This War Will Never End
Every now and then there will be a headline that seems to portend a serious assault on the clean living, innocent and well-meaning people of the CSRA.Then comes the rest of the story.
Last Thanksgiving in Augusta there came word that not one, but two teenaged girls had been struck down in the prime of their promise filled life by some horrible, nasty evil that no doubt was supernatural in its malevolence.
Was it Jack The Ripper, or perhaps The Boston Strangler reborn? A Son-of-Sam psychopath on rampage, or perhaps a cult of freaks reminiscent of Charles Manson and the orgy of death his followers staged on unsuspecting Los Angeles suburbanites?
Nope.
It was most likely a drug deal gone bad.
The two victims?
Suspected drug mules with criminal records driving a pimped-out Cadillac Escalade. While cruising at 2:30 in the morning near the corner of Laney Walker Boulevard and Twiggs Street, authorities believe they ran afoul of either their intended customers, own associates or their competitors.
I wonder if the film crew from “America’s Most Wanted” was able to get their airfare refunded when they canceled their plans to cover that one?
Fast forward to Tuesday morning, as I awoke to the sweet voice of Lynnsey Gardner breaking the news to all us sleepyheads (at 5-something a.m.) that an Augusta man’s life was hanging in the balance after a kidnapping attempt left his home in a shambles and a bullet hole in his face.
Holy crap! This is the big one!
Was it Billy Morris targeted for a ransom of millions? Was it some bank executive abducted by a disgruntled underling who knew he had the combination to the big vault?Was it another Jon-Benet Ramsay case that would go unsolved and bring Nancy Grace’s satellite trucks to the steps of the new courthouse for months on end?
Nope.
It was most likely a drug deal gone bad.
The victim?
A convicted drug dealer.
Theoretically, as cool as it would be for all of our local undocumented pharmaceutical distributors to methodically take each other out, it is far too impractical (see the victim above who survived, with a huge medical bill that I bet we will be paying) and too dangerous (too many innocent bystanders at risk) to seriously consider.
Besides, the day the last thug was left standing, we wouldn’t know whether to execute him or throw him a parade.
All this is important to keep in mind because we have a small but loud chorus of folks in the area who want to blame Augusta law enforcement officials and Augusta politicians for what they believe is some huge and Augusta-centric crime wave.
Those folks need to read a paper and get a clue. Yes, we do have drug and gang issues in the area, as well as more property crime than anyone finds acceptable. But that same “heavy air” is settling in on most metro areas of our size and socio-economic make up.
This ain’t an Augusta problem, it is an American problem.
For those who say Augusta proper is far worse than Aiken, North Augusta, Evans, Martinez, etc., when it comes to certain crimes, I say: “No shizzle, Sherlock.”
The City of Augusta is the urban center of the entire Central Savannah River Area. That means it is going to have its issues.
But for the rest of the area citizens to point fingers and cast aspersions, it reminds me of a mouth, a stomach and a liver complaining that the colon is stinking up the bathroom.
Our community is a body of the whole, and singling out the smelly parts is all fine and well until the body tries to get along without them.
Anyone can be a target of a property crime, any house can be burglarized, any downtown patron mugged, but when it comes to serious deadly crime in Augusta, there is a better than 90 percent chance that the victim is either related to or knows the attacker intimately, or is in the midst of illegal activity (drug or gang activity) when they are dispatched to their Eternal Reward.
You can put a cop on every street corner, and it won’t alter that reality one damn bit.You Might Also Like:
Posted in Austin