Crime has risen dramatically in Atlanta since Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms decided to call for defunding the police. She also showed her complete lack of support for the department with an irresponsible response to the shooting of Rayshard Brooks.
This past weekend made it worse. A 7-year-old girl was struck by a stray bullet outside of a mall where her family had been Christmas shopping, according to WSBTV.
Kennedy Maxie died after being shot by a bullet in the back of her head as she was riding in a car with her aunt. Her aunt didn’t realize right away and noticed she wasn’t feeling well. She rushed her to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite.
Her loving family hoped for a miracle after she lingered for days in the hospital, clinging to life.
THEY BLAME THE MAYOR
Leaders say the incident is evidence that violence in Atlanta has gotten out of hand. They blame the mayor and her police reform policies. They say it has made them and their communities less safe.
“It is obvious that the civilian authorities do not control the streets and cannot provide even a token feeling of safety,” one former city council member said in a statement.
“It will take a lot to turn this around, he said, adding that there “are the three things we need to begin: Leadership; Some leadership; Any leadership.”
Another referenced Bottoms’ police reform efforts.
“I don’t think that we’re doing effective policing right now because I don’t think we’re putting enough resources and attention to it like we are with the police reform work that we’re doing. We have to do both,” current city council member J.P. Matzigkeit said. “We have to tackle this. I have said that we are at war with crime and we need to act like it.”
Another leader said of “defund the police” efforts, “I think society has overreacted.”
“I think it was an unfortunate reaction, and it had some serious morale results in the force. It would be great if the city did what I think is the government’s very first primary obligation, and that is to keep people safe.”
DEFUND THE POLICE
Atlanta hasn’t “defunded the police.” Thhe city council voted down efforts to strip the Atlanta Police Department of funding, but Lance Bottoms has spoken approvingly of efforts to reform law enforcement and to “reallocate” its funding to alternative community efforts, according to local media.
“I think that a very simplified message is ‘defund the police,’ but I think the overarching thing is that people want to see a reallocation of resources into community development and alternatives to just criminalizing…behavior, so I think it’s incumbent upon us to help people articulate that frustration,” she told reporters over the summer.
The city council, fearful that police have responded to calls for reform by scaling back their crime control efforts is even saying they’ll consider hiring a private security force to supplement the Atlanta PD if that becomes necessary.
They are worried it’s the Ferguson Effect.
FAKE GUN VIOLENCE
About the weekend’s shooting, Bottoms didn’t really have an answer, “We owe it to our children, as well as to all of our communities, to do everything in our power to eliminate gun violence. If there are solutions that we have not explored and enacted, I welcome the suggestions.”
It’s not gun violence, and until they recognize the problems, they won’t be able to find solutions. It has been politicized. It’s not politically correct to talk about the real problems.
This is about gang violence and the concurrent destruction of policing.
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