Warns drivers: Grovetown cops, courts 'corrupt'
Editor:
I am writing to warn anyone and everyone who drives through the city of Grovetown Georgia of the corruptness within its police department and the injustice that they can expect if given a traffic citation there.
On Dec. 30, 2002 I was stopped by a Grovetown cop (I refuse to dignify him by calling him a police officer) and given a citation for not wearing a seat belt. In 35 years of operating a motor vehicle I have never driven without wearing my seat belt.
On this day, as was my habit, I was wearing my shoulder harness under my arm instead of across my shoulder because I suffer from fibromyalgia. There is no law against doing this. When this cop pulled me over, I unbuckled my seatbelt to retrieve my ID from my back pocket.
Both at the time that this cop pulled me over and at my court appearance at Grovetown Municipal Court, this cop told some real whoppers. Needless to say, the presiding judge sided with the corrupt cop and not only fined me, but gave me two months probation. I have no criminal record whatsoever. Apparently this means nothing to Grovetown city officials.
You can say the same thing about the virtues of honesty, honor and integrity, virtues I live by but are apparently meaningless to them.
I am a Distinguished Military Graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (where honor and honesty count for something), a retired U.S. Army infantry officer and a disabled veteran.
I have nothing against the good citizens of Grovetown, but I hold its officials to be contemptible for permitting such behavior from those who are supposed to be public servants. Many of them have probably run into the type of cop who thinks they are the law instead of a public servant whose job it is to enforce the law. They have my sympathy.
You might think, as I do, that the Grovetown Department of Public Safety would have better things to do (like combat that citys rampant, runaway drug problem) than harass innocent people to fill their coffers.
Brand me a rebel if you must, and I will proudly stand by my ancestors who fought for American independence and took land grants in Columbia County for their service in the Continental Army. If they were living today, they might take a different course of action to address corrupt government and injustice. I fight with my words and I hope that Grovetowns city officials have great pleasure in reading them.
Even though I have friends and family that live in Grovetown, if I never go back there it will be too soon.
Larry Waks
Harlem