ATLANTA, GA – Back in June of 2020, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms had bragged about being “ahead of the curve,” when it related to “reallocating our public safety.”
Essentially, pointing out that the city has been engaged in a form of police defunding years before the slogan reached national popularity.
When does this happen in #Chicago
Atlanta city council members fund private police force, blast mayor's handling of crime surge https://t.co/qSLMcoUOJD #FoxNews
— Chicago GOP (@ChicagoGOP) December 30, 2020
Flash forward to December of 2020, and now a collective formed between locals, business owners and more are trying to curtail crime via establishing a sort of private security force.
When emotions were high in the weeks following the death of George Floyd, elected officials across the country were metaphorically racing to say what they believed enablers of the “defund the police” movement wanted to hear.
In early June of 2020, Mayor Bottoms felt as though the city of Atlanta was essentially already entrenched in efforts that would appease those clamoring to defund the police:
“We are ahead of the curve in Atlanta because we are already reallocating our public safety, we are already moving 60 percent roughly out of our corrections budget into that very specific area. So in some areas people are calling it defunding the police, in Atlanta we’ve been doing this work over the past couple of years.”
Yet, in the wake of rising crime in Atlanta – and the recent tragic murder of 7-year-old Kennedy Maxie – the notion of less police in Atlanta isn’t nearly as appealing to many as it was six months earlier.
Atlanta Police to provide update on murder case of young girl hit by stray bullet in Buckhead https://t.co/rteDmIMBbn
— 11Alive News (@11AliveNews) December 29, 2020
This set into motion what’s known as the “Buckhead Security Plan”, which is a $1.62 million project that will be used to supplement the Atlanta Police Department within the commercial and residential Buckhead neighborhood area.
Measures to be employed by the endeavor include establishing more license plate readers, security cameras around the area, as well as additional forces aimed at dealing with “party houses” and drag racing in the area.
Details on the new plan outline that a private security force will function as “a coordinated security patrol consisting of extra-duty officers from the Atlanta Police Department, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia State Patrol, and private security firms.”
The Atlanta Police Foundation and the Buckhead Coalition are also encouraging residents to make private donations towards the effort, but a $125,000 collective chip-in has been promised by Atlanta City Councilmembers J.P. Matzigkeit, Howard Shook, and Matt Westmoreland.
Three Atlanta City Council members representing Buchkead have donated $125,000 to the Buckhead Security Plan, a new initiative to reduce crime in the community. https://t.co/LI6bsi81Cc
— Northside Neighbor (@NorthsideNbr) December 28, 2020
Regarding young Maxie’s recent murder, Councilmember Shook commented on how the rising crime in Atlanta has been getting downplayed by Mayor Bottoms:
“I don’t want to hear the word ‘uptick.’ Stop minimizing our concerns by telling us that ‘crime is up everywhere’.”
“Spare us from the lie that the steady outflow of our officers isn’t as bad as it is…And please, not another throw-away press conference utterly devoid of game-changing action steps.”
Councilmember Westmoreland says that the “Buckhead Security Plan” aims to not only make residents feel secure in their neighborhoods, but also restore police officers’ faith in feeling as though they’re supported:
“Far too many of our residents don’t feel safe, and too many of our men and women in uniform don’t feel supported. This plan aims to change that.”
“Every day, we ask our officers to stand in harm’s way. It’s important for them to know they have our support, and we have their backs.”
The city of Atlanta also played host to another high-profile murder of a child this year that was the result of the seemingly unchecked miscreants littering the streets, while armed, in the wake of the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks.
And police are still searching for the second suspect behind the young girl’s murder.
Here’s that previous report.
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ATLANTA, GA – While many across America celebrated with friends and loved ones during the Fourth of July, a family in Atlanta, Georgia had lost their had lost their 8-year-old girl from a senseless killing via armed individuals posted outside the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks during an attempted arrest.
The mother of Secoriea Turner, the young girl who was shot and killed in Atlanta on July 4 by armed protesters at the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was killed three weeks prior, renewed her plea to find her daughter's killer. https://t.co/Hbq9MGZUHk
— FOX 5 Atlanta (@FOX5Atlanta) December 19, 2020
While one suspect is currently in custody, at least one other remains at-large, and the mother of this young girl is pleading with someone to come forward with information.
On July 4th, armed radicals had illegally erected barricades University Avenue when 8-year-old Secoriea Turner was riding in a Jeep along with her mother and a friend of her mother’s.
The driver of the vehicle had turned off the Downtown Connector onto University Avenue slightly before 10:00 p.m. on July 4th, making an attempt to pull into a liquor store parking lot on the 1200 block of Pryor Road.
What happened next resulted in a young girl being shot and killed.
A group of armed men seemingly associated with the barricading of the general area where Brooks had a fatal encounter with police three weeks earlier had approached the vehicle – with two men firing into the Jeep.
Despite the driver fleeing from the gunfire and heading straight to Atlanta Medical Center, young Secoriea did not survive the sustained gunshots.
Police were able to eventually hone in on one of the armed suspects while investigating the case, but one other person of interest has yet to be located. Months after identifying said second person of interest, investigators have no new leads on his whereabouts or identity.
Secoriea’s mother said that Christmas is never going to be the same without her little girl. Just last month, those who knew and loved Secoriea engaged in a celebration of her life on what would’ve been her 9th birthday.
On December 18th, the young girl’s mother in concurrence with GRIEVES – a homicide support group for survivors of lost loved ones – continued urge anyone to come forward with information on the second suspect.
As for the current suspect in custody, 19-year-old Julian Conley, he’s currently being held at the Fulton County jail under charges of aggravated assault and murder.
The family of Secoriea Turner is also in the midst of a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta regarding the child’s murder, specifically for not swifter taking action against the unlawful barricading and intimidation tactics where the child was slain.
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