Casualties of War: The Costs of Atlanta’s Perception of Crime

Mayor Kasim Reed helped make crime and gangs the issues in Atlanta. During his campaign, he proposed with his "Blueprint for Restoring Public Safety in Atlanta" a plan to establish gang-free safety zones where individuals with “gang-related” criminal records would be cited for congregating. When unveiling the plan on the site of boxer Vernon Forrest’s murder he proclaimed, "Let me be perfectly clear: Atlanta does not have a perception of crime problem...We are in the midst of a crisis that challenges the City. We must act now." For its part, Atlanta’s news media followed suit with tantalizing stories of crime with little regarded for the fact that crime is actually down. As a result, what was supposed to have been simple a campaign wedge issue has spun into a media frenzy and diminished the city in some respects. 

CL's "Gang Mentality" cover.

Creative Loafing’s latest issue features the cover story “Gang Mentality” which details everything from the nicknames of  Atlanta's “30 Deep” gang members to the scary statistic that the number of gangs identified by APD has almost tripled in just a few years. This type of coverage has become commonplace in Atlanta news, particularly among the city’s street papers. All eyes seem to be on names like “Black Mafia Family” and “30 Deep.” It’s led to people becoming more engulfed in the search for the next Police Chief than any other appointment in city government, including who will be our next CFO and manage our precarious budget. What has been ignored though are the details of the city’s 12% decrease in crime from 2008-2009. In fact, there have been 25 percent less murders, 18 percent less robberies, and 12 percent less aggravated assaults in that time. Also according to APD’s crime reports, auto thefts and burglaries have decreased by 12 and 14 percent respectively. It may not be a popular thing to say in Atlanta but in almost every area, crime is down. 

Kasim Reed with Evander Holyfield  at the Vernon Forrest death site.

During last year’s mayoral race, you couldn’t get away from the issue of crime in Atlanta. There was cause for the concern. Within the course of summer, then City Council President and mayoral candidate Lisa Borders fell victim to a home invasion, then Councilman and now City Council President Caesar Mitchell was carjacked at gunpoint, and boxer Vernon Forrest was killed. There’s also been over the past few years, tragic losses of life and incidents of crime involving everyday citizens (the names John Henderson and Jasmine Lynn come to mind.) Despite her initial popularity, Mayor Shirley Franklin left office on a low note for having led the city into a furlough of its officers and for appointing Chief Richard Pennington who seemed to spend more time away on business than fighting crime. All of these things represent a sad truth that citizens should be aware. Instead, they’ve become the story of the City and fodder for headlines. 

Mayor Reed argued that the next Mayor had to “turn the tide” of crime and proposed to do so through the hiring of 750 police officers and the opening of closed recreation centers - his “centers of hope” idea being a social services approach to discouraging crime perpetuated by Atlanta’s youth. He and other candidates battled over police union endorsements and, in the case of his runoff opponent Mary Norwood, over filming campaign appearances on citizens’ death sites. 

REDDOG unit in their paramilitary gear.

Most people might be shocked to hear that nationally most forms of crime have been on a steady decline since 1990. They’d be surprised because the news tells another story. In a 2001 report on crime coverage by the Berkeley Media Studies Group, it was found that a 32.9 percent national decrease in homicides yielded a 473 percent increase in media coverage of the incidents in the 1990's. This phenomenon in journalism is summarized by the saying, “if it bleeds, it leads” and with their recent story, it appears that Creative Loafing has joined other Atlanta outlets in a race to the bottom – a race with serious costs. 

Johnston, shot 6 times by APD.

The APD’s crime reports from January to March (the only months available since Reed has been Mayor) show 262 unfounded incidents of crime having been reported to the department. Some of these reports have ended in the questioning or arrests of law-abiding citizens. All have required the response and time of an already stretched police department.

After being robbed at gunpoint, Council President Mitchell was more encouraged to recommend more officers for the infamous narcotics REDDOG unit despite their mixed history of claims of harassment and brutality. It was this unit that was implicated in the botched raid of the Atlanta Eagle in September and the shooting death of 92 year old Kathryn Johnston in 2006.

On the other side of the city’s war on crime publicized by the media are the casualties, people who find themselves on the wrong side of the media’s perception and the more general costs associated with chasing boogiemen from under beds. 

To follow the Mayor’s lead by focusing in crime is one thing but to do so in a manner that ignores the facts is another. It seems that Atlanta’s news media has forgotten its responsibility to provide balanced and measured reporting. Now, if the journalists behind these stories have evidence that crime, specifically gang-related offenses, is up then that evidence should lead the coverage. If they believe that APD is underreporting crime (as an Editor for the Sunday Paper has suggested) then that seems worth further investigation but to blindly follow the lead of shifting political interests is irresponsible. It ignores the wonderful work of an understaffed APD. It is to the detriment of stories that need to be told, to the image of our city and many of its residents.