When I spoke to UGA police chief Jimmy Williamson after the arrest, he wanted this out there: “If you think about the last decade of athletes and particularly the football team, they are not malicious troublemaker kids, they’re not. I don’t think they pay attention to some of the details of requirements that they have to meet. They just don’t rise to their level sometimes. The accountability for that in our state now is much higher. It’s not like 12 or 14 years ago when we had some (players) that could be considered troublemakers. These guys are just young and not thinking about some of the decisions they make. They’re good guys. They’re friendly, they’re respectful, they just don’t always think about their decisions.”
In other words, don’t blame poor ol’ Jimmy. He’s just a guy caught in the middle between dumb lawmakers and dumb kids.
Seriously, I do find it interesting that, in Weiszer’s words, “he wanted this out there”. Is he feeling some heat from the attention?
Get The Picture 
Screw him! Get a haircut and get a real job.
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It is odd that he felt the need to “get it out there” because we already know. The level of misbehavior at UGA pails when compared to other schools in the Top 25, but there is now way to compare because no one else trivializes law enforcement like Jimmy’s group as they fret over middle names, not having proof of insurance, license violations, walking with a beer, non-use of a seat belt emerging from an alley improperly, etc. Write ’em up for the violent and dangerous stuff but how about using some judgment. I guess athletes are the only people on campus who violate these scary things….and naturally all that do are fingerprinted and held overnight. The new Prez should look at the way this group operates, there are much more pressing criminal activities going on that threaten the safety of students.
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I went to a small school in Virginia. We had a grand total of two campus policemen. They saw it as there duty to protect the students- and they did-primarily from themselves and the local PD. The local cops were bent on busting students for drunk in public, noise violations,etc, and these two would run active interference- tell you were to watch out, tell you to turn it down if the cops were coming, walk you back to your dorm or house if visibly drunk, etc.- precisely what they saw there job to do. I understand the size and scale of the schools are different, but the goal of campus PD should not be
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God bless them. I visited a small school when I was a HS senior. There was a big party and the campus policeman spent the entire night ferrying drunk kids back to their dorm rooms.
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Didn’t the Georgia Legislature carve out an exemption for wearing seat belts in trucks?
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They did for a short time but now I believe it is blanket.
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I should have said that while we can compare the bigger crimes/issues that have occurred, we cannot measure the silly charges that seem to require the attention of the criminal justice system because only the UGA police think they are important enough to place those players under arrest.
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The Campus cops at UGA have a long history of being over zealous in the enforcement of nit picky laws. I remember them trying to ticket and/or tow RV’s for arriving 30 minutes early on Friday to the parking lot. When it was pointed out that it was better for campus traffic flow that the RV’s be off the campus streets at 4:30 than to be screwing up traffic they finally called off the wreckers. These guys just have zero common sense.
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A friend and I used to entice them to chase us on foot through campus during daylight hours by making a big show of seeing them and running in opposite directions just to make them look stupid. Dumb kid stuff I know, but I think it illustrates the point that these guys have tiny raging pup tents to put people in the bracelets.
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word on the street is that there was another seat belt road block around ramsey yesterday.
So you know they are not targeting people, but since it worked so well last time we made sure to do it again.
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At some point an investigation needs to be launched on how much public money is being wasted on this nonsense. The UGA PD is out of control and has been for a long time.
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The State of Georgia: The model of seat belt and license carrying accountability. Rise to it or leave it!
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Yes. Go anywhere but south.
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I moved back to Athens last summer and it’s great. Except for the police state mentality. I live in Five Points. We don’t walk to a neighbors house with a drink for fear of getting arrested………….because it has happened. When I ask old time residents “why?” I get a one word answer…………..Adams.
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Was about to post a rebuttal and defense of Jimmy, but Mac’s memory jog of (our kicker?) walking along freedomly kinda blunted that.
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Wasn’t that the Athens PD?
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Maybe, whomever it was should have been fired fir poor judgment. You have to be ignoring a lot of serious crime to make a bust like that.
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Athens has really changed. The day’s of the llama rama, block keg parties, drinking from house to house on milledge, 18 and up night at armadillos’, nickel drink nights….long gone
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Pineview LIVES!!! Long live the llama RAMA!!!
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I took my Daughter to Athfest a few years ago, we had back stage passes for DBT. I found the police presence Downtown invasive and chilling. We ate dinner after the concert and decided to enjoy our drinks at the Holiday Inn bar. We didn’t want to run afoul of the ACCPD.
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When my eldest was a 7th grader he went to Tijuana with a volunteer group to help with a housing effort. On his return I picked him up at 2 in the morning and he wanted to eat breakfast at the Grill. We found a spot at the window and ordered and while he was eating I went to the john. Long line—- all ladies. Got back and there was the ACCPD trying to question him about why he was out so late. And then they really wanted to make sure I was his dad. I wasn’t put out about it. They were curious as why he wouldn’t talk to them. I told them he was probably waiting on me to return and handle it.
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I was at Middle Georgia College in the 1990s when Jimmy was there. They went out of there way to bust people for underage drinking. I guess he was trying to make a name for himself. Never any love lost for that guy.
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