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Post by augie47 on Mar 22, 2007 17:37:13 GMT -5
"Mr. Ramsey said he spoke with Sheriff Billy Long and Police Chief Freeman Cooper and they also do not believe it was gang related. " Mayor Ramsey
Mayor Ramsey went on to say that the Easter-egg hunt was still scheduled as he also firmly believes in the easter-bunny.
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Post by tcrashfx on Mar 22, 2007 17:59:51 GMT -5
How many times do me and mongrel have to tell you that there are no gangs in Southeast Tennessee?
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Post by tcrashfx on Mar 22, 2007 18:11:51 GMT -5
Police Called To Break Up Fights At Riverpark Ramsey Says No Weapons Involved, Not Gang Related posted March 22, 2007 Police had to be called in to break up fights after a large group of youths gathered at the Tennessee Riverpark on Amnicola Highway on Wednesday night. A witness said about 100 black youths, both male and female, gathered near the fishing park about 8:30 p.m. They said fights began to break out, and several visitors to the park made calls to police for emergency help. Park rangers at the scene were assisted by Chattanooga Police and Sheriff's officers who were summoned to the usually calm park.
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Post by tncoaster37 on Mar 22, 2007 18:42:22 GMT -5
Maybe it's time to get Rid of Ramsey for someone who sees the truth about what is going on down at Coolidge Park. Ramsey needs to think about what is good for the county residents instead of getting rich off them.
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Post by mongrel227 on Mar 22, 2007 20:14:43 GMT -5
"How many times do me and mongrel have to tell you that there are no gangs in Southeast Tennessee?"
Another great observation from Officer Crash.
It's probably that dadgum bunch of gang members from Soddy Daisy High, right Crash? I told you if you didn't become the Junior SRO there, and clean them out...something like this would happen. Why they would venture all the way to the Riverpark to wreak havoc...well I just don't know.
But seriously, for our more mature readers: huge case of foot-in-mouth for Ramsey, Cooper and Long. They couldn't have said anything dumber. Their credibility drops below zero when they mutter inanities such as this.
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Post by karyotic on Mar 22, 2007 20:23:56 GMT -5
It could be high school related. My brother went to City High School in the late 70s and they had a big rumble with Soddy Daisy once. I think they all met up at what was then Hamilton County park. Does anybody remember this event? There was a time when Rossville High School and another GA school would have huge brawls whenever they met. Of course this was when kids fought with fists and sticks. It is different now.
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Post by tncoaster37 on Mar 22, 2007 20:37:55 GMT -5
More than likely, it's black high schoolers acting like a bunch of apes who want to attack each other and those around them. They figure that a park would be the best to have the brawl at. It's funny that lately it has been the blacks doing the rioting at Coolidge and the blacks don't want to hear that.
Hey Crash, I bet you are getting tired of being called out to Coolidge to break them up. Let's devote a certain area, fence it in till it is 8 feet tall and electrified, throw them in and let them go at it. It will solve the over crowding problem at the jail.
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Post by gridbug on Mar 22, 2007 20:46:51 GMT -5
Whoo!! Cage match!!!
Sell tickets and maybe we can have free parking back.
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Laura Rice
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Post by Laura Rice on Mar 23, 2007 8:34:15 GMT -5
Mongrel said: But seriously, for our more mature readers: huge case of foot-in-mouth for Ramsey, Cooper and Long. They couldn't have said anything dumber. Their credibility drops below zero when they mutter inanities such as this. You know Mongrel, it is spring break and the weather has been great to hang at the river. Just because they were black doesn't mean they were automatically in gangs. That part of the park is close to downtown and when large groups of young people get together in any race there are usually isolated fights especially if girls are involved. So in my opinion their statement could very well be true.
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Felix
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Post by Felix on Mar 23, 2007 9:07:15 GMT -5
Ah, Spring. Many years ago, in the small town of Charlottesville, VA, a group of several hundred unruly teenagers swarmed out into a main street, blocking traffic as they roamed northwards a mile or so, until they surrounded a residence where young women were living.
Reportedly, many of these young thugs made improper suggestions to the young women looking out their windows, mentioning unmentionables that the rowdy males wanted thrown out by the young women. Such animalistic behavior.
It was 1963, it was March, and I was one of the thugs, all students at the University of Virginia, that well-known hotbed of thuggery. Apparently, a high school sorority initiation in an adjacent cemetery had brought a number of first-year students out their dorms to see what was going on. The girls fled, then Spring and hormones did the rest.
Oh, the band of thugs broke up after their short stay in front of McKim Hall, the nursing student residence hall, and wandered off to nearby beer joints and other low dives.
No arrests. No water balloons. No huffing and puffing from the Righteous Regulators of Morals.
Spring.
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Post by daworm on Mar 23, 2007 9:18:54 GMT -5
I still haven't had anyone explain why there are lights placed along the Riverwalk, that burn all night, when it closes at sundown and there are signs saying you'll be prosecuted if caught after hours. Waste of money on lights and electricity if you ask me.
