Atlanta’s rising crime problem brings threats of state intervention by Georgia lawmakers (how much, salaries)

[ronricks]

Originally Posted by demonta4

This is why I don't participate in conversations about crime. You can post the research and stats all day about what causes it and what can be done but most Americans lack the ability to critically think about social issues and think everything is just "bad individuals doing bad things", an elementary school assessment of what's actually happening (crime goes up every time we face a major economic collapse and increased unemployment with little to no social safety nets). We also foster much of this crime through Atlanta's ridiculously bad school clusters on the southside where poverty just leads to more poverty down the line instead of finding solutions to adequately educate children who directly deal with the violence many higher-income Atlantans whine about on the daily but don't actually come into contact with other than petty theft.

Being in poverty doesn't give one carte blanche to commit crimes. We know what leads to the cycle of poverty:

Single parent households
Not graduating high school
Having an extensive criminal record
Having children before you are out of high school or having multiple children before you are 21

You have to correct those and then go from there. No amount of money is going to fix that. The problems have been identified and it is up to the individual to fix them. Government isn't going to solve these problems for you. At some point personal accountability has to come into the equation instead of mocking higher income people who likely didn't succumb to those four things. I know blaming others is the 'in' thing to do right now but at some point it no longer can be the issue. You have to look in the mirror.

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by roadtrip75

The surge in violent crime is not related to the pandemic. During the first two months of the pandemic, crime was down or flat. It skyrocketed immediately after the George Floyd incident.


https://cdn.ymaws.com/counciloncj.or..._-_October.pdf


And it's equally dishonest to exonerate Keisha by saying the crime surge is happening in all cities. All cities are run by Democrats. They're all part of the same cultural movement. All of them are demonizing police when a person resists arrest (a horrible crime).

It's partially true that the pandemic may have caused psychological effects that caused people to react the way they did to the George Floyd incident. I also feel KLB is just using the excuse that it's ok to just be like the American cities and not try to raise the bar and strive to be better.

[hilltop180]

I'm not in Atlanta but in nearby Cobb. There have been a string crimes that seem to involve people getting gunned down or shot at in parking lots:

https://www.ajc.com/news/cobb-driver..._ez268dFvvQiVw

https://www.ajc.com/news/3-teens-cha...LMWLGTMK4NJMI/

https://www.ajc.com/news/12-year-old...DTEF7W6GFXPMM/

I'm not a crime expert but this appears gang related. I went to Cumberland mall Saturday with my wife and she saw some groups that looked gang related. Hopefully the city and nearby counties can get this under control because Cobb and Atlanta have a lot going for it.

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by JoeThomas

And all Republicans are insurrectionist, fascist cop killing, thugs because a hand full of them stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the US Government and killed Capitol police in the process while attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

Not sure you really want to go down this road.

Except that the Republican Party constantly promotes these actions and Dems simply want to reform our police and prison system. I am never going to treat conservatives as if they're equal to centrists (and I'm not particularly okay with them all the time) or progressives. A group of people who are okay working with fascists are always wrong.

[bryantm3]

A lot of it comes down to money. The goals of social conservatism do not align with the business and government practice of gutting everything and outsourcing everything.

If we want to reach that ideal of having the police force be the backbone of ethics in the community, that is going to require more training, much higher standards, and higher salaries. You can't continue to let the institution rot, get filled with neofacist militia and other yahoos and then say you're "backing the blue".

The same goes for almost every other issue out there. If you want people to not have abortions, you need to start building a society where it's possible for people to afford to feed their kids and build a life for themselves. If you want people to not go into gangs, start paying people to repair the neighborhoods.

The problem with the "personal responsibility" shtick is that it's hollow. The actions taken by (most) elected Republicans at every crook and turn show that maintaining personal wealth for the people who already have it is the priority, not expanding family values and community support to every American. People like this don't want to help, they want to be superior.

There are a whole lot of Democrats who believe this country is squeezing the blood out of itself by adopting "free market" capitalism as some kind of religion. They are aware families are spending less and less time together, the pressure that people are under. The things people are stooping to just to make ends meet. They just aren't going to vote Republican because they see through the charade of conservatism, they see that the policies implemented by this party are exacerbating the problem.

The thing about Trump is that at least he took some of that veneer off of the party and revealed what Republicanism was really all about. Many religious people are thankfully leaving the party for good. Maybe they will form their own party, but first they need to reject neoconservatism. You can't chop the country up and sell all its assets and then bemoan the fact that it's happening. It doesn't make any damn sense.

