I guess we struck a nerve. Some folks didn’t like it that we locked up two juveniles for the gang-related fight in the Fayette County High School bathroom. I had heard that the New Black Panthers were planning a rally to “free the Fayette Two”.

On Friday afternoon I was in my office in the Fayette County Courthouse preparing a Spalding County murder case for trial. Sure enough, a taxi cab arrived in the parking lot. Soon other cars with out-of-county tags pulled up.

One of the people wore a military outfit with a dark beret. It wasn’t one of the US Military uniforms. He reminded me of Idi Amin. I later learned he was from Los Angeles. I guess he was important.

Another carried a bull horn. He looked like he was wearing hospital scrubs. I’m told he was from Chicago.

About eight or ten other men and women carried signs and walked around in a circle shaking the signs while the bull horn blared. There was much profanity. One of the kinder things they said about me was “D.A. stands for Devil’s Assistant.” They spewed hatred toward the officers who investigated the case and toward the judge who invoked the penalty.

I wonder what they thought they were accomplishing. Did they think we would raise the white flag and surrender Fayette County to gangs?

Prosecuting gang members has nothing to do with race. Many gangs are integrated. All gangs threaten citizens in the community of all races. We’ll arrest and prosecute white and Hispanic and Asian gang members if they break the law here. This time the offenders were black.

And if these protesters got their feelings hurt by two juvenile court sentences, they might as well bring lounge chairs to the courthouse. They haven’t seen anything yet.