Funeral services for murder victim are today

First of all, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the Dixon family for the loss of such a fine, upstanding, respected man of the community. It doesn’t take a college degree, an impressive sounding job title, or a large salary to make a person admired and respectable. It take being a person like Mr. Dixon. Doing what is right to support the community while supporting his own family. Doing what one says and standing behind your word is what makes a person respectable. Mr. Dixon was the rule, not the exception.

Walter’s commentary about the rash of violence in our little community should make the citizens, who have not already realized the lack of communication, question our elected officials where their priorities stand with regard to preventing further incidents.

We can look at our Mayor and City Council members to seek guidance and assurance that all is being done to prevent similar acts of violence. But, they will have to look at the people in the offices designated to protect the lives and property of Barnesville and Lamar County.

Let’s start with the Police Chief, Chuck Keadle,. Has he made any statement of what he plans to do to assure the citizens of their safety? With Mr. Dixon’s body being found in the county, why was Chuck on the news commenting on the case when that is the job of Larry Waller? I understand that the Barnesville Police Department has a strict budget and it must be difficult to manage, but it doesn’t cost one penny to communicate to the citizens what actions must take place to bring peace and tranquility back to our town.

Now let’s discuss Sherriff Waller. Like many people who run for elected office, Larry has made promises to get votes but rarely delivers on those promises. He owes it to the citizens who elected him to his position to share the steps he plans to implement to curb further crime in our county, mainly violent crime. Conducting traffic patrol on the 3 mile stretch of I-75 that is within the counties limits to stop the amount of drug activity in the county and Barnesville is senseless. Couldn’t the resources be more efficiently used in other parts of the county? We see Larry willing to talk to folks on the street, press the flesh in the local establishments, but he falls short when it comes to being willing to step forward and talk with the Lamar county residence to describe his plan for ridding our county of such vile crime. Communication does not cost the Sheriff’s office one dollar in budgeted funds.

What about our District Attorney, who leaves absolutely nothing for the citizens of Lamar County to look up to. Richard Milam has not addressed the town’s people and has not, as of this writing, even talked to the Dixon family about this awful crime. As it was mentioned in other postings, Richard is not an advocate for the victim. His goal is to clear his caseload one way or another expending the least amount of energy and funds possible. It is possible he does this by dictating to the Grand Jury what he wants them to True Bill or No Bill? Or, for the very few cases he is brave enough to take to trial, is he more than willing to allow the criminal to plea bargain? Both are possible. Do your job Richard and let the people deside if there is enough evidence to prosecute. If you do not wish to lead as a DA, step aside and let justice prevail. It is up to Richard to support the citizens, victims, and law enforcement officers to his best ability and prosecute according to the law and not by his desires. He should reach out and seek assistance from outside agencies to help prove a case and not dispute those with specialty training in criminal investigation and forensics that far exceed his knowledge, such as the Vidocq Society.

This is the team of crime prevention “specialist” we have to rely on to preserve our safety. Are we getting what we expect and deserve? From the recent incidents and from what history has shown, I would have to say no. Comments have been made about bringing in outside agencies to clean house to eliminate the “Good Ole Boy” network that time, history, and greed can establish easily. Whether this is true or not, we have to act now and not wait for someone else.

Let your voice be heard and make our elected officials do for us what they are paid and elected to do.

Mayor Peter Banks (770) 358-0211 peterbanks@bellsouth.net

Chief of Police Chuck S Keadle (770) 358-1234

Sheriff Larry Waller (770) 358-5159 lwaller@lamarcountysheriff.com

District Attorney Richard Milam (770) 504-2407 rmilam@pacga.org