they are decidedly NOT on campus. Every time i see one rolling up Prince Avenue, it makes me want to puke.
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I see them on Prince too, but they are driving through the parking lot at the President’s Mansion. Not exactly the Stasi.
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Now they get to “patrol” up and down Prince Avenue (and Oglethorpe Avenue) because of the new Health Sciences Campus.
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Which arrests over the past few years are we really chalking up to “targeting”? (outside of emerging from any alley, of course). Also, I think including DUIs as targeting is a complete scretch.
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OK I’m not gonna disagree with anyone here, butwhy can’t we get the friggin cops to play ball like other big college football towns?
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Because the President/Board of Regents doesn’t want them to play ball. He/they want us to be an Ivy League school/town.
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Senator, Joan Jett reference? Girl kicked-ass in small venue live performances.
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I went to UGA law school and lived off campus. One year, I took a job as a dorm attendant at one of the undergraduate dorms working the graveyard shift. Basically got paid to sit there all night and study. When my shift ended at 3 am. and I had to drive to my apartment off Gaines School road. I am not joking when I say I got pulled over by UGA police twice a week the entire time I had the job. Just got pulled over for no reason because it was 3 am and I was out late so the cops figured I must be up to no good. Finally, I just gave up and quit the job because my nerves were shot. My experience was that the most of the UGA cops were barely older than the students and had a chip on their shoulder.
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For sure picking the low hanging fruit. Why would they go after real criminals and thugs when they can go after a kid whose parents will do “pay” whatever it takes to get them out of trouble? Less risk more reward. ACC whas always done what is easier not necessarily what is right. In tuscaloser the police call Nick Saban when a player gets in trouble. That luxury is not found in Athens.
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