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I used to manage a large courthouse and I can't imagine how this could have happened? I guess the Fulton County Courthouse doesn't have the architectural safeguards we had, and apparently they didn't have the procedural ones either.

I know we hear about the "bad" judges, but I have a lot of respect for them and you seldom hear about the ones that are as down to earth and level headed as anyone you'll ever meet. I cringe when all judges are lumped together as being arrogant or left wing.

I'll tell you one thing, you certainly look at security differently after managing a courthouse. I'm glad I'm not managing one now, given this and the hit on the federal judge's family. Everyone will be on pins and needles for months.

You would go nuts trying to do security in this courthouse complex.

The original courthouse was built in 1914. It's been renovated piecemeal over the years, partitions in odd places, closets turned into offices, and so forth. Then a State Court building was added next door (not sure when, but judging from the style, some time in the 60s), but the floors are on different levels, so you have two steps up, four steps down, ramps, odd corners, and passages to nowhere. THEN they recently added the Justice Center Tower in back of the 1914 courthouse, connected by ramps, a couple of bridges, escalators, etc. to the old courthouse.

Add to that a sheriff's department that has been both incompetent and endemically corrupt for years (the former sheriff is under investigation for "losing" several million dollars), plus all the politically correct nonsense that you get in a big city . . . when I was still trying cases you would see a single deputy dozing in a chair at one side of the courtroom. Now, admittedly, I didn't do criminal work, but civil litigants can get pretty hot sometimes too . . .

Nobody wants the job, but somebody is going to have to do something after this.

Maybe. The superior court clerk LOST a bunch of deed books out of the deed room, and title insurance companies started putting riders (and extra premiums) on their Fulton County insurance policies, but so far as I know, nothing was done to clean up the clerk's office.

Of course, nobody DIED in that debacle.

"I'll tell you one thing, you certainly look at security differently after managing a courthouse."

You look at security differently after working in a prison for many years too. I retired a little over a year ago, but still find myself being very security conscious. I always lock my car after I get into it, and always try to be aware of who is around me when I'm out and about...especially after dark. I'm still very observant and keep my eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. I cringe when I see women grocery shopping who leave their purses sitting open in their grocery carts while they're over picking out produce or checking something else out. I used to give them advice about leaving their purses unattended, but then stopped because I got tired of them looking at me like I was the one planning on robbing them. I'm a female, and I really think that having worked in the environment I did for all those years has helped to keep me from becoming a victim.