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4 MAR 04: THE FLIP-FLOP SHOP

Columbus city officials confirmed Wednesday an "amnesty" for parking ticket violators quietly was changed. People who pay off old fines during March will have to pay interest after all. Which OPEC country consulted the city on a deal like this?

You may recall METRA announced last month March would be "amnesty month," with scofflaws being allowed to pay old tickets at face value [11 Feb]. But it turns out Columbus Council changed its mind about that, apparently during a retreat at Callaway Gardens -- which is strange, because Callaway has been lowering prices to win visitors back.

Someone apparently convinced Columbus Council the city budget couldn't make it without the interest from traffic fines. If money is THAT tight, maybe the city's next retreat should be under a picnic shelter at Flat Rock Park.

(You don't think that persuasion came from the Assistant City Managers, do you? You know, the ones who now have the $90,000 salaries....)

METRA warns if you owe parking fines and don't take advantage of the March "amnesty" period, your car could be booted by the city come April. Then you might have to do something unthinkable - and actually ride a METRA bus.

It doesn't look good for METRA's Lisa Goodwin to publicly announce a "face-value" amnesty, then have Columbus Council quietly change it behind her. It's almost like John Edwards saying for weeks he didn't want to be John Kerry's running mate....

As that flip-flop became public knowledge Wednesday, the Columbus Council's Public Safety Committee met for four hours in private with police and fire organizations. Nothing was settled on important benefit issues - such as the cost of tickets to the firefighters' ball.

Randy Robertson of the Fraternal Order of Police says the main topic at the meeting was pay. It's curious to see Columbus officers complain about low salaries hurting the quality of personnel and forcing them to leave town - then turn on Atlanta radio stations and hear police organizations there make the very same complaints.

Randy Robertson claims all of a sudden, some Columbus city leaders are trying to put "political spin" on the issue of police pay and benefits. Huh?!?! Don't tell me Robertson is going to pull a Nathan Suber, and oppose a sales tax increase....

E-MAIL UPDATE: The David Glisson - Kenneth Walker debate goes on. Here's a unique (and lengthy) perspective from "Mel Del":

I am a proud, African America, middle aged, educated, woman. I am not an Uncle Tom either. I live here in Columbus Ga. and I realize that most people that read this will be upset; however, I do not believe that Martian Luther King died for us to have equal rights for us to abuse that right as the white man did before. We are the only race that kills each other but when a white man does it that is an injustice. What is the difference? A death is a death no matter who does the killing. This email is asking for support for David Glisson. He is honest man with twenty years of irreproachable service at the Sheriff Department. The city of Columbus cannot believe that a man of his avail would shoot a person without feeling that his life was in danger. I would have done the same thing in his position. In hindsight, David was wrong, but if he had been right then he would be dead. The attorney for the Walker family wants Columbus to believe that Kenneth Walker did not do drugs. Then why was he at an apartment that was under surveillance, expecting a shipment of cocaine? The shipment was to arrive in a vehicle that was identical to the one that he was riding in. Now, at an even further stretch of the imagination, we are to believe that cocaine was ""Planted"" in his body. The precise drug found in the apartment that very night!

David Glisson is a veteran deputy and there are too many coincidences leading up to the shooting. I will have to go with what I feel is right!

Columbus needs to support the honest, hard working law enforcement officers of this town while we still have then to support!

It is not "Open season"" in America. Yes, there are injustices happening all over America to the "Black Man" but this is not one of them. The NAACP is right to investigate and be sure that it was not a racial killing; but they need to be sure that they are doing it for the right reason. Political predators need to stay out of the way and let justice be handled.

African Americans really, do you believe that Kenneth Walker was there delivering a VCR? Who uses a VCR anymore? If drugs were found before and after the shooting at the scene, is it at least conceivable that maybe they were ""trading"" for drugs.

As far as the sheriff department being compared to the Taliban of Afghanistan, (people here is your ignorance again) if you think that the sheriff department of Muscogee County is anything to compare to the taliban then perhaps you should go visit Afghanistan before you make such remarks! Oh yea, I hear about the deputies doing forced genital mutilations all the time; I am so sick of hearing about it. Really people, can you imagine"" Come on Martha, get the kids, there''s gonna be a lynching in the ole town to night! Yes, I know exactly what you mean. Why, just last week I went to a see a woman hanged at the soccer complex. The Muscogee County Sheriff Department is just like those terrorist. How dare they try to keep the streets clean safe and drug free! Oh, the terrorism of it all, I am surprised that we are allowed to speak our mind without being stoned to death!

