I Get To Know the Sheriff's Department

I think I may have mentioned that I am taking the Citizens Law Enforcement Academy course (CLEA) conducted by Fannin County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO). The course is designed to familiarize citizens with the Sheriff’s Office—what it is, what it does, why deputies do things the way they do, the limitations and constraints they work under, and the laws they have to follow.

It also gives citizens a chance to meet and interact with the Sheriff and some of his deputies in a friendlier setting than standing outside your car window asking to see your license and registration. I’ve always found that to be conversation stopper. I don’t know about you but there is something about a uniformed officer with a gun, handcuffs and arrest authority that makes me want to pucker up.

Many police departments and sheriffs nationwide have CLEA programs. The goal of these programs is to establish better trust, communication and cooperation between the community and law enforcement. Citizens who participate in a CLEA course walk away with a better understanding of law enforcement practices and services and, hopefully, a greater appreciation for the difficult role that law enforcement has in our society.

Lord knows we need more of that these days. The irony is that we need more of that in places like Detroit, Chicago, Compton or Dearborn, Michigan, rather than places like Fannin County. Most people around here already respect law enforcement. We also respect the military, God, country, Mom, apple pie, Andy of Mayberry and what used to be the called the American Way of Life. Law and order are not a hard sell in these parts. Call us hicks and rubes if you like but I think we’re a whole lot freer, safer and more civilized than those other places.

I must say that I am very impressed with the FSCO. I defended cops and police departments in civil lawsuits in state and federal court in Florida so I think I know a little about good departments and bad departments, good police policies and procedures and bad police policies and procedures.

When I signed up for the class I didn’t know what to expect. On the scale of things the FCSO is a relatively small department. While the size of the agency is not necessarily an indication of whether it has good, defensible and constitutional policies and procedures, my experience was that the smaller departments were more likely to have problematic policies, procedures and practices than larger ones. It’s simply a function of leadership, experience, manpower, money and training. Thus it would not have surprised me to find that the FCSO was a little behind the curve.

However, I am happy to say that based upon what I saw in the CLEA course my impression is that the FCSO’s policies, procedures, practices and training are consistent with those of the most modern and current departments nationwide. That makes me a happy camper and taxpayer. My understanding is that a lot of that is due to the current sheriff, Dane Kirby, and what he has been able to accomplish in the eight years he has been in office. Kudos to him and those who serve under him.

One of the requirements of CLEA is that you have to do a ride along with a patrol deputy. I did mine a couple of days ago.

I requested a ride along with the K9 deputy mainly because I defended a couple of interesting K9 cases during my career and learned a lot about what it takes to comply with national training standards for K9s and K9 officers.

I met the deputy and his dog at the sheriff’s department and played with the dog while the deputy did some preliminary paperwork. His K9 is a sniffer dog trained to detect drugs (as opposed to a tracker dog or a bite dog). We played with a toy that consisted of a short piece of thick nylon rope with a hard rubber ball at the end. I think the object of the game was to see if the dog could break my wrist trying to get the toy away from me.

When the deputy is not taking his K9 to a scene for the express purpose of sniffing for drugs he mainly runs traffic. That means he mostly cruises around looking for traffic violations or sits and runs radar looking for speeders. Of course, he backs up other deputies and responds to other calls when the need arises.

There’s only one four lane road in Fannin County, and that’s the main highway that runs through the county. The other roads are of the two lane variety. I’ll be honest. I was kind of hoping for a ninety plus mile an hour pursuit down a back country road but that didn’t happen. There were a couple of hairy moments when he passed some cars on a narrow road to pull over a speeder but that was about it.

I was pretty impressed with how observant the deputy was to traffic infractions like no tags or expired tags or weaving in the lane. Most of the time he detected the infraction on cars that had passed him going the other way. He spent a lot of time driving in one direction while looking in his rear view mirror. Don’t try that at home.

When he detected a suspected infraction in his rearview mirror he would suddenly and with no warning accelerate and do a U-turn. It was like talking to someone with U-turn Tourette’s Syndrome. I'd be having a conversation with him, and the next second my head was bouncing off the side window as he whipped into a quick U-turn.

Whenever he got out of the car to talk to a stopped driver I would remain in the passenger seat, and his dog would immediately start barking. Fannin County roads do not have shoulders which means that usually half the squad car was in the road. I figured it was only a matter of time before someone plowed into the back of the car.

Most of the people he stopped he let go after he heard their explanation. I guess the highlight of the day was when he stopped a Tennessee car for speeding (75 in a 55 mph zone) and the driver turned out to be a Mexican national with no license and a visa that had expired over a year ago. The guy claimed he couldn't speak English which was probably bullshit. He got arrested because he was out of state and was driving without a valid license. Another deputy responded to haul the guy to jail while the K9 deputy stuck around to have the car towed and perform a vehicle inventory. I was hoping he would find 100 pounds of cocaine in the trunk but no luck.

