He loves reading the newspaper, but before he does he finds a quiet spot out of the public eye. Today, I caught 73 year old George Ottrix of Chattanooga sitting on the steps of a back door behind a liquor store. “It’s quiet here,” he told me.
“I worked for the Chattanooga Police Department for 23-years,” he said as he described how times were different prior to him leaving the force some 20-years ago. “You couldn’t arrest white people very easily back then,” he said while referring to the 1980’s in Chattanooga. He suggested that if you were well connected and white, it took more than handcuffs to haul a possible suspect to jail if you were a black officer.