Councilman: Carjackers symptomatic of ‘out of control’ youths
July 27, 2009 at 5:31 pm by Scott Henry in NewsThe recent wave of smash-and-grab burglaries, home break-ins and his own carjacking this past Saturday have convinced Atlanta Councilman Ceasar Mitchell that “we’re dealing with a crisis of young people” who have turned to lives of crime.
As you may have heard, Mitchell, 40, had dropped his mother off at home after a concert and had just walked back to his SUV when three young men approached him. He says it was fairly clear they were up to no good, but he couldn’t make out what they wanted from him, so he asked for clarification. The guy in front pulled a gun out of his belt and fired it into the air.
“The whole exchange lasted maybe 40 seconds and I probably did 15 seconds too much talking,” Mitchell recalls. The gunman told him to step away from the car and the councilman didn’t hesitate to comply.
While the gun was never pointed at him, Mitchell says he’s thankful to be alive and unhurt — especially considering that, only an hour or so earlier, professional boxer Vernon “The Viper” Forrest had been fatally shot by muggers at a gas station a few miles away. Police have not suggested the two crimes are linked.
Mitchell says he believes the well-publicized police furloughs have encouraged many young men to turn to crime. As an antidote, he’d like to enact a city-wide daytime curfew that would prohibit school-age teens from being out on the streets during school hours.
“We need to say that we’re not going to tolerate this behavior any more,” he says.
As for Mitchell’s ride, a 2003 Ford Expedition, it was found a short distance away a few hours later. The only things found missing were his cell phone and a garage-door opener — for the City Hall parking garage.
“I’d love to have them come down to City Hall and pay us a visit,” says Mitchell.
July 27th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Soooooooooooooooo, who’s going to enforce this:
As an antidote, he’d like to enact a city-wide daytime curfew that would prohibit school-age teens from being out on the streets during school hours.
APD or Atlanta Public Schools’ truant officers? If the latter, I hope Ceaser talks to Beverly Harvard first. And if it’s APD? That solution’s not workin’ for me.
July 28th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Perhaps someone should point out to Mitchell that kids aren’t in school on Saturdays.
July 28th, 2009 at 10:18 am
“As an antidote, he’d like to enact a city-wide daytime curfew that would prohibit school-age teens from being out on the streets during school hours.”
I like his thinking, but the vast majority of males committing the armed robberies in this city are ages 17-21.
July 28th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I agree with the enforcement issue…are you going to have police stop, question, and ask ID of anyone who looks like they should be in school? The majority of crimes appear to be the work of repeat offenders. Naive question: do Fulton, DeKalb and other metro counties have a shared database of criminal/case information (fingerprints, DNA, etc.? as a tracking tool?
July 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
These little thugs are robbing and killing people at all hours of the night and Mitchell wants a daytime curfew?!?!
Now I know why this city is so screwed up.
July 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
This is “symptomatic” of our idiot local government. That a Councilman can be carjacked on a Saturday night and then state that his solution is a daytime youth curfew is beyond retarded. Seriously – he couldn’t think of anything better to say than that??
I live in Edgewood where crime is out of control, and the cops here (when they’re even around) often tell residents to “Buy a gun,” “move away,” or “get a big dog.”
Clearly we could stop the midnight shootings by making sure our kids are in school during the day. **Cue eye roll**
If his point is that we need to concentrate on educating the potentially-wayward youth, I agree with him on that long-term goal. However, as a timely solution to the increase in crime…it’s frankly an insult to our collective intelligence to put forth such a silly proposition!
July 28th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
as to the school thing—-aside from it being out on saturdays, isn’t it out for summer right now?
and the shared data base? yeh right! aside from the GCIC and the national version there isn’t much communication/ any communication between jurisdiction. so for example a guy’s getting out after doing his time but he knows he’s got a warrant active in ____ county and he tells the folks letting him out and they don’t do a thing about it cause they don’t check about that when releasing someone just when doing intake in almost all situations. or say someone is in a certain jail on memorial drive at 285 and the guy has an outstanding warrant but they don’t serve him and let him go and say his PO calls to see why it isn’t showing up as having been served and learns that he’s been released and the answer is essentially “oops” and then the PO asks if they’ll go to his known address which is the same as the address of the person who posted his bond and they refuse…
yeh, no connected data bases or much communication between agencies in the same jurisdiction
July 29th, 2009 at 10:50 am
OK, so his proposal won’t solve all of our problems, but….
You bitch when they do nothing, you bitch when they try to do something.
I applaud Ceasar Mitchell for at least addressing the issue. It beats the hell out of Shirley & Co’s head-in-the-sand approach.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Just so you know, doing something that will have zero impact on the problem is the same as doing NOTHING.
These kids are probably already drop-outs and many already have criminal records.
What the city needs is a real plan to adequately staff the police force. The 50 “stimulus police” is not enough. We will continue to lose more than 50 to other metro police departments because under Franklin, this city has treated its police force horribly.
July 29th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Call me crazy, but how about if you are a juvenile, say 15 and up, and you commit a crime, you go to jail in the big house (with the adults) instead of the slap on the wrist that they are getting now? Ok, you want to rehabilitate them? -Then there must be a better way then letting them walk with a slap on the wrist, perhaps a bootcamp.
New rule: Break into a house/get caught with a gun (and no carry permit) / steal a car = time in the big house.
July 31st, 2009 at 5:30 pm
cep,
“Call me crazy, but how about if you are a juvenile, say 15 and up, and you commit a crime, you go to jail in the big house (with the adults) instead of the slap on the wrist that they are getting now?”
That’s already the law. Kids under the age of 17 arrested for Armed Robbery (10-Life) are automatically charged as adults.