I noticed that whenever the deputy approached a stopped car he was very cautious and kept his hand on his weapon. That got me to thinking about what I was supposed to do if someone came out firing. I mean I’m sitting in the passenger seat of the patrol car with my seatbelt on and a barking dog attracting attention and no means to defend myself. Not exactly the right place at the right time. I’m going to suggest to the Sheriff that in the future ride along passengers be instructed to stand at the back of the cruiser and run like hell if shots are fired.

After the Mexican got arrested we returned to the Sheriff’s Department so the deputy could fill out some paperwork. Which is good because I really had to pee by then. Another high speed U-turn, and I would have peed myself. That was over four hours into the ride. I could have ridden with him for a full 12 hours but decided I had enough excitement for the day.

If you ever get the chance to take a CLEA course or go for a ride along with your local law enforcement agency do it. I think you’ll come away with a greater appreciation for what cops do.

We're Armed to the Teeth

This post is prompted by the recent debate over gun control. I suggest that you do not visit or move to Fannin County if the knowledge that there are people around you who are carrying concealed weapons makes you nervous or you believe you are safer in a place where guns are highly regulated.

It probably doesn’t surprise you that the Second Amendment is an article of faith here in the North Georgia hills. In fact some school children around here believe the Second Amendment is one of the Ten Commandments. There are adults who think we should we throw out the commandment against adultery in favor of one that says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged. You have to admit that would kill two birds with one stone.

Local politicians may get confused occasionally about the First Amendment but they have the Second Amendment down pat. As for the general populace, it’s fair to say that God, guns and limited government pretty much defines the prevailing political views of most people around here.

Here are some examples to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

• At a recent citizens’ law enforcement academy class put on by the Fannin County Sheriff, the Sheriff urged everyone to get a concealed weapons permit and to carry a concealed weapon. That’s my kind of law enforcement officer. 

• For entertainment the men’s group at our church went to a gun range and blasted away at targets one afternoon. We’re also arranging a shooting class for the women of the church. So much for turning the other cheek. 

• This is the only place I know of that has a drug store that sells guns and ammunition. I just wish they would expand the idea to supermarkets, fast food restaurants and ATM machines.

• There is a gun show in Blue Ridge every month.

• During the Georgia primaries I attended a candidate forum. Some candidates for statewide offices and Congress were there. To a man (and a woman) all of them were staunch supporters of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. A couple of them went so far as to suggest there should be no restrictions whatsoever on an individual’s rights to buy and carry weapons of all kinds. Even I thought this was a little (but not a lot) extreme. Then it occurred to me that the forum was sponsored by the Fannin County Tea Party. I imagine that more moderate conservative candidates didn’t bother to attend and that liberal candidates were afraid to attend.

• Rarely does a day goes by when I do not hear the sound of gunshots. Some are far off in the hills, and some are much closer. In that respect it’s a lot like living in Detroit or Chicago from what I hear.

Most folks in these parts have a whole different attitude towards gun ownership and the right to self-defense than many urban dwellers. Around here guns are viewed as protection rather than threats. The average person on the street believes that he or she is safer with a gun than without one and that the proper response to an active shooter situation is to fire back and make the active shooter inactive. You have to admit there is a certain logic to the idea.

It’s fair to assume that in any gathering in these parts there are several people with the means and the ability to return fire if someone is intent on mayhem and destruction. So while it’s not impossible that some nut job or deluded terrorist could pick Fannin County as a place start to start shooting, it’s virtually certain that if it did happen some of the would-be victims would start firing back. Nut jobs and terrorists hate when that happens. There’s a reason why most mass shootings occur in gun-free zones.

(Gun-free zones should be called something else. The idea of a gun-free zone is that no one has a gun in the zone. But that assumes that everyone will respect the rule that no guns are allowed. We know by now that bad guys don’t follow the rules. So the only way to make sure that a gun-free zone is gun free is to have people with guns there to enforce the rule in which case the gun-free zone is not really gun free. If you have a gun-free zone where there is no one with guns to enforce the rules we should call it a helpless victim zone.)

Though I cannot attest to it, I would not be surprised if people in most rural areas in this country have the same attitude toward gun ownership and gun rights as the majority of the people in Fannin County.

The point of this post is not to debate gun control or the Second Amendment. I happen to like weapons and I enjoy shooting. I view with distrust government attempts to limit my right to own guns. And yes, I believe that I am safer owning and carrying a gun than not owning and carrying one. My response to the recent renewed efforts to ban assault-style rifles will be to go out and buy one. I guess in that respect I’m not much different than most people in Fannin County.

If it makes you nervous that there are plenty of people in Fannin County who own guns, carry guns and have attitudes similar to mine then you may want to reconsider moving here or visiting here. That’s the point of this post. Consider it a public service.

