My son was tried and sentenced

to six months to two years of probation, 60 hours of community service,

a remedial program at cost of $240 plus court fines of $214.

The primary perpetrator was

given a lesser sentence and six of the eight were not even charged though

they were equally guilty and the police have all of their names. My son

will serve his sentence but what has been accomplished in this county?

Some of you may remember when

I ran a teen center as an entertainment alternative for 13- to 20-year-olds

but a hostile city government, an arrogant police department that circled

like buzzards around to try to roust the youth who attended and a biased

owner who felt the youth center was a deterrent to the community all forced

me to close Jitterbuggers in November 2000.

What has the city done since

then? A call to City Councilman Dan Tennant in fall 2002 said they were

seeing about getting a consultant hired to study the matter. When I wrote

to Mayor Steve Brown I got back a curt reply the city was doing a teens'

needs assessment. This has been done numerous times in the last 10 years

with no positive action ever done by the city.

Our kids are forced to leave

the county, to ride around aimlessly and, yes, to fall to temptation of

creating their own amusement sometimes against the law. I still own homes

in Fayette and my kids reside there with their mom and I am there every

weekend so I still have a major vested interest in what happens to our

kids and property.

Contrast this occurrence to

what is not happening in Newton County, the 11th fastest growing county

in America. On Thanksgiving Day 2002 at 11:15 a.m. a group of four 12-to-13-year-old

males attacked our home in Covington with attempts to look in the window

and then threw rocks with enough force to knock stucco off the exterior

wall just missing a large picture window where my fiance was standing.

If it had been a few inches further it would have shattered the window

and could have proven potentially lethal to her.

A neighbor across the street

who witnessed and heard my fiance's screams reacted. As the boys ran down

the street laughing at what they had done, he took a digital picture of

the youth who threw the rock. The information was conveyed to the Newton

County Sheriff Department, the investigator, and now to the police captain.

To date no calls have ever

been made to us without me initiating an inquiry, no follow-up, no increased

police visibility, no apparent concern other that to say that part of

the county never has any problems, no arrests despite a witness and documentation

of the crime! Is vigilantism the next step?

Please let all know I am all

for our law enforcement but punishment should fit the crime and in turn

all criminals should be caught and punished whether in Peachtree City

in Fayette County or in Covington in Newton County.

Richard Thompson

Covington