Tag: atlanta

Teens face hate crime charges for cutting up LGBTQ Pride flags on Pride crosswalk in Atlanta

Atlanta police arrested four teens early Tuesday morning who have been accused of defacing Pride flags outside of a popular LGBTQ bar in midtown. Authorities said the defendants may face hate crime charges, which could result in penalties including jail time. Two suspects remain at large, police said.

According to the Atlanta Police Department (APD), officers responded to reports of vandalism at 1:40 am after witnesses claimed to have observed six men stealing Pride flags hanging in front of the bar and using knives to cut into them. The teens were also seen performing motorized scooter stunts on the notable rainbow-colored crosswalks at the intersection of Piedmont Avenue and 10th Street.

While contacting authorities, a 911 caller stated, “They’re in the middle of the street popping wheelies, tearing up flags.” The six teens fled on scooters when officers arrived on the scene. Shortly after, four of them were apprehended, while two teens remain at large.

Surveillance video released by APD shows the group on scooters at the rainbow-colored crosswalk with Pride flags in hand. The crosswalk was installed in 2017 to honor the 49 victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, the New York Times reported.

During a press conference, APD Sgt. Brandon Hayes stated that the department takes “this community very seriously, and we want to make sure residents feel safe.”

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Atlanta’s Decriminalization Of Marijuana ‘Led To A Reduction In Violent Crime,’ New Research Shows

A new study on Atlanta’s move to decriminalize marijuana concludes that, contrary to warnings from some critics, the policy change in fact led to a decrease in violent crime as police turned their attention to more urgent matters.

The research looks at crime surrounding the city’s 2017 reduction of penalties around the simple possession of cannabis. Prior to the change, possession of up to an ounce of marijuana was punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,500 fine. Afterward, that fell to a maximum $75 fine civil fine, with no possibility of jail time.

While some warned that loosening penalties would lead to a rise in crime rates, researchers observed the opposite.

“Our findings suggest that decriminalization led to a reduction in violent crime,” the new report says, “likely due to police reallocating resources from marijuana enforcement to violent crime prevention.”

To arrive at that conclusion, authors examined agency-level crime data from 2015 through 2018 from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports, which included information from nearly all Georgia cities with populations over 25,000. They then compared crime rates between Atlanta and other control cities that did not decriminalize marijuana.

Relative to those control cities, the “estimated effect” of decriminalization in Atlanta was “about 20 fewer violent crimes per 100,000 people per month,” the analysis found. That’s a 19.7 percent reduction from the pre-decriminalization average.

“Our analysis finds that violent crime in Atlanta declined relative to control agencies following marijuana decriminalization, with results robust to alternative estimation methods, event studies, and placebo tests,” the report concludes. “Our estimates suggest that decriminalization led to a 20% reduction in violent crime rates relative to pre-policy levels.”

The paper says the findings align with claims from Atlanta Police Department (APD) shortly after decriminalization that officers would “focus…on violent crime and crimes that truly affect people—things that endanger lives.”

“We want to fill jails with armed robbers, rapists, burglars, home invaders—we do not want to fill the jails with pot smokers. That’s the bottom line,” APD Public Affairs Director Carlos Campos said at the time, the study notes.

Atlanta’s decreases in violent crime, the study’s authors noted, “align with APD’s stated policy shift, as department leaders emphasized reallocating resources to violent crime enforcement.”

“Importantly, this decline was not offset by crime displacement in neighboring counties,” they added.

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‘Cop City’ Leads US Buildup in Police-Training Bases

After years of intense opposition that left one protester riddled by police bullets, Atlanta’s so-called Cop City is set to begin operations in the next few weeks. The city’s police chief hosted a tour of the campus last week and training programs are expected to start during the first quarter of 2025.

The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, as it is officially known, is an 85-acre campus with a price tag of at least $110 million and another $1.7 million recently approved by Atlanta’s City Council for its security. 

Most infamously, it includes a mock city, for which the site gained its Cop City nickname, for “real-world” training that includes a convenience store, two-story house, apartment and commercial-style building. 

There is also a military vet training center, leadership institute,  lab to develop and test technological innovations, training field, 12-acre emergency vehicle operations course.

It also comes with burn towers, a shooting range, horse stalls, police-dog kennels and training grounds, and 40 acres of horse pasture, according to a video published by the Atlanta Police Foundation and the Foundation’s website. 

