(ThyBlackMan.com) When I wrote my first article exposing the crime in Atlanta and those who cover it up, entitled Atlanta, GA: Worst Crime City In America, it was met with ignorance, insults and opinions of people who had neither understanding of the truth nor first-hand experience to refute my claims. So this companion piece is going to give you some evidence, for those who want the truth and those who want to be safe that is. The rest of you can stay in denial about Atlanta’s real crime rates until the criminals make you believers because you best believe they are waiting. Try asking the victims of Atlanta crime what they think. Then try asking the residents of Buckhead (the most upscale and richest part of town) what they think.
ATLANTA SELLING ITS SOUL AND CITIZEN SAFETY FOR CAPITALISM?
While I am neither going to go into my previously held positions nor my inside contacts nor how many law enforcement officials, politicians and “plugged in” or influential people know the truth, I will say this. My claims are accurate and the proof can be easily found, if you know where to look. If you want to look. Still, the primary jurisdiction police department does the best it can with the staff and resources it has to work with so I applaud them. To say any more than that in that arena would make it even more open season on Atlanta for crime than it already is. Yet there is a delicate balance that must be in place to warn citizens and visitors while still helping Atlanta to grow and thrive. Unfortunately, because most of Atlanta’s leaders have not found that balance (or don’t want to), they lean toward the prosperity of the city over the truth that would prepare its citizens not to be victims of crime. And that is just another reason most of you have no idea how bad the crime in Atlanta actually is.
CITIZENS NEED TO BE AWARE AND THUS PREPARED – NOT DECEIVED
Right now some of you are thinking “crime is everywhere so high crime does not make Atlanta the nation’s crime capitol”. And I would have to agree that is all true. Plus I didn’t say that it did. But what does make Atlanta the crime capitol of America is massive crime numbers concealed by political officials who have no plan to prevent, stop nor reduce those crimes. Crime numbers that, when calculated properly, show Atlanta to be exactly what I said it is. So before we get into how those numbers are calculated, I have to ask how many of you are stats analysts and how many of you are just basing the truth on your opinion, wishful thinking, what you heard or the news or what somebody told you?
WHEN YOU SEE THE ATLANTA POLICE CRIME NUMBERS, YOU ARE NOT SEEING THE TOTAL CRIME NUMBERS FOR ATLANTA
I had really hoped not to get into the boring stats and data analysis of the truth. But some of you just had to keep coming with opinions when you had no idea what you were talking about. So I dare you to sit there and read all this stuff. Here it goes and I will try to simply it as much as possible. Atlanta crime numbers are calculated using a system called the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and sent to the FBI. But for a long time Atlanta leadership intentionally refused to switch from the Uniform Crime Reporting system (old, inaccurate and outdated, created in 1929) to the NIBRS system. Under the old UCR system various types of crimes could slip through the cracks and that served to suit mayors and political leaders of Atlanta just fine for a long time. Allowing manipulation, camouflage and inaccuracy in the crime numbers allowed Atlanta officials to create a picture of a city with much lower crime numbers. All the while at the cost of citizen safety. Thus for a long time the crime numbers in Atlanta were not correct. But the plot thickens even more than that as we fast forward to the more recent past.
When Atlanta switched to the newer NIBRS crime tracking system under former mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the crime numbers appeared to surge or spike. First, yes they actually did because crime actually did and because the mayor before Bottoms had no real plan but to conceal the truth. But secondly, the newer NIBRS caught and tracked numbers that UCR did not. Thus another reason the numbers went up, because a lot of the crime was always there yet hidden because the UCR system did not record some of it. So you see, the crime numbers have been off for a long time. And even though the UCR system was re-designed in the 1980s, it was still heavily flawed and behind the times as crime kept evolving.
Historical background of UCR. https://ucr.fbi.gov/leoka/leoka-2010/aboutucrmain
Recognizing a need for national crime statistics, the IACP formed the Committee on Uniform Crime Records in the 1920s to develop a system of uniform crime statistics. After studying state criminal codes and making an evaluation of the recordkeeping practices in use, the Committee completed a plan for crime reporting that became the foundation of the UCR Program in 1929. The plan included standardized offense definitions for seven main offense classifications known as Part I crimes to gauge fluctuations in the overall volume and rate of crime. Developers also instituted the Hierarchy Rule as the main reporting procedure for what is now known as the Summary Reporting System of the UCR Program.
The seven Part I offense classifications included the violent crimes of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and the property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. By congressional mandate, arson was added as the eighth Part I offense category in 1979.