Fannin Elections

A couple of posts ago I talked about the upcoming primary election in Fannin county. The election was held a couple of weeks ago, and I’m happy to report that the candidates for the two positions I cared about the most won. Stan Helton beat the incumbent, Bill Simonds, in the race for chairman of the county commission, and Dane Kirby, the incumbent sheriff, beat his challengers.

Because the Democrats in Fannin County did not field a candidate for county commission chairman, Helton will be unopposed in the general election.

Even though Kirby has a Democrat challenger in the general election it’s all but certain that he will be re-elected. Running as a Democrat is an uphill battle in Fannin County. You might as well run as a member of the Communist Party. In fact, I suspect that the Communist Party and the Democrat Party are synonymous in the minds of many Fannin voters. You don’t see a lot of Obama or Hillary stickers on cars around here, and when you do you assume the owner is a misguided visitor from Atlanta or Florida. So unless Kirby molests an underage girl, is caught using a transgender bathroom or announces that he does not believe in God or the Second Amendment, he’s a shoe-in for the general election.

I did some research before I moved here for good and discovered that Fannin County is strongly conservative and Republican. (Romney received 80 percent of the vote in the last Presidential election.) Thus, I was surprised to find there is a small but vocal Democrat Party in Fannin County. I assumed there were a few closet liberals but I did not expect to find people openly admitting and even flaunting their affiliation with the Democrat Party much less openly consorting with others of like persuasion. The real shocker was seeing the Democrat Party float in the annual Fourth of July Parade.

I’m no fan of Democrats, liberals and progressives. I’m convinced they’re leading the country to ruin and damnation. However, even though I do not ascribe to their political beliefs, I have to admit to a certain grudging admiration for anyone who has the gumption to be openly and vocally Democratic in Fannin County. I imagine being an avowed Democrat and Obama supporter in Fannin County is like being the beer distributor at a MADD meeting or a NAMBLA supporter at a Southern Baptist convention.

In most circles in Fannin County if a person were to proudly proclaim that he or she is a Democrat and an Obama supporter the room would suddenly go quiet and everyone would stare at the person like he or she had just announced having a deadly infectious disease. Most Fannin residents would be torn between offering condolences or running like hell to get out of the room.

I find it interesting that I have started to pay attention to local politics. That certainly wasn’t the case when I lived in Pinellas County. Most of the time I didn’t know who was running or what the candidates stood for. Maybe it was because I was busy working so much. It also may have something to do with the fact that there are about 600,000 registered voters in Pinellas or the fact that elected county officials in Pinellas County seemed so remote and unapproachable.

But now that I’m retired and live in a small rural county I feel different about local elections. Obviously, I have more time to pay attention to local issues. Another aspect is that because the candidates with a chance of getting elected are all Republicans the races are not about big differences in political philosophies. That means the focus is on determining which Republican candidate is the most competent and qualified for a particular office.

The truth is that it’s hard not to take an interest in local elections when you live in a county with less than 25,000 inhabitants and only about 15,000 registered voters. The issues and the candidates are more immediate and relevant. Before the election I had the chance to meet and interact with Helton, Simonds, Kirby and his chief rival. I found I was more motivated to take an interest in the election because I had met met and talked to the names on the ballot.

Moreover, I have the feeling, perhaps foolish and idealistic, that my vote actually counts here and that I can genuinely influence my local government. It’s somewhat refreshing actually. Maybe that’s the way a democracy is supposed to work.

I have been asked several times whether I have political aspirations, and my answer is always the same: No way, Jose. I do not have the temperament and skills to be a politician. Besides, as a newcomer and with a last name like Yacavone I don’t think I'd have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected even if I did have political aspirations. All successful Fannin candidates have roots in Fannin County going back many generations.

That being said, I have a great interest in the way the county is being run and in assuring that it has open, honest and transparent processes and procedures. I’d willing and eager to do what I can to make sure the county does things in a way that does not expose it to liability. I’d like to see that it follows best practices for local government. Given my background and experience as an attorney, I think I have a lot to contribute to the discussion.

Everyone needs a hobby or two when they retire. It appears that one of my hobbies is going to be trying to improve my local government.

The Bigfoot Museum

Believe it or not, someone has opened a Bigfoot museum in Fannin County. If I sound incredulous, it’s because I find it hard to believe that enough people will visit the place to make it worth the investment.

The museum has been open only a short time, and I admit that I have no idea about the number of people who actually pay money see what’s inside. For all I know, the business is a roaring success. If so, that’s great. I’m all in favor of free enterprise and helping the local economy. I have no problem with sucking every dollar out of tourists who visit these parts.

Maybe my skepticism over the long term prospects of a Bigfoot museum in these parts is due to the fact I’ve been hanging around common sense country folk too long and have forgotten how gullible the average American is, particularly those who have lived all their life in an urban environment. I mean how else can you explain the Democratic voting record of Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit?