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Post by mongrel227 on Mar 23, 2007 11:48:13 GMT -5
"Just because they were black doesn't mean they were automatically in gangs. That part of the park is close to downtown and when large groups of young people get together in any race there are usually isolated fights especially if girls are involved"
Thanks. Okay, so now it's not a gang problem. Got it. Please pass this along to Crash. He had me believing gangs were everywhere.
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Bob
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Post by Bob on Mar 23, 2007 23:18:17 GMT -5
I still haven't had anyone explain why there are lights placed along the Riverwalk, that burn all night, when it closes at sundown and there are signs saying you'll be prosecuted if caught after hours. Waste of money on lights and electricity if you ask me. Nobody ever said anything about the 100 youths being in the park after it closed. Why werent they ALL taken in? The lights are just as important as the underground watering system, Corkers friends needed the money.
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Post by tcrashfx on Mar 24, 2007 3:24:11 GMT -5
Maybe it is so the boaters can admire the "scenery" from the river. Boaters are voters!
Probably true.
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Post by tcrashfx on Mar 24, 2007 3:29:03 GMT -5
And to think that Marvell was once an OG (Original Gangsta). That must have been one hell of a rehab program! Do they even have "girl's dorms" anymore?
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Felix
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Post by Felix on Mar 24, 2007 19:00:36 GMT -5
tcrashfx inquired: Do they even have "girl's dorms" anymore?
Probably at Bob Jones University. But when my sons went off to college in the late '80s there were even co-ed dorms, usually alternate floors but lots of...erm...cross-visiting. *sigh* I was born too soon.
In 1963, UVa the undergraduate programs were male-only, except for a couple of professional schools, including Nursing. For "real" dates you went on road trips (think Animal House .) For the big party weekends at UVa girls had to be invited, and then stay at special rooming houses staffed by redoubtable ladies of a certain age, who needed no sleep, with Wills of Steel and powerful friends in the administration.
It was Ozzie and Harriet's America, but many students Found A Way, regardless. Bless 'em.
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Longshot! [ Saint ]
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Post by Longshot! [ Saint ] on Mar 25, 2007 7:18:36 GMT -5
The Rangers keep callimg my team in to quell said groups; what the do not understand is that my team cannot police that side of Amnicola...as they do the other side of Amnicola. Quite frustrating, really.
But that's how we roll...80% of the news because we do 90% of the impossible. At least it keeps our ego's intact.
Wah Wah WEE Wah!!
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Post by augie47 on Mar 25, 2007 10:59:19 GMT -5
Ahh...another Saturday night in the City..... as the mayors sleep. If this keep up Mayor Littlefield can negotiate with Mayor Ramsey for another homeless shelter in the newly deserted riverpark... or.. perhaps..install seating an charge tourists admission to the "games" www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_104197.asp
More Fights Break Out At The Tennessee Riverpark County Officers Called In For Backup posted March 25, 2007
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Kordax
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Post by Kordax on Mar 25, 2007 12:01:26 GMT -5
This is delicious.
First of all, self-selected foundation connected visionaires vision a new riverfront-fiendly city starting in the early 80's. City emissaries fanned out across the country to capture "model" projects already underway in cities like Richmond, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Savannah, San Antonio, etc. The original stated purpose was to change downtown so young, talented, college educated preppies wouldn't have to leave Chattanooga for meaningful employment. The visionaries syllogistic thinking connected dots the visionaries drew -- if people had more things to do in Chattanooga, they'd stay here & if they stayed here, other well-educated people from other cities would want to live here & if that happened, enlightened business owners would want to either relocate here or expand existing area businesses to capture the vast pool of talent that riverfront amenities attracted. (All the while there was a hidden agenda -- someone realized early on that public/private partnerships could usurp traditional government & traditional private sector decision making by dangling foundation proffered "grant money" specifically earmarked for public sector projects. Insiders with foundation connections would then capitalize on the attending real estate speculative bubble -- but that's a story for another thread). Throughout the Riverwalk, Aquarium, brew pub, Coolidge Park, Walnut Street Bridge National Park, Museum add-on, and other project additions, Chattanooga lobbied long, hard & successfully to have boosterific stories planted in many media outlets -- the hyper-embellished Chattanooga story has been told, re-told, added to & recycled more times than former commissioner William Cotton's collective constituency hit their crack pipes over their entire pissant lifetimes. You know -- before the Chattanooga "miracle", downtown working people used to change their white business shirts several times a day because the air was so dirty, but now, Chattanooga is clean, pure, fun, exciting & on & on. And while the miracle story was being promoted out there to anyone who would listen to it, things like gang problems weren't allowed to be publicly acknowledged -- all negative information was swept under a 500,000 sq ft Dalton carpet factory full of rugs.
The original vision failed -- young, well-educated professional still leave the city in droves for other cities with much more dynamic economies & much better starting salaries & much better vertical growth potential.
The city’s vision shifted from retaining talent / creating new business opportunity to "let's make the core city a tourist destination spot." That’s fine, it’s good business for a few, tourists & some conventioneers like Chattanooga’s amenities & they come & they spend.
