Members of the Georgia House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee are scheduled to meet Monday to address Atlanta’s rising rates of crime.
State Rep. J. Collins (R-Villa Rica) chairs the committee. Those committee members are scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. Monday, July 19, in Room 406 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building in Atlanta.
The agenda sheet for Monday’s meeting offered very little in the way of details. A member of Collins’ staff told The Georgia Star News that she and other staff members would update the agenda sheet before the close of business that day. But as of Friday evening, no updated agenda sheet appeared available.
The Atlanta Police Department’s (APD’s) website reported crime statistics for the week of July 4 through July 10. During those seven days, the city had three reported murders, two reported rapes, 13 reported robberies, 57 reported cases of aggravated assault, 35 reported burglaries, 212 reported cases of auto larceny, and 58 reported cases of automobile theft.
The APD website also reported 14 shooting incidents that week, 34 firearms seized, and 107 narcotics charges.
Atlanta made national headlines this year after FOX News host Tucker Carlson described, in sometimes graphic terms, how crime rates in Buckhead — a residential district of Atlanta — have soared. Carlson also said certain of Atlanta’s politicians incited that violence.
Buckhead residents have organized and wish to secede from Atlanta.
Carlson said Atlanta leaders have made too many inflammatory remarks about Buckhead, which is wealthy. He said district residents have endured that abuse in silence. Buckhead residents account for a fifth of Atlanta’s entire budget, he said. Carlson said Buckhead residents shouldn’t have to “send huge sums of money to a city that hates them.” He blamed Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for motivating hundreds of Atlanta Police Department officers to exit the force. Atlanta’s crime rate, Carlson went on to say, swelled.
“They [Buckhead residents] have been attacked by reckless politicians ginning up hatred against Buckhead for political reasons,” Carlson said.
“Why wouldn’t shootings and stabbings be the end result?
Buckhead City Committee CEO Bill White told Carlson he and his neighbors “are living in a war zone.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
