Georgia Tech Robberies (Atlanta, Lilly: apartment complex, violent crime, neighborhoods)

[Noc]

Originally Posted by Mattie

GA. Tech is going to have to press this issue with the city. Nobody will want to send their kids to a school in what is being publicized as a dangerous area for students, myself included. Our youngest was planning on applying there this year, but we are having second thoughts. I realize the campus is considered safe, but it isn't realistic to expect students to confine themselves to the campus. The administration has to go to bat on this issue, and fast.

+1

This is why I've stated that the city can't wait for the cost cutting to come down and the money to be enough. Things like this is not only affecting you sending your kids to college but me as well who want to move to Atlanta. I wouldn't say I'm having seconds thoughts but I'm weary about what's happening and it's frequency.

[IMISSNY]

Originally Posted by hokiehigh

Isn't it sort of crazy that we have to live in a country where we have to arm ourselves? That's more like a third world country. I am not anti-guns or whatever, but it seems like a uncivil area near Ga Tech.

This happens in so many parts of Atlanta I am from NY and I havnt experience as much crime until I moved here, I am sick of it, I brought my child here because I was thinking safer place to live I cant wait to get out of here and for those who has the smart attitude that I should just leave if I dont want to jump up and became a murder trying to prevent someone from murdering me, dont worry asap belive that.

[hookem89]

I tell ya, we tech students have it the worst. Difficult Academics, small population of girls - whom all are very pretentious and arrogant, no real party scene at all, and now we're getting robbed like crazy. Oh well, at least it's all worth it in the end.

[AcidSnake]

If nothing else maybe these recent events will shake the students of GaTech from their usual torpor and make them acknowledge that nothing good comes in this world without a fight. Start a mass march, walk right down to the GaTech President's office and make him take a pro-active stance against the growing crime in his area. Block his office, sit in if necessary and get the local media to look up and take notice.

All too often people will go the lazy route and think that making a couple of phone calls and some e-mails will do the trick. Not these days. If people don't see you, they might as well not hear you. Agitate, agitate, AGITATE!

[wxjay]

Originally Posted by hookem89

I tell ya, we tech students have it the worst. Difficult Academics, small population of girls - whom all are very pretentious and arrogant, no real party scene at all, and now we're getting robbed like crazy. Oh well, at least it's all worth it in the end.

I hear ya on that, especially the girls part.

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by IMISSNY

This happens in so many parts of Atlanta I am from NY and I havnt experience as much crime until I moved here, I am sick of it, I brought my child here because I was thinking safer place to live I cant wait to get out of here and for those who has the smart attitude that I should just leave if I dont want to jump up and became a murder trying to prevent someone from murdering me, dont worry asap belive that.

Where do you live? Bankhead/Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway? You might want to research an area of ANY city before you move there...but I suspect you live in Dunwoody or some similar haven and you're just reading about crime that is over-hyped by our local media.

[waronxmas]

You make a good point here:

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Unfortunately, a couple of decades ago we started to see a percentage of American kids start to grow up in ghettos, who had fathers who abandoned them, and mothers who did drugs and/or had to work two jobs and were never home to raise them. These kids were wild, stealing cars and shoplifting from stores. Then, THOSE kids had kids, and their kids got just a little bit meaner. Then those kids had kids, and the word "carjacking" entered our vocabulary. Now, the 4th generation or so of fatherless children have entered society, and we see the result...

But ruin it with this little bit of extreme paranoia:

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

...children in some cases not even old enough to drive, or those not even 16 or 17, armed to the teeth with semi-automatic weapons, patrolling the roads in SUVs, looking for victims to rob, harm, and in some cases, murder. Why? "just because they can". No remorse, no emotion - just "because".

There are no roaming bands of thugs driving around in cars or walking the streets looking for their next innocent victim. Moderator removed: Do NOT insult. Who would do that and for what reason? I think you mistaking gang members who roll around looking for a target in another gang. Occasionally innocent bystanders get caught in the middle and get hurt, including a friend of mine who was gunned down in University Homes on his way to visit his grandma 15 years ago.

I've lived in this city my whole life (with long stints in other, more insane cities like New York, Mumbai and Manila) and trust me when I say this is the safest it has been in my life. The current wave of crime we are seeing is directly linked to the economy. What do you think happens when people who are poor get even poorer? They get desperate and do stupid things. Smash and grabs were unheard of just a few years ago. Now they seem to happen every other week. Is it because they are mindless hoodlums who want to steal them to have the freshest fashion, or are they stealing them to sell on the street so they can eat? It's not right, nor do I defend them, but we have to be realistic about how and why crime occurs.

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

You make a good point here:



But ruin it with this little bit of extreme paranoia:



There are no roaming bands of thugs driving around in cars or walking the streets looking for their next innocent victim. The very idea is idiotic. Who would do that and for what reason? I think you mistaking gang members who roll around looking for a target in another gang. Occasionally innocent bystanders get caught in the middle and get hurt, including a friend of mine who was gunned down in University Homes on his way to visit his grandma 15 years ago.

I've lived in this city my whole life (with long stints in other, more insane cities like New York, Mumbai and Manila) and trust me when I say this is the safest it has been in my life. The current wave of crime we are seeing is directly linked to the economy. What do you think happens when people who are poor get even poorer? They get desperate and do stupid things. Smash and grabs were unheard of just a few years ago. Now they seem to happen every other week. Is it because they are mindless hoodlums who want to steal them to have the freshest fashion, or are they stealing them to sell on the street so they can eat? It's not right, nor do I defend them, but we have to be realistic about how and why crime occurs.

Addtionally...criminal activity is not hereditary...law-abiding citizens very often come from rough or violent environments; criminals very often come from law-abiding, loving parents; good kids very often come from one parent households (which are currently very common at all income levels).

One has nothing to do with the other.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

Addtionally...criminal activity is not hereditary...law-abiding citizens very often come out of rough environments; criminals very often come from law-abiding parents. One has nothing to do with the other.

EXACTLY!

A prime example is my own life. My paternal grandfather used to run with gangs in 1940s and 1950s New York. My father was a hoodlum when he was a kid (just petty stuff) and looked like he was going to follow the same path. But he straightened up. Got educated and had a great career.

Unfortunately my parents couldn't afford at first to set down roots in a clean and pretty suburb (which I am thankful for) and we lived in the West End and East Point. By the time I was entering middle school it was right in the middle of the turf wars. I, along with my siblings, saw more death and destruction than most people should before they are adults. But that experience didn't set us back. We ALL are college educated and lead upper middle class lives.

I'm not saying this to brag, but to suggest that anyone who comes from someone or somewhere that rough and thuggish is bound for the same life is ridiculous. I don't think Greg implied that exactly, but subtlety implied as the reason why those kids do what they do.

[elvez]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

Addtionally...criminal activity is not hereditary...law-abiding citizens very often come from rough or violent environments; criminals very often come from law-abiding, loving parents; good kids very often come from one parent households (which are currently very common at all income levels).

One has nothing to do with the other.

One has nothing to do with the other? I think statistics tell a different story. Where do you get your information?