[SEAandATL]

The real problem with America (and just like most of America's problems, unfortunately Atlanta/Georgia is no exception but rather an example) is that there are two groups of total extreme opposites that cause lots of tension and cannot learn to work together and solve problems (like the rising crime) so instead they point fingers. Bottom line is neither of their groups' leaders care about the average hard working middle class.

[markjames68]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

The problem with the "personal responsibility" shtick is that it's hollow. The actions taken by (most) elected Republicans at every crook and turn show that maintaining personal wealth for the people who already have it is the priority, not expanding family values and community support to every American. People like this don't want to help, they want to be superior.

I’d argue the same for elected Democrats. We need to be compassionate, let immigrants in, yet don’t do anything to reduce poverty in meaningful ways for poor Americans who are now competing with millions of others. Their message is “government responsibility” which absolves people of the repercussions of having to make personal decisions because the government will take care of you, in the style dictated by those elected Democrats, who not only want to be superior, they act superior.

Neither is a great plan.

There are a whole lot of Democrats who believe this country is squeezing the blood out of itself by adopting "free market" capitalism as some kind of religion. They are aware families are spending less and less time together, the pressure that people are under. The things people are stooping to just to make ends meet. They just aren't going to vote Republican because they see through the charade of conservatism, they see that the policies implemented by this party are exacerbating the problem.

I know a lot of people in the Northeast, many of them relatives, who live in a bastion of liberalism ruled by the Democrat party, and who due to much higher cost of living are stooping even further than what you’d see here. Middle class people who earn too much to get benefits but who pay $10K in property taxes on a small home, high utility rates and more. This is due to decades of tax and spend policies.

The thing about Trump is that at least he took some of that veneer off of the party and revealed what Republicanism was really all about. Many religious people are thankfully leaving the party for good. Maybe they will form their own party, but first they need to reject neoconservatism. You can't chop the country up and sell all its assets and then bemoan the fact that it's happening. It doesn't make any damn sense.

In a 2 party system people who leave the Republican Party aren’t really joining the Democratic Party, especially not the leftist faction that has become popular. When I see Warren now proposing permanent stimulus payments it’s as far as “free market” capitalism as you can get. And of course, those benefits to low income people will continue even with permanent stimulus and a $15 an hour minimum wage. There will be a backlash at some point from the average taxpayer and 2022 is right around the corner.

[ronricks]

Wishing or thinking The Government (Democrats or Republicans) will take care of you and solve all your problems is planning to fail. Pretending a bunch greedy idiots who have never created anything and have been career government officials their whole lives know what is best for you and your money is setting yourself up for massive failure.

[ronricks]

Originally Posted by JoeThomas

Government takes care of red states paid for by blue states. 9 of the 10 most Federally government dependent states are red states, red states pay less in taxes than they receive back from the federal government, the opposite is true for blue states. In effect, red states are welfare states supported by high taxes in blue states.
https://www.businessinsider.com/red-...-queens-2011-8


No such thing as a "Democrat Party". You can always tell who's the member of the "Rethugliklan" Party when they say "Democrat Party". Any point they try to make after that is tainted in bias.

Taxes, housing and cost of living is higher in blue states but so are salaries, you could get paid twice as much in San Francisco and NYC for the doing the same job in the low tax, low cost of living states Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama and Florida. You also have more safety nets in place in the northeast, loose your job in Florida and you'll be on the street with no home and no health care. Basic economics, you get what you pay for.

Republicans aren't "tax and spend", they're "tax cut and spend", guess what's going to drain the checkbook faster? But that's what Republicans intend to do, to bust the budget wide open, It's called "starve the beast".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

Republican Party affiliation is shrinking moving toward Independent, Independents are moving towards the Democratic Party, so in affect, Republicans are moving towards the Democratic Party. https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/p...filiation.aspx Who can blame them? The Republicans led a violent insurrection against America and democracy, their President told 30,000 documented lies in 4 years, is an all out crook, a traitor and effectively killed over 500,000 Americans. Any wonder the GOP is shrinking? It's why they have to cheat and pass laws like the on they just passed in Georgia to try and cling to power.

Speaking of tainted biases, this violent insurrection you are talking about that happened how does that compare and contrast to all the violent protests we saw all summer long last year as far as damage, death count, and overall total destruction?

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by ronricks

Speaking of tainted biases, this violent insurrection you are talking about that happened how does that compare and contrast to all the violent protests we saw all summer long last year as far as damage, death count, and overall total destruction?

I would say the difference is that they weren't trying to capture and/or execute elected reps in order to overturn an election.