HELEN - In a public forum that included several heated exchanges, the City of Helen has laid SoWo to rest.
A little over 10 percent of the 28,000 people in town during the recent Southern Worthersee German car event began to get out of control on Saturday night, breaking vehicle windows, attempting to overturn a rollback tow truck, throwing rocks and bottles at officers, and committing acts of vandalism.
Tuesday morning's Helen City Commission included an appearance by Capt. Keith Canup, commander of the 21-county Troop B of the Georgia State Patrol.
Canup fielded questions from members of the public and Helen leaders, who said they were seeking to get to the bottom of how things could have been handled differently during the recent Southern Worthersee 2015.
That discussion lasted about an hour.
Canup said GSP officials never received a concrete operations plan from city police, leaving uncertainty as to how situations would be handled when incidents arose. For instance, the roughly 30 people arrested by GSP during SoWo weekend inundated White County's jail. Had troopers been inside the city during the event to restore order, how would the additional arrests have been handled?
Canup stressed he was not there to chastise Police Chief Jim Couch, but rather to answer questions and criticism.
"We did have a presence of 14 troopers, but if you divide the 28,000 by however many you had plus our 14, that's probably an officer per 300 maybe," Canup said.
Canup again stressed that GSP Troopers enforce the laws. Period. Troopers cannot overlook burnouts, rock throwing and other violations. He said that often goes against what the people hoping to profit from an event like SoWo want.
"Last year, SoWo 2014, we were confronted by business owners and proprietors in a negative way when we enforced the law on the streets," Canup said. "Either you want law enforcement and order or you don't, and the SoWo event person that applied for the permit should have put out a press release that there will be absolute law and order in the streets if that's what you wanted, but that kind of thing takes planning."
Canup said communication between Sgt. 1st Class G.R. Harper, commander of Post 6 in Gainesville, and Couch had been somewhat informal and that Couch did not request specific numbers of personnel or provide a specific action plan for how particular situations would be handled.
"I just need a plan of operation," Canup said. "That's what the State Patrol needs. "What's our goal? What's our purpose? What do y'all want?"
Canup stressed that even if they were requested inside the city troopers would not be blending into the crowd, allowing them to use their bullhorns, posing for pictures with members of an unruly mob, or allowing burnouts and chants. He acknowledged, as a former assistant police chief for a town, that police sometimes have to take different approaches in some situations.
Couch defended his attempts to develop rapport with the massive crowds.
"Folks, I looked at my officers - all three of them that were standing next to me that night," Couch said. "I looked in their eyes, and I knew if we walked in that crowd of 3,000 people we were not going to come out without being hurt or hurting somebody. Those are hard decisions! And I and [Fire] Chief Poteat were the only direct department heads in this city at that time of night.
"We're talking about a major event - we were there," Couch said. "And I stood next to my officers - they'll tell you I stood next to them that night and made that decision. Now, we're not on national news, no one got hurt. We lucked out, but it worked, it really did."
Couch said he took full responsibility for his decisions and actions that night and continues to accept that responsibility, and that has earned him even more respect from his officers.
"I take responsibility for the mistakes I made or the good things that I did," Couch said.
But merchant and Helen Planning and Design Review Board Member Geff McAllister said the responsibility goes farther.
Addressing Canup, McAllister said, "It wasn't your fault. It's not Chief's fault. The blame rests with this community for inviting an organization into this town that we knew from last year's events ... that this crowd had the potential to destroy this town in a heartbeat."
McAllister accepted his own part of the blame as a member of the PDRB that approved the SoWo event application.
Former Commissioner Mully Ash expressed his surprise at Tuesday's discussion.
"I was surprised to hear y'all having this meeting discussing all this because I thought y'all decided not to have them back," Ash said.
Ash defended Couch, telling commissioners unless they were standing there with him in that situation, they can't know what the chief had to deal with in making his decisions.
Burke stressed the commission already voted not to allow SoWo back, but is looking to the future.
"There is not going to be SoWo again in the city of Helen," Burke said. "The reason we want to get to the bottom of this is for any other future events that get out of hand, so our commission and our chief of police, so we know what to do."
At the conclusion of Tuesday's discussion, Burke told the crowd, "This horse is now dead."
Apparently, that message already has resonated with SoWo officials as well.
Matthew Bounds, owner of SoWo Partners and organizer of SoWo, posted a video statement on social media Monday afternoon saying Helen no longer will home to the event.
In that statement, Bounds said four other cities have approached organizers and are being evaluated as potential hosts for the 2016 event, which will be May 13-15.
Asked after the meeting, Burke again summarized the purpose of the discussion.
"We wanted the Georgia State Patrol to come explain what they had written," Burke said. "We wanted to ask Mr. Couch his point of view, and have a fact finding and get to the bottom in case we ever do have another special event that requires this many people to be in Helen, we'd know how to prepare for it. Really what this was today it was not slinging mud, it was not anything like that. It was just finding out what happened so we would know how to prepare better in the future."
Asked if she and commissioners have confidence in all the city's department heads at this point, Burke said, "Yes we do."
