Judging, Animal Abuse, & Coaches

"Wow, Shoalanda, that's quite a potpourri of topics you have there!"

Yes, but they are connected. We've spoken on judging before. Everyone judges everyday. We hire and fire employees, decide whom to date/marry, and even if the person driving the Range Rover/Pinto will actually stop at the red light. We arrest, try, and sentence people who break laws. If we didn't judge, our society would be in shambles.

Family and friends can stand by a person accused of a crime, but they can't legally sit on that person's jury. We appreciate those who stand by their friends. We even choose to allow those who support Ronald Weems to post here if they so desire. Those who seek to denigrate our friends or current/past members of this blogging group do their friends no favors when they attempt to post insults here or on Facebook. If I personally don't like your opinion, I'm quite capable of pointing out the flaws in your judgment without insulting your friends who may not even feel as you do. Think about it.

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Whether you've read this blog for our four-year run or are reading today for the first time, you may not have scanned our columns enough to know what crimes/actions we really hate. Please remember, we hate the actions, not those who perform those actions.

If we despise any actions, it's first and foremost the attempt to take a child away from its loving parents (see Hottie Scottie). A close second is animal abuse.

Yes, former Muscle Shoals patrol officer Greg Scoggins killed a half-tame deer, not for food, but for fun, while on the clock. You can be assured it was hard enough to see his "side" when we believed it was for food. It wasn't some spur of the moment crime. Scoggins had seen the group of deer playing close to the road many times and took along his personal high-powered rifle to kill the deer.

From confidential reports sent to us, we believe Scoggins then recruited a family member (a legal adult) to assist in disposing of the deer's body. Can we tell you more? We could, but our friend Trader has done all the investigative work on this and will be publishing an account of the whole horrible crime on Pen-N-Sword. We'll add if all we wanted to do was malign Scoggins' name, we've been sent plenty of stories about his conduct over the years. We choose to focus on this crime alone.

Kicking someone when they're down isn't enumerating the facts of an ongoing case involving both animal abuse and misuse of taxpayer funds. We're sorry his family is involved in the crime, but we didn't involve them. He did. Remember that.

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Ahh, coaches, should we judge them--at least publicly? We've recently seen quite a bit of speculation on local forums concerning the Edward Jenkins attack on Rogers Coach Chris Krieger. If any readers aren't familiar with Rogers School, it's a relatively small Lauderdale County School located in the unincorporated area of Greenhill in the northern part of the county. The school serves K-12--quite a diverse student population.

Let's say a first grade teacher calls your six-year old daughter a twit. You ask around and find that the teacher has been verbally abusing other students and you then go to the principal. Hopefully, things are sorted out and your daughter will get a better teacher the next year.

What if it's a coach who called your first grade son a name, who denigrated his abilities, intelligence, breeding, etc.? What if you knew your son would have the same coach two more years in the future and even more if he decides to play on the high school basketball team? Not so easy to decide now, is it?

For those who have reasoned that few, or even none, have come forward to criticize the Rogers coach, we ask you to remember that with any coach in a small school, criticism may come with a large price tag.

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One final observation: We continually receive e-mails suggesting the misuse of public funds and sexual abuse should not be pointed out or judged. If we ignore it, it will go away. No, sadly it won't if we do nothing to deter it.



Shoalanda

Sand Bags & Bullets/Ed Jenkins Update

John Smith lives with his family in Muscle Shoals. He paid a small fortune for his home, intending to live there for the rest of his life. When John first looked at the home, he asked the realtor about flooding. No worry, the savvy realtor replied. Muscle Shoals has that under control with retention ponds and other high-tech drainage methods.

Things went well for a few years; then the rains came, and with the rains, the floods. John contacted his councilperson and the mayor. Oh, they said, we're working on it. Another three years or so, and John's home was again flooded via the back door.  Now John had an epiphany. The government was working on it, okay, but either they weren't working on it the right way or their plans were taking too long to be of any help to John and his family.

John and his wife were artists by nature. Even the back entrance of their home was esthetically pleasing. Well and good, but if all their hard work was lost every few years, what did it matter? John purchased sand bags and now has them at the ready. When it rained torrents last spring, John duly produced the sand bags, ugly as they were, and no water entered John's home.

John still hopes the city will find a solution to the flooding problem, but in the mean time, he's found an answer that, while not attractive, works for him.

What does John's story tell us? We've recently stated, as much as we hate guns by nature, we feel there should be a trained and armed officer at each local school. It won't be pretty, but until someone in Washington comes up with the answer to school shootings, it's the best we can do.

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We recently commented on Edward Clarence Jenkins' sentence for assault on Rogers teacher/coach Chris Krieger. It wasn't lost on us that Judge Mike Jones required that Jenkins be immediately arrested and taken to jail, only a few days before Christmas. Jones had it in his power to allow Jenkins to begin his sentence after the holidays, but chose not to.

According to court records, Mr. Jenkins has posted an appeal bond and is now home with his wife and five children. Will he win his appeal? We think it's highly likely that he will. If he doesn't, Mr. Jenkins' next Christmas will be spent in prison.

We support swift and sure justice, but two things come to mind here. From news accounts, we're not sure Jenkins committed the crime for which he was convicted and sentenced--interrupting a teacher while doing his/her duty. Second, if Allan Wilson and others can receive a 90 day sentence for the same crime, why does Mr. Jenkins deserve 12 months with 48 months of probation to follow?

Again we say, justice in Alabama leaves much to be desired.



Shoalanda

What About Edward Jenkins' Family?

Chris Krieger

Obviously anyone who would hit an elementary school coach has an anger problem--even a coach yelling at an eight year-old. Reports indicate Edward Clarence Jenkins Jr. is receiving anger management counseling, and Jenkins' defense attorney has stated the Killen father regrets attacking Chris Krieger last March. We're not sure why Krieger yelled at Jenkins' eight year-old son, but the Rogers coach may need some anger counseling for himself. Krieger teaches kindergarten, fifth, and sixth grade physical education.

Now Jenkins has been convicted of Second Degree Assault and sentenced to serve 12 months in prison. Jenkins' wife Stephanie is disabled, and the couple has five children. We'll assume Stephanie Jenkins does receive some sort of SSI on a monthly basis, but we doubt it's enough to support her entire family.

That means Stephanie Jenkins will be forced to visit Lauderdale DHR to seek help. Our tax dollars will be providing partial support for the Jenkins children. That is unless Edward Jenkins wins his appeal of Judge Mike Jones' sentence. Should Jenkins be punished? Certainly. He now has a felony conviction and his name has made Shoals news for several days. Isn't that enough in this case?



Shoalanda