The shooting of Kenneth Walker is indeed a horrendous tragedy. I cannot imagine how Mrs. Walker must feel knowing that she will never see her husband and father to her daughter again; however, I do not understand screaming discrimination because Kenneth Walker refused to comply with the law. That was a bad choice and it cost him his life. Deputy Glisson was doing his job to keep our streets safe for our children. Deputy Glisson thought the suspect had a gun. ""What, you actually mean to tell me that a sheriff thought that an African American had a gun""? What a ridiculous notion! We all know that an African American would not have a gun! For that matter that was not a drug house; AfricanAmerican''s would never be around drugs. Some non-AA must have told them that was a baptismal are something. They were set up, framed! Now that we have established the fact that, yes, AA (the same as any other race) could have been there to buy or sell drugs, it is plausible that the informant could have been correct about them having a gun. There was a gun and drugs found inside the apartment. Kenneth Walker could have been carrying it.

Show your hands means what? ""Do nothing that I tell you to do""? No, let us try this again. When a police officer tells you to show your hands and get on the ground, what do you do? Some ""People"" seem to be under the impression that if they are an African American that disqualifies them from having to be a law-abiding citizen and doing what a law enforcement officer instructs them to do. ""I do not have to do what a white sheriff tells me to do, that is discrimination! Wrong move! Although it has never happened to me personally, I have seen enough television to know that when a lot of sheriffs s start screaming at me to get on the ground and show my hands that is exactly what I am going to do! How is it that three of the four men knew what to do? This man must have been intelligent. He was a member of the Omega Psi Phi.

Being black does not give a person the right to do what ever they want. The laws are set up to protect people, not abuse them. I do not feel that Glisson did anything but his job!

Mel Del, you offer a lot of things to consider here. For starters, can a woman be an "Uncle Tom?" Are they called "Aunt Tommie," or something else?

I have a new theory about the traces of cocaine found by the coroner in Kenneth Walker's body. Was Walker drinking Coca-Cola on that night in December? If so, we might end the rumors and confirm that "secret formula" after all.

It appears to this point, many "political predators" indeed HAVE stayed out of the way of the Kenneth Walker case. For instance, did you notice Jesse Jackson in Atlanta the other day? He never came to Columbus - and was more concerned about how Haiti's former leader was doing.

"Who uses a VCR anymore?" Now hold on a minute here! As soon as I can figure out how to get that blinking clock off 12:00, I'll be getting to it....

(I'm not sure a VCR really is a good "trade" for illegal drugs. But I certainly wouldn't expect drug-runners to swap digital cameras.)

The comparison of Sheriff's officers to the Taliban came from a pamphlet printed by the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance [2 Jan]. I agree with Mel Del, that the comparison seems a bit exaggerated. For one thing, the Nation of Islam held a "Savior's Day" service last Sunday at the Bradley Theatre - and no one's complained yet about officers shutting it down.

Truly skin color should NOT disqualify people from "having to be a law-abiding citizen." The standard should be other things - like the ability to afford a top-dollar lawyer.

Now a quick check of other Wednesday notes:

+ The Muscogee County School District reported it's lowered the number of teen depression and suicide cases by 40 percent. On the one hand, that's very good news. But on the other hand, these teens risk having relapses -- say, if they fail
achievement tests.

+ People camped out all night outside a new Chick-fil-A store on Wynnton Road. The first 100 people in line at 6:00 a.m. Thursday get free food for a year. Everyone else will have to go back to nibbling on tiny samples at Publix stores.

(How interesting to see Reggie Foster from Sunny 100-FM in the line outside Chick-fil-A Wednesday. If she needs free food that badly, it may be time to rework her deal to do Georgia Freight commercials.)

+ Downtown Albany lost power for more than 40 minutes, after birds flew into a substation and caused a short circuit. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals now is urging everyone in the city to buy "bird-safe candles."

+ One night after upsetting the Los Angeles Lakers, basketball's Atlanta Hawks lost to lowly Cleveland by 32 points. That must have been a stunt double playing in Shaquille O'Neal's uniform Tuesday night....

+ Instant Message to Victoryland in Shorter, Alabama: The addition of bingo games to a dog-racing track was one thing. But adding a "Bingo Theater" with a guest Elvis impersonator?! May I assume you and Callaway Gardens are going after different sets of customers?

COMING FRIDAY: Good and bad sets of cards.... and e-mail about something other than the Kenneth Walker case....

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