The murder of bartender John Henderson at The Standard on Memorial Drive is one of a series of recent incidents which have brought attention to Atlanta’s alarming upward trend in violent crime.
Several others have written on the subject, including a great piece by Ben at Terminal Station and an account of this morning’s vigil for Henderson from Griftdrift. Here’s a video from Grayson:
Atlantans Together Against Crime and Cutbacks (ATACC) from Grayson Daughters on Vimeo.
Putting aside some questionable Atlanta Police Department statistics, Thomas Wheatley’s article about the trend best captures the mood of the situation. That is, it’s not just the rise in crime that is alarming, but the apparent increase in the brazenness and savagry of the acts committed.
Henderson’s story is so disturbing because he was shot even after cooperating with the robbers. The home invasion mentioned in the article happened to someone I and several of you have met, while they were present. As Kyle Keyser, another recent robbery victim, said in the article:
There’s a certain amount of crime that you associate with living in the city. It’s not forgivable, but it’s understood. You know it’s going to happen. What concerns me now is the spike in violent crime.
While I disagree with Ben that using a high profile incident to elevate awareness of rising crime is inherently a bad idea (though it could turn out to be), I agree with him that getting the Atlanta Police Department to admit there is a problem is the first step.
Keyser and Tessa Horehled have organized Atlantans Together Against Crime & Cutbacks, a group designed to form a response to the recent spike in violent crime. Join the mailing list here and the Facebook group here.
Like Ben, I don’t claim to have any answers, but perhaps we can at least try to get APD to ackowledge there is a problem.
I am deeply concerned about the increase in brazenness of the crimes too. It is just freaky.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:13 pmWe are all concerned. In every neighborhood. Thanks for the embed. But mostly thanks for the link to that excellent Terminal Station blog. Wonder how I missed that one? Until now that is.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:03 pmThanks for the link, Rusty. Ben at Terminal Station is also writing some of the best stuff at urban issues.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:05 pmAnd please pardon the typos. Yeesh. Too much writing in one day.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:42 pmI am not against using an incident to drive awareness. I am against using anecdotes to drive policy in the place of facts and data. I wasn’t very clear.
And thanks for the compliment Grayson! The video is fantastic, btw.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pmthanks for this. i look forward to working with you more from here on out…
January 9th, 2009 at 2:04 amkyle
Great post! You tied everything together really well. And I enjoyed Ben’s post a well – I agree w/ him that the response to this can’t be just “more cops” and basically consenting to live in a police state. We have to get to the root of the problem and fix it.
One other note, what happened to the two people you mention was a hell of a lot more than a home invasion.
January 9th, 2009 at 6:29 pmPlease choose your parking spots carefully in Virginia Highlands. I know of at least 5 computers stolen out of cars last night. It seems that the bars and restaurants could provide better security for their patrons.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:10 pm