Kirkwood patrol in jeopardy

An ambitious plan to pay offduty Atlanta police officers to conduct freelance patrols for Kirkwood is close to going off the rails, at least for the time being, according to sources close to the project.

To fly, the Kirkwood Safety Patrol (KSP) needs 100 subscribers at $250 a year ($300 for businesses), but so far the campaign has only netted 40 subscribers. And there's not much time left. The KSP needs to have all 100 subscribers on board by Jan. 25 in order to be able to launch, as planned, on Feb. 1.

With the neighborhood seeing a 16 percent rise in home burglaries and a smaller increase in car break-ins, the time seems ripe for what is a growing trend in gentrifying urban neighborhoods. But the hesitation may have several sources: APD's Zone 6 HQ is already in the neighborhood, though regular police patrols seem infrequent. The cost, though certainly reasonable, may well be too high for a large percentage of our households.

The problem with this kind of simmering crime is that prosecution is tough. Visible patrols and faster response are probably more likely to drive criminals away, or at least make them think twice about trying something. It's crunch time for Kirkwood, and whether or not the KSP gets off the ground will reveal much about the mindset of our community.

If you are interested in more information or instructions on how to subscribe, click here and then click on "Kirkwood Security Patrol" under the Documents tag.

Judges ponder: Can you run 'em out on a rail?

In some countries, it's a fate worse than prison: banishment.

But in America's no longer so tightly knit communities, banishment is still sometimes used to get criminals out of more populous counties, often with the purpose of keeping them away from their victims.
Nut quote from an AP story:

It's a throwback to the dark ages," McNeill Stokes, the defense attorney who argued the case Monday, said in an interview. "The whole point behind this is zealous prosecutors wanting to get rid of problems in their counties."

Georgia judges have gotten around a Constitutional ban on banishment by allowing them to reside in one of the state's 159 counties. That's not so practical, however. Interestingly, DeKalb judges tend to banish criminals to Echols County, on the Florida border, ostensibly because it's such a Godforsaken place that they'll just leave the state instead. Reaction from Echols County is incredulous:

Q: When people think of a place that criminals might be banished to, the typical idea is a place like Siberia.

A: Well, I can tell you this much, there's not a better place to be banished to than Echols County. Some people think it's the jumping-off place; I think it's the jumping-on place. I wouldn't be anywhere else.

Prison is one consequence of breaking the law. The Georgia Supreme Court will now deliberate whether kicking somebody out of the state is an appropriate form of punishment -- or, in itself, illegal.