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Justice Department Finds ‘Dehumanizing’ Filth and Violence at Atlanta Jail Where Man Died Covered in Bugs

Two years after a mentally ill man died malnourished and covered in insects in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail, a Justice Department investigation has found that man’s death was only one of a string of fatalities due to pervasive unconstitutional conditions at the jail.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division released a report Thursday concluding that the Fulton County Jail, which handles pre-trial detention for most of Atlanta, subjects incarcerated people to pest infestations and malnourishment, excessive force from correctional officers, and fails to protect them from rampant violence and sexual assaults from other inmates. The report found that these conditions violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The Justice Department launched the civil rights investigation in the wake of the 2022 death of Lashawn Thompson. Thompson, a 35-year-old man with schizophrenia, had been incarcerated at the Fulton County Jail for three months on a misdemeanor battery charge when he was found dead in an extremely filthy cell. Thompson’s body was covered in lice, bedbugs, and lesions. An independent autopsy listed his cause of death as “severe neglect,” noting Thompson was suffering from a “severe body insect infestation.”

In a press statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thompson’s “horrific death was symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions in the Fulton County Jail.”

“The Justice Department’s report concluded that Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office allowed unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the Jail,” Garland said. “As a result, people incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail suffered harms from pest infestation and malnourishment and were put at substantial risk of serious harm from violence by other incarcerated people—including homicides, stabbings and sexual abuse.”

Justice Department investigators reported widespread infestations of mice, roaches, bedbugs, lice, and scabies.

In addition to being unsanitary, the jail’s kitchen also fails to adequately feed detainees. The report notes that jail medical staff determined in 2022 that 90 percent of the people in the mental health unit where Thompson died were “significantly malnourished with obvious muscle wasting.”

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OOF! Mural of Kamala Harris in Atlanta, Georgia Already Being Painted Over 

Kamala Harris is so finished that she is already being erased from memory.

A mural of Harris that was painted on the side of a building in Atlanta, Georgia has already been painted over. This confirms that despite all the hype from Democrats and media that Harris was another Obama, the hype was all completely manufactured. Totally fake.

In four years, when Democrats begin announcing that they’re running for president, Harris will probably not be one of them.

The Latin Times reported:

Kamala Harris Mural in Atlanta Quickly Painted Over After Election Loss as Artist Says ‘On to the Next’

The Georgia artist responsible for a large mural featuring Kamala Harris has responded to a viral video of its removal, encouraging everyone to move “on to the next.”

The mural, depicting Kamala Harris amidst roses on a bright blue background, sprawled across a building in Atlanta’s Historic West End for a month before it was painted over. The video circulating the internet shows a painter covering Kamala’s towering image in brick red paint.

“My girl just lost a day ago, like damn,” the voice of @glowinggodess27 can be heard chiding in the TikTok.

The artist was quick to respond. “Before I start getting tagged a 100 million times, the mural of Kamala was only and always meant to be a temporary mural,” explains artist Christopher Clark.

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Off-duty Atlanta police officer shot, killed while breaking into Douglas County home, deputies say

An Atlanta police officer was shot and killed outside a Douglas County home during what investigators say was an apparent early-morning break-in attempt. He was identified as Investigator Aubree Horton by the Atlanta Police Department.

It happened around 5 a.m. Friday at a home along Orkney Way near E. Carroll Road in the Andrews Country Club neighborhood.  

According to Douglas County Sheriff Tim Pounds, deputies responded to a burglary call.  

“On an attempted burglary, understanding, at this time, that a person attempted to gain entry into the residence behind,” the sheriff said. “When he gained entrance, the homeowner produced a firearm in self-defense and shot the individual. At this time, the individual is deceased.

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Trantifa member pleads guilty to setting off bomb outside Alabama Attorney General’s office

A trans nonbinary Antifa member has pleaded guilty to detonating an explosive device outside the building housing the Alabama Attorney General’s office. 26-year-old Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, of Irondale, had been charged with malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device in connection to the February incident. 

According to the Trussville Tribune, Calvert changed his plea to guilty last Friday. 

The indictment alleged that Calvert “maliciously damaged, and attempted to maliciously damage, by means of fire and explosive materials, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office,” and that Calvert “knowingly possessed a firearm, to wit: a destructive device… which was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.”  

