Those were just two incidents in a series of shootings this month in the Vine City and English Avenue neighborhoods ― many of which were fatal. On Wednesday, Atlanta City Council members and neighborhood leaders gathered together to demand change.
“The list goes on and on,” Shadé Yvonne Jones, chair of NPU-L, said of the violence. “This is a daily problem.”
Jones and others said the gunfire has not waned despite past efforts by the Atlanta Police Department to increase the number of officers living in the troubled neighborhoods, including dozens of recruits who moved into an English Avenue Apartment complex in 2022.
And although Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens touts a more than 20% reduction in homicides across the city last year, that decrease is not felt by many fearful residents. Jones described the neighborhoods on the westside of the city as “under siege and under attack.”
“The cry is for engagement, the cry is for public safety,” she said. “You cannot expect the community to stand up against guns when that is the job of the police officers. So we are crying out for support.”
Council members who represent the areas of the city under the shadow of Mercedes-Benz Stadium are also pressing the city’s public safety agencies to do more. Council member Michael Julian Bond said Wednesday they want more patrols of every kind.
“We need more activity from the Atlanta police in our community,” he said. “We want to see bicycle patrols, we want to see foot patrols. We want to see the officers who live in this community more than just when they’re coming and going from their home.”
The state preempts local changes to firearm laws, so there is not a lot Atlanta’s elected leaders can do, aside from pouring additional funds toward increased policing. Bond said residents, too, need to step up.
“We have a right to be here — violence doesn’t belong here,” he said. “We’re united as a community to say no more violence, no more guns. We’re…
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