Police Impersonator Attended Ceremonies
A man carrying a gun and a knife slipped past security at the Olympic Stadium less than 2 hours before the opening ceremony, police said Monday.
The man, wearing a security uniform, was arrested about 7:15 p.m. Friday inside the stadium after he failed to show an identification badge when asked by security officers, said police spokeswoman Jan Northstar.
Roland Atkins, 55, of Aurora, Colo., has been charged with carrying a pistol without a license, carrying a dangerous weapon, criminal trespassing and theft of service. He has been released on $17,000 bond.
Police said he was carrying a knife and a semi-automatic .45-caliber handgun loaded with 11 rounds.
It occurred just hours before President Clinton arrived for the ceremony with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea.
Atkins was placed in police custody after the Secret Service questioned him and determined he didn’t pose a threat to the president, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Olympic spirit
Even before the races start at Olympic Stadium, Majid Abu Maraheel has accomplished everything he set out to achieve. The 32-year-old distance runner knows he cannot win a medal, but he already feels triumphant as the first athlete in history to carry the Palestinian flag into the Games.
For Maraheel and his fellow runner, Ihab Salama, the opportunity to compete in the Atlanta Games is a vindication of the nationalist dreams of the 2-year-old Palestinian Authority, the self-rule territory headed by Yasser Arafat that encompasses Gaza and the town of Jericho on the West Bank of the Jordan River.
“I’ve been crying with joy so often that I hardly can keep my mind on training,” said Maraheel, a government security agent and the father of five children. “The experience of being here is worth a lifetime of running, but my main purpose is to remind the world that Palestine exists.”
Billed as the biggest in history, the Games have lured a record 197 teams. The two-man Palestinian squad is one of 28 aspiring or new nations appearing for the first time, including many countries spawned by the fragmentations of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
The tensions from recent conflicts that have changed the world map since the 1992 Barcelona Games are evident on the sprawling campus of Georgia Tech, which serves as temporary home for the 10,000 athletes here. At the dining hall and the “cardio theater” workout gym, athletes from rival nations such as North and South Korea, China and Taiwan - which is referred to as Chinese Taipei during the Games - Croatia and the rump Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) maintain a frosty distance from each other.
But in contrast, Palestinian and Israeli teams have struck up a rapport. At the opening ceremonies, the heads of their two delegations, Muammar Bississo of the Palestinian Authority and Ephraim Zinger of Israel, sought out each other on the stadium infield to encourage a fresh dialogue through the Olympics that might infuse new momentum into the stalled Middle East peace process.
Bississo said he shared Zinger’s vision about employing the Olympics for healthy political goals. “We wanted to set a good tone in taking our pictures together there at the ceremony. We both believe that you can use sports to build bridges of trust between former enemies. If the United States and China can end hostility through Ping-Pong, why we can’t we do the same thing between Israelis and Palestinians at the Olympics?”
Parking doesn’t come cheap
Parking is a nightmare, not just within the Olympic ring but all over the Atlanta area.
Downtown, near Centennial Park, parking spaces can cost $50 per day. Atlanta Committee for Olympic Games has from the very start encouraged people to use MARTA, the public transportation system. Makes sense, but that still leaves people with the vehicle they drove to get to MARTA stations.
At the Dunwoody MARTA stop 25 miles north of downtown, the Perimeter Mall is offering parking spots for $20 per day to commuters. And it’s getting it, too.
Security guards, armed with badges and binoculars, stop anyone exiting a car who walks straight to the MARTA station. A man from New Jersey, en route to the weightlifting venue, admitted to parking near Macy’s, going into the mall and then sneaking to the station.
That’s something the Brennan family from Des Moines, Iowa, should think about. After Paul Brennan parked in the $20 lot Monday, he rushed to join his wife and son in line.
Around the corner was a $10 lot.
Johnson getting ready in Dallas
American track star Michael Johnson, trying to pace himself toward competing in the 200 and 400 meters, decided Atlanta wasn’t the best site for his final preparations.
After attending the opening ceremonies, Johnson left over the weekend and flew back to Dallas, where he can train without worrying about schedules and traffic jams.
He is expected to return by Wednesday.