A detention memo from a US attorney’s office stated, “That device had the characteristics of an IED, and Calvert added a substantial number of nails and other shrapnel to increase its destructive capability.”  

The explosion was set off outside Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office on February 24, at around 3:42am. A person wearing dark clothing, a mask, and goggles was captured on surveillance footage near the statehouse. Law enforcement also found that nearby state buildings had been vandalized with stickers advocating for Antifa and displaying anti-police and anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement sentiments. 

The FBI linked the man in the video to Calvert after a review of Calvert’s social media. One photo posted by Calvert showed him wearing goggles similar to the ones seen in the footage. Video posted by Calvert showed him detailing a set of stickers that he had purchased, many of which were identical to the ones placed around the Alabama State Capitol. 

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Brave Driver Exposes ‘Human Trafficking’ Operation After Spotting a Body Part Sticking Out of Budget Truck on Atlanta Freeway

An Atlanta resident has exposed a horrifying human trafficking operation in broad daylight.

Langston Proper, the brave driver, noticed something strange while driving on an Atlanta freeway and took decisive action that ultimately saved numerous children from a grim fate. The incident happened five days ago.

Proper was driving when he noticed what appeared to be a hand or some other body part sticking out from a Budget rental truck.

Trusting his instincts, he immediately contacted law enforcement and followed the truck.

This was not a scene from a Hollywood thriller but a grim reality unfolding on the streets of Atlanta. The truck was later discovered to be part of a human trafficking operation.

The driver of the truck was reportedly arrested thanks to Proper’s quick thinking and decisive action.

Langston Proper took to Facebook to share his harrowing experience:

“[Human trafficking] is real… I followed them from midtown Atlanta all the way to [Gwinett County] almost damn near to [Lake Lanier]. My ancestors and GOD said don’t stop, give in or give up. Stay with them, we will guide you and protect you along the way! We must bring awareness to this matter…I need your help guys, human trafficking is a major thing here in the city of Atlanta.”

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20,000 unsubstantiated ballots in GA’s 2020 original results from tabulators that do not exist…

Atlanta is now rivaling Chicago in the crooked politicians and election-cheating game. What unfolded in the Peach State during the 2020 election was downright shameful. If we were a serious country, genuinely concerned about our Republic, it would have been rigorously investigated by bipartisan officials from top to bottom. Of course, that never happened. Instead, we were told to shut up, stop being “election deniers,” and cease spreading “conspiracy theories,” even though the election resembled a third-world circus. We hate to say “we told you so,” especially because it shows how far the US has fallen, but this latest data basically confirms the “cheat” was on. And boy, were they crafty—using those mail-in ballots like torpedoes, blowing holes in our election integrity from every conceivable angle. This recent report, highlighting tens of thousands of unsubstantiated ballots, has understandably left many Americans anxious, prompting them to question what has changed since 2020 to prevent another “2020 sham” in the upcoming 2024 election.

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Atlanta Could Add Psilocybin And Ketamine To City Workers’ Healthcare Plans Under Pending Resolution

A new proposal from an Atlanta City Council member would direct municipal officials to explore the pros and cons of adding coverage for psilocybin and ketamine as mental health treatments to the city’s healthcare plan for firefighters, police and other government workers.

“Traditional treatments for mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and others have shown limited effectiveness for some individuals, leading to a need for exploring alternative therapeutic options,” the legislation, which is currently being sponsored by 11 of the Council’s 16 members, states. “Recent research has demonstrated the potential efficacy of alternative therapies such as ketamine-assisted therapy and psilocybin-assisted therapy in treating various mental health conditions, offering promising results where other treatments have failed.”

The resolution’s lead sponsor, Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari, has said city workers deserve access to a broad range of mental health services.

“We should be offering our employees—and especially our first responders, who are expected to be superhuman—the same amount of grace and providing them with a tool set to essentially overcome this issue,” The lawmaker recently told Axios.

Bakhtiari said the impetus for including the drugs on public employees’ health plans was meeting a West Virginia police officer who witnessed a fellow officer die of suicide and later used ketamine to treat his PTSD. The lawmaker said they’re not aware of any other city governments that have looked into covering psilocybin or ketamine treatment.

The resolution from Bakhtiari would request the Atlanta’s human resources department to “explore the feasibility of adding coverage for ketamine therapy, psilocybin therapy, and other alternative therapies for mental illness in the City’s employee benefits contract during its next round of negotiations.”

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