If you live anywhere near the downtown area of Columbus, Ga., chances are you’ve heard them; the obnoxiously loud engines of overzealous street thugs are hard to miss on the weekends.
In a scene reminiscent of criminal car movies, gangs of thugs have destroyed the parking lot of the Columbus Civic Center, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage for taxpayers to clean up.
Burnout tire tracks and broken glass litter the pavement in a way that dispels any myth of this being a one-time occurrence. The repeated racket heard by residents every weekend makes it obvious that this destruction has been left to go on unchallenged for quite some time.
Catching those responsible would seem to be a relatively simple task for the Columbus Police Department, given that the parking lot has limited entry and exit points. A collapsing cordon of police cruisers set around the perimeter of the parking lot would likely be enough to catch the property-destroying criminals in the act and to hold them accountable under the law.
However, resource management is likely a contributing factor of why Columbus PD continues to ignore the issue. With shootings and violent crime still happening at all-time highs throughout the Fountain City, Columbus PD may be forced to maintain their attention and resources elsewhere. Crime tends to spread in new ways and in new areas when there is a smaller police presence spread over a larger and more crime-ridden area. The Civic Center parking lot is no exception.
It’s important to note that the tire tracks left behind on the pavement are permanent and will not simply “go away” over time. Tire tracks such as the ones made in the Columbus Civic Center parking lot are formed when the friction between the rubber and the road becomes so hot that it permanently scars the pavement. Cleaning high-temperature tire tracks like these requires a deep chemical cleaning of the pavement coupled with an abrasive scrubbing, which may or may not be able to remove the marks. The only alternative is to resurface the lot at a far greater expense.
The scene is also reminiscent of the actions of disgraced ex-district attorney Mark Jones, who notoriously filmed a campaign video in the parking lot featuring a burnout-laying car. Jones was later arrested for the incident on charges of property damage, with original estimates of his damage to the lot exceeding $300,000. Jones would later go on to be found guilty of multiple counts of criminal corruption in a separate scandal, leading to his conviction, removal from office, and incarceration.
The following is a collection of photos obtained by the Muckraker highlighting the destruction to the Civic Center parking lot on August 14, 2022.
