Brutal Attack at Grant Park Restaurant (Atlanta: construction, vehicle, metro)

[cityrover]

sorry if it's already been posted, but i find this very relevant. A lot of nice info in this article

Intown residents fearful of 'crime wave' | ajc.com

[FromCLTtoATL]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

It's incidents like this that **** me off. The victim as we know was an honest citizen trying to live a good life. He wasn't dealing drugs, or in a gang, or did nothing to **** the perpetrators off. They could have just took the money and left, which is already bad enough, but they had to end his life execution style. That's what makes me feel unsafe in Atlanta and sad to see that it's going back to the old days of pre-1996 when Atlanta was really dangerous. Almost a decade of progress gone to waste.

This kind of violence, sadly, can happen any time and any place in America. Atlanta is not special for this.

I lived in Greensboro, N.C., for 11 years, and by any stretch, one would consider it a safer place than Atlanta during the same time frame (mid '80s to mid '90s). Atlanta certainly had a more dangerous reputation. However, I had knife put to my throat in Greensboro (fortunately, nothing happened) and then I witnessed a hold-up with a gun less than six months later in Greensboro. And during those same years, I frequently came to Atlanta visiting friends, going out to places late at night, and nothing ever happened. In the city that felt safer, I easily could have had my throat slit. I am just lucky the guy holding a knife to my throat took my money. And I could have easily been shot watching that hold-up (or the guy held up). In the city where I was more wary, nothing happened.


I do think the economy will make things like this more likely.

[FromCLTtoATL]

Originally Posted by south-to-west

The best thing we can do now is to stay strong and become more vigilant and intolerant of criminal activity. Also, watch out for your neighbor.

101% agree with this.

[FromCLTtoATL]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

The economy has nothing to do with this, though the media aims it toward that idea.

When the economy goes down and recessions and layoffs set in, you do see a rise in things like shoplifting, property theft, car break-ins, and things like that. Even some really desperate people may rob a bank. But you do NOT see people with the mentality of, "I just got laid off, I got to go kill me somebody". Sorry - doesn't happen.

The kinds of people who do this sort of thing are dangerous creatures that would do it anyway, even in a good economy. They are not regular people who have been laid off who feel they are forced to shoplift or steal something in order to survive.

I see your point in one way, but I will throw this out. I lived for eight years in a part of Charlotte one would call transitional. Not terrible. But hardly a crime-free gated community. Bottom line: Though most of the neighborhood was poor except for a few "pioneers" like ourselves, we felt safe. For seven and a half years, practically nothing. We had almost no problem in our condos. In the first part of 2008, as the economy started getting worse, we had six break-ins and an armed robbery right on the street in the span of a few months last spring. I fully believe it was the economy. I just can't account for the sudden explosion of crime where we lived. other than the economy Now no one was killed or even shot, but just the increase in the number of break-ins, not to mentioned the armed robbery, dramatically increased the chances something worse could happen.

Sometimes, the path to murder is paved with a theft here, a robbery there. It could be the robbers only planned to commit a robbery, and in the heat of the moment of the robbery, chose to tragically and brutally end a man's life. I doubt a lot of these murderers wake up in the morning and go: I'm gonna kill someone today. I do bet they wake up and say: I'm gonna rob today. We can never know, for sure, the mind-frame and intentions and motivations of these killers, but there's just as good a chance they didn't have murder on their minds as they did.

I am still concerned, because of the economy, we will see both more robberies, thefts and burglaries, and during the commission of such, more murders.

[RZaakir]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

The economy has nothing to do with this, though the media aims it toward that idea.

When the economy goes down and recessions and layoffs set in, you do see a rise in things like shoplifting, property theft, car break-ins, and things like that. Even some really desperate people may rob a bank. But you do NOT see people with the mentality of, "I just got laid off, I got to go kill me somebody". Sorry - doesn't happen.

The kinds of people who do this sort of thing are dangerous creatures that would do it anyway, even in a good economy. They are not regular people who have been laid off who feel they are forced to shoplift or steal something in order to survive.

It's a fair point, but I don't think it really sticks here unless the murder was premeditated. Of the myriad things that we don't know, one is that these guys set out to kill that night.

[RZaakir]

Wow, mere minutes after I write that I go over to the ajc and see this:

Bartender wasn't shot execution-style, police say | ajc.com

[atlantamoi]

The police were just a little off in their original story, huh? Regardless, doesn't change that these scum should be hunted down.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by gt6974a

I'll just add, go to one of these indoor ranges and take a class, they provide the gun so you don't have to buy one, it's relatively cheap and you might learn something. Worst case, you spend $60 dollars, still hate guns, don't have to buy one, and still might learn something.

Been to Vegas? Next time go to 'The Gun Store', you can shoot all kinds of weapons, automatic, antique, etc.

You and I think very much alike. See it's not necessarily the fact that he would have even had to shoot all of them. Criminals are dumb, but most of them arent dumb enough to commit suicide. I learned a long time ago if you hit the first man in the rest of them arent going to stick around long enough to try to "defend" him... theyre going to get the hell on. I encourage EVERYONE that can legally carry to do so. It's pretty much like I said in another post, you never really know the feeling of being helpless staring down the barrel of a gun unless youre put in the situation. And sure there will be those that come in and say "if he's holding it on you you cant grab for it anyway.".. but truth be told is you're MORE likely to be able to defend yourself with it than without it...especially when you hear someone bust in your window or your front door in the middle of the night. What are you going to do, talk it out? I actually have one more payment on a ruger p95 and im going to be trading in my 380 for it... but youll pretty much never catch me without mine on my side unless im in church or at work.

[Merin]

Standard murder: One suspect in custody, three more to go | Fresh Loaf

Looks like someone was caught

[MovedfromFL]

Yeah, a 17 year old was arrested. Police think he is a member of a gang and involved in several other crimes.

There have been a lot of crime headlines in Atlanta lately. I doubt I would find myself out and about down there at night. Just not worth it.

I still remember the story of the young guy who made it home from Iraq and was driving in downtown Atlanta when he was gunned down. That's just absurd. You make it home from a war and end up getting killed in your own city. (this was about 2 years ago)

We have to face the fact that most of our urban areas are becoming war zones. (Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, etc) Crime is out of control. Kids get criminal rap sheets in middle school and go downhill from there. It's not easy to escape that environment of poverty when that's all you know. My parents have friends who are married, hard working adults but their daughter got in with the wrong crowd and her life is ruined. We can't revitalize these neighborhoods by planting trees and putting up lights (like Orlando tried to do). I don't know what the answer is, but there are numerous factors at play here. (one of which is the high school drop out rate. Another is the lack of jobs for those with high school diplomas. Gone are the days when you could get a job at the plant and earn decent money. What jobs are there for these young men?) I'm not excusing this behavior in any way, but something is NOT working. Our prisons are bursting at the seams. There is no "corrections" in our jail system. Packing criminals in there is only making them into hardened monsters. Not to mention the obscene amount of money states are spending on jails.