At least a small part of my skepticism is due to the fact that this area is not really a hotbed of Bigfoot sightings. According to the website of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), there have only been two Bigfoot sightings in Fannin County, and the last one was in 1985. If it was a real Bigfoot back then, it’s probably retired, drawing social security and living in Florida by now.

The only other Bigfoot sighting in Fannin County that I know of is a 2013 video on You Tube. Here’s a link to the video: Fannin Bigfoot. The video pretty clearly shows Uncle Festus in a gorilla suit running through the woods. Apparently even the BFRO had problems with the video since the sighting is not on the list of sightings attributed to Fannin County.

If any Georgia county has the right to a Bigfoot museum it is White County which is located a couple of counties to the right of Fannin County. According to the BFRO there have been 11 Bigfoot sightings in White County. White County is home to Helen, Georgia, which styles itself as Georgia’s alpine village. The town attempts to recreate an alpine village, and it has an annual Octoberfest celebration which I am told is well attended by tourists. A possible explanation for the number of Bigfoot sighting in White County is that it has a lot of bars. According to one posting on Tripadvisor.com: “White County is no longer dry and Helen certainly isn't ha ha. That place is built on alcohol. I think as of right now there are 27 bars in the town.”

I would be curious to see if there is any correlation between Helen’s Octoberfest and the dates of the Bigfoot sightings. City folks out of Atlanta who have consumed a few too many Octoberfest beers very possibly could confuse a furry ground hog for a Bigfoot. Many years ago in El Paso, Texas, after a few drinks at the Officers Club I almost swerved off the road because I thought a tarantula was a small puppy.

Some of the more entrepreneurial readers of this blog are probably thinking that if the Bigfoot museum turns out to be a success it may not be long before someone opens a UFO museum around here. According to Mufonga.com, the website for the Mutual UFO Network of Georgia, there have been quite a few UFO sightings in North Georgia and several in Fannin County.

Even though there have been more UFO sightings than Bigfoot sightings here, I doubt a UFO museum would be successful. First of all, Roswell, New Mexico, has the corner on that market. Second of all, as far as I know, while there have been UFO sightings, there have not been any reports of seeing aliens on the ground unless you’re counting some of the weirdly dressed visitors from Florida. It seems that aliens, like the tourists, visit Fannin County and then leave. And that’s fine with me.

I would think that it would take a few sightings of actual aliens or at least a human abduction or two to make the alien scene here sexy enough to support a UFO museum.

One explanation for the lack of alien visitors to this area is because it’s probably too dangerous for them. The Second Amendment is alive and well in Fannin County. Just the other day I watched an elderly Southern Belle nail a bowling pin with a Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle at the Sheriff’s Department’s range. That was after she went through most of the law enforcement pistol qualification course with the purse-concealable 38 revolver. She put round after round into a man-sized silhouette target. She really liked the “two to the chest and one to the head” drill.

Nope, folks around here would not put up with little green men. I imagine an encounter between a good old boy (who I will refer to as Dwight) and an alien might go like this.

(Dwight hears a sound in his woodshed late one night and goes to investigate)

Alien: Take me to your leader.

Dwight: What the hell! You scared the crap out of me. What are you doing in my woodshed? Step out so I can see you before I blow your ass away with this shotgun.

Alien: Take me to your leader.

Dwight: Holy shit. You are one ugly motherfucker. Short too. What’s the matter with you?

Alien: Take me to your leader.

Dwight: Man, you got some bug eyes, and what is it with that green skin? You look like a fucking pickle. What are you—some sort of elf?

Alien: Take me to your leader.

Dwight: This isn’t a Geico commercial, is it?

Alien: Take me to your leader.

Dwight: You’re not from around here, are you?

Alien: Take me to your leader.

Dwight: You said that already. Don’t you have any fucking ears? Oh, I guess not. Where are you from?

Alien: I have come from another planet.

Dwight: Another planet my ass. I bet you’re from California. Are you any kin to Tom Cruise?

Alien: I seek to establish relations with your people.

Dwight: Say, you ain’t some kind of pervert, are you? I bet you like to watch cooking shows and wear women’s clothes. Relations? What type of relations?

Alien: I seek peace and harmony among all beings.

Dwight: Now I get it. You’re either a Democrat or from the United Nations. Either way, you’re not going to get very far with that peace and harmony bullshit around here. People in these parts ain’t too big on Democrats and the UN. Now get the fuck off my property.

You can imagine how that encounter is going to end. Dwight will have another trophy to place on his wall, and the alien spacecraft will be one passenger short when it leaves Fannin County. So it looks like a UFO museum is out of the question for Fannin County. Hmm. I wonder what the prospects are for a Chupacabra museum?…