Shoals Traffic Cams & More

If you haven't visited the Quad-Cities Daily recently, you're missing out on more than just local arrests. The QCD has added Shoals traffic cams to their menu. While the broadcast images are stills, they update quickly and provide readers with an idea of what road conditions are like at any given time. The feed currently airs sites in Florence, Sheffield, and Muscle Shoals.

Shoals Traffic Cams

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Pen-N-Sword has also been updating its Missing in North Alabama section as well as Shoals Most Wanted. Trader tells us the site will be adding two to three of the most wanted each week and will ultimately have a complete list and back story on all those missing from Alabama counties north of Birmingham.

Missing in North Alabama

Most Wanted in the Shoals

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We notice one of the most wanted is Gerald Winston Surratt Jr. Surratt was once arrested in Sheffield for sexual assault, but a grand jury failed to indict. At that time, a source in the Florence Police Department told us Surratt was the subject of an investigation into various robberies, most using a pass key. At that time, Surratt was a maintenance man at a local apartment complex.

After the grand jury failed to indict Surratt in Colbert County, we received a scathing e-mail from him informing us that he had been cleared of all charges and to remove our blog concerning his case. It was only a few weeks later that formal charges were brought against the Florence resident, and he's now on the run.



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Our Most Wanted List: How Many Hispanics?

It's long been reported that all states attempt to make their prison population match their ethnic/cultural makeup. If the population of Alabama is 25% African American, then no more than one out of four prison inmates should be black. That does not always work, but parole statistics do tend to back this theory up.

Now comes the TimesDaily with a report on the Shoals area's most wanted nine criminals. How does this list break down? Of the Naughty Nine, only one is a woman. Somewhat surprising, but women do generally commit less violent crimes than men--even their acts of murder are often technically non-violent, i.e. poisoning. The lone woman also makes up 50% of the most wanted African Americans. How do the remaining seven break down? Three most wanted individuals are white males, a rather surprising fact since Caucasians make up such a large percentage of the population. Who are the remaining four?

Yes, four out of nine of the Shoals area's most wanted are Hispanic Indian males. One is wanted for murder; others are wanted for various sexual crimes against minors. No, gentle readers, flakes from the upper crust of Mexico or Guatemala or any country south of the border are not relocating here in droves.

Are all Hispanics who move here the scumma de terra? No, but sadly many are, and their home countries don't want them any more than we should.

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There have been reports of Hispanic owned businesses closing today in Franklin County in protest of the new immigration law. The earth still turns on its axis, and we suggest no legal citizens patronize these establishments. Protests can work both ways.

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The Connection has reported that Lauderdale County has now hired a replacement for County Administrator Jenoice Bevis: Link



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