posted July 3, 2008
"The police department can no longer protect the citizens of our community." That was a profound and very troubling conclusion of Judge Bob Moon in a case he had this week.
Apparently a young woman was severely beaten with a gun and her car stolen. The judge told her and her mother to take a gun course, get her permit and learn to defend herself. He also urged elected officials to beef up police presence in Coolidge Park and other hotbeds of crime in our community.
I could not agree with him more. This was the same judge who predicted five years ago that there would be significant blood in the streets of Chattanooga if African American preachers and leaders did not act to take charge and influence young black males.
I remember on the evening news that he urged a large summit of both black and white leaders to address the problems of violence in the inner city. Their response? They were critical and killed the messenger. It is always much more convenient to kill the messenger than take the message and make the difficult choices and change.
I love Chattanooga and most of the people in our community are good law abiding people. However, like most Chattanoogans, I just don’t believe that our elected officials are doing nearly enough to protect the good people of this community. God knows we pay more than enough taxes.
Gary Bartley
Chattanooga
gary1@vol.com
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |