King Villa citizen is not a snitch

Roscoe Bussey wants to make this very clear: He is not a snitch.

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Bussey, a resident of the King Villa neighborhood off Washington Road near Appling, has been working on a community cleanup effort and trying to convince Columbia County commissioners to spend more on improvements for the area's residents.

We applauded Bussey's involvement in this effort last Sunday in an editorial that also praised the Sheriff's Office for helping oust drug dealers from the neighborhood.

Bussey proudly takes credit for working toward cleaning up King Villa. But he denies emphatically that he has anything to do with law enforcement activities, including those that last year resulted in nine federal cases.

"It's good that drugs are out of the community, but I'm not involved in whatever the sheriff's office is doing," Bussey says. "That's the sheriff's department's job to clean up the drugs. I don't have anything to do with it. ... I'm not a snitch."

Correcting the record in this regard can't go without comment, however. It is frustratingly sad that a citizen who clearly has a heart for improving his community would be so fearful of lawbreakers that he would actively distance himself from law-enforcement officers.

After all, what good are clean streets if they aren't safe?