In January 1930, 400 cities representing 20 million inhabitants in 43 states began participating in the UCR Program. That same year, Congress enacted Title 28, Section 534, of the United States Code authorizing the Attorney General to gather crime information. The Attorney General, in turn, designated the FBI to serve as the national clearinghouse for the crime data collected. Every year since, data based on uniform classifications and procedures for reporting offenses and arrests have been obtained from the Nation’s law enforcement agencies.
WILLFUL IGNORANCE AND LOOKING THE OTHER WAY
The police know what I say is true but don’t expect them to admit it, if they want to keep their jobs. The city council knows the truth, but don’t expect them to admit they don’t know what they are doing. They would not get re-elected, the public would be outraged and a bunch of people (and their staff) would be out of a job. The county Sheriff knows. Ask why he put deputies on the streets of Atlanta to combat the problem. The courts know, from juvenile court to the magistrates to state and superior court. The mayor (Andre Dickens) should know, but since he knows nothing about real public safety, whether he understands what is really happening or not is a toss-up. Intelligent? Yes he is but an engineer is not exactly a public safety expert. Not at all. But the failed public safety elements of the Dickens plan is another subject for another time.
Depending on how crimes are categorized and recorded, that can affect the crime stats. If a crime is labeled a homicide but not a murder, it obviously does not go in the murder stats. That is just one of many examples.
Furthermore, there are 12 to 15+ different police departments that operate in Atlanta and the overlapping jurisdictions. When people see Atlanta crime stats that the Atlanta Police Department submitted, those are not the total crime stats for Atlanta. They are only the crime stats that one police department submitted.
SEVERAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS, SEVERAL CRIME STATS
All the other police departments include Georgia Capital Police, US Postal Police, Marta Police (with the biggest daily regular jurisdiction of any police department except the state police), Georgia World Congress Center Police, Morehouse College Police, Clark CAU Police, Spelman College Police, Atlanta Metropolitan College Police, Georgia Tech Police, Georgia State University Police, Life College Police, Fulton County Sheriff’s office (now patrolling Atlanta city streets), Georgia State Patrol (assisting inside of the city of Atlanta) and others.
Each department submits their own crime stats to the FBI. So in order to get the total crime numbers for Atlanta, a person or agency would have to combine all of the crime stats from all of these departments. That is not what any police department operating in the city of Atlanta does. If they did, you would see crime numbers that would shock you. And most people who live in, visit or work in Atlanta have no idea about what I just told you.
Yes I could keep going, but by now you get the idea or just don’t want to. And if you just want to be lost in denial, the more proof I give you, the more you will ignore it. Therefore I am going to start wrapping it up. But I suggest you lock your doors when you come to Atlanta – the crime capitol of the nation. Unlike New York, Miami, St. Louis, New Orleans or Detroit (to name a few), crime in Atlanta happens anywhere, anytime without warning. And yes, there are over 100 gangs operating in the city of Atlanta.
Now I could go deeper, calculate the REAL crime numbers in Atlanta and compare Atlanta crime per capita with cities of similar size and population. But many of you would still ignore the facts. And for me to write all of that is just as boring as it is for the few of you who would even bother to read it. So I will just keep it simple.
Atlanta has become like visiting a third-world country that only shows you the glitz and glamour good side – the Aquarium, movie studios, Mercedes Benz stadium, King center, Carter center, Six Flags and a bunch of other distraction attractions. All distractions to deflect from the crime, the homelessness and homeless tent cities under the bridges, the road rage and high-speed car chases, the bus stops in dark and dangerous areas, the sporadic crime, the gangs, the random shootouts, the drugs, the flourishing sex trafficking industry, the high- speed chases, the overcrowded county jail where 64 inmates were stabbed in a 60-day period and the list goes on. Ask Buckhead (the most economically upscale part of Atlanta) why they yet again threatened to start their own city. Ask the Atlanta Braves why they are not in the city of Atlanta anymore. You have no idea about the crime in Atlanta. And like I said earlier, the proof is clear, if you know what to look for.
ATLANTA IS A “BLACK FACE” PLANTATION DISGUISED AS A BLACK MECCA
All that I have told you does not even scratch the surface. And most city or county officials would not dare to tell you the truth because they know you would be (1) scared and (2) outraged. But the facts are the facts. And the Sesame Street public safety plan that Mayor Dickens launched is just that. Ineffective and a joke. Still, egos flare and political perpetrating and posturing for photo-ops is as rampant as crime in Atlanta. I could give you names, but I won’t – this time. Good luck people, be safe and please ready my companion article on Atlanta crime.
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw
A Free Thinker, who loves to talk about Politics, etc. Also, all about uplifting the Black Community even if it doesn’t fit your mindset. One may hit me up at; TrevoCraw@ThyBlackMan.com.