This popped up last night on Twix. I have to say, as a former student and a person who’s maintained a relatively clean nose, the number of times I experienced being pulled over from police in Athens in a five-year span of time eclipses the number of times I’ve been pulled over anywhere else (once outside of Gainesville/Rabbit Town where the I-75 speed rapidly declined to the I-575 speed, and once in Panama City where you hit the bridge and the speed drops to, say, 18 miles per hour).
You have to click through the replies to see his whole thread, but the other replies that follows is worth a read.
Do we have a speeding problem in Athens, or an Athens problem in speeding? I think I already know EE’s response, but the word is starting to spread.
The Athens-Clarke County police are a joke. Barney Fife approves of their tactics around the Classic City.
On the excessive speeding, I have zero problem with enforcement of speed limits and the laws for reckless driving. I would like to hear a Georgia State Patrol officer weigh in on what they call excessive and reckless.
“Reckless” is vague on purpose. I got the “I smell alcohol “ multiple times only to register triple zeros every time thanks to Gene the cab driver being our go to on drinking nights.
Friend of ours came in town one night. He walked out of the bar with vodka tonic. Cops saw him from 100 ft away. He dumped the cup and dropped the cup on the ground. They gave him an open container and a LITTERING. Littering fine was higher than the open container.
F ACCPD. They walked around downtown like an occupying military force. Got a judge to throw out one of their charges once. Felt like a god walking out of court past the police partners who didn’t have their stories straight on the stand.
When I visited last Fall nothing had changed from my college years but still remarkable how many state and local police I saw camped out running radar around town. Now on the one hand you have 50,000+ temporary residents plus visitors who are young & dumb so you can’t ignore the problem but I’ve never seen that much active enforcement anywhere else so it smells of pure revenue generation. Simple solution kids…don’t speed, drink and drive.
My wife moved to Athens a few weeks before I arrived. She warned me to watch out for ACCPD and freshmen. I was stopped once but no ticket.