But….
It’s not like the old days where disclosing problematic crime issues like the existence of gangs & gang-related violence were verboten, is it? And tourists may be frightened off, mighten they? And people considering speculative downtown real estate might have to factor in crime issues that are (or will be) effecting their value. And the insiders will be increasingly leaning on the police to protect their gentrification projects in a tiny section of the overall city geography which will leave other sections of town & the unsuspecting residents who live there without the same level of police protection they were receiving beforehand, right?
The last thing in the world the visionaries wanted to see happen was an invasion of THOSE PEOPLE into their sacred parks, riverwalks & core city business district, but it’s happening & it’s delicious.
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Felix
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Post by Felix on Mar 25, 2007 12:15:51 GMT -5
Of all the developments attendant on the various plans that so infuriate Kordax, the river walk is of great personal value to me. I understand the concern with lack of success in getting the wider Chattanooga area economy growing, and job opportunities that can support families being attracted.
But leave the river walk alone, Kordax, I like it ah-lot. I know that the riverfront developments will absorb all hotel/motel taxes for many years to amortize the bonds issued to finance them. But collectively they are not a bad thing.
The failure of leaders here to attract new businesses of substance is the Bad Thing making development so problematic. I do not find any of this "delicious." I have children and grandchildren, and they will have to make do with the decidedly un-delicious situation or move elsewhere.
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Kordax
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Post by Kordax on Mar 25, 2007 12:23:30 GMT -5
But leave the river walk alone, Kordax, I like it ah-lot.
I like it, too. I just remember why it was built in the beginning & I remember all the boosters' claims ....
Will the recent news concerning THOSE PEOPLE have any effect on how you utilize the riverwalk? According to the papers, other people are changing their walking/visiting habits....
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Post by augie47 on Mar 25, 2007 12:58:29 GMT -5
marvell, i enjoy the riverpark as well. that's the prime reason i posted this link..perhpas something can be done before it's too late... I fail to find anything in Kordax's posts that don't hit the nail on the head.
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Post by tncoaster37 on Mar 25, 2007 14:25:37 GMT -5
Just think, the riverwalk is the perfect spot of muggers and gangbangers to hide waiting for thier next target. I like the riverwalk as well but I also realize that it's the perfect situation for them.
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Post by augie47 on Mar 25, 2007 14:43:47 GMT -5
to their benefit. the long sometimes lonely riverwalk is also one of the areas prohibiting firearms even with a permit..... we wouldn't want a mugger or rapist hurt.
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Post by LimitedRecourse on Mar 25, 2007 21:12:47 GMT -5
To answer (maybe) DaWorm's question about the lights: Even though the park is "officially" closed, there are always those who feel that rules do NOT apply to them, so they go (sneak) into the park after hours. If the City/County were to just cut the lights off, and one of the morons who don't understand RULES were to get hurt, more of our tax dollars would be spent paying the idiot and his/her family for the law-breaker's stupidity.
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Post by tncoaster37 on Mar 25, 2007 21:20:42 GMT -5
LR, you can't fully close down the park without putting up a fence around it. You can have all the signs you want but you can't close it down entirely.
Augie, when does the criminal follow the rules on anything. They don't. Even from Amnicola Highway where the walk is close, I can spot some perfect places where muggers can hide out waiting for their next victim.
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Post by LimitedRecourse on Mar 25, 2007 21:27:03 GMT -5
tncoaster...no kidding. That's my point....the liability would eat the budgets of both entities should they turn the lights off, thus they remain on. Burning needless streetlamps is far cheaper than injury litigation. You make my point for me.
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Post by CMF Newsman on Mar 26, 2007 9:16:03 GMT -5
More fights broke out at the Tennessee Riverpark on Saturday night as witnesses said another large group of black youths gathered at the fishing park on Amnicola Highway. Park rangers again had to step in and break up a reported 13-14 separate fights. Ron Rice of the Sheriff's Department confirmed that sheriff's officers were called in as backup. Director Ron Parsons of the sheriff's department was among those on the scene. Witnesses said it was a much larger crowd than Wednesday night when there were also numerous fights involving about 100 black youths 16-20 years old. www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_104197.asp
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Post by daworm on Mar 26, 2007 13:27:19 GMT -5
If people are going to be on it anyway, and if they aren't going to be arrested for it (despite the signs that say "Violators Will Be Prosecuted", then why close it at all?
If someone goes out there after sundown, and gets hurt, how can the city be sued? Can a criminal sue that breaks an arm crawling through a skylight? Getting hurt during the commission of a crime, even a simple trespassing crime, should void any right to sue, should it not? If it doesn't, something is far more wrong than wasting a bit of electricity.
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Post by gridbug on Mar 26, 2007 20:31:03 GMT -5
There would be no way to 'close' the park without the lights because law enforcement could not see there was someone in the park. I don't think the cops on the beat and rangers have night vision equipment for patrolling Coolige.
I gather street lights are wasting electricity because all the cars have headlights.
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