It’s the City’s Reputation That Will Be Kidnapped
If there is one case that the Atlanta Police and Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has to handle it’s the case of the Cabbage Town Kidnappers.
If you’re not familiar with this, at 2:30 AM on July first, two attorneys from prominent legal organizations were kidnapped outside of a nightclub. They were not freed until 15 hours later. The names of suspects have not been released.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing will shut off tourism and confirm white flight fears of downtown faster than kidnappings. While it is horrible that this happened, and the kidnappers were just plain stupid to attack someone who worked with the Public Defenders Office, this is a chance at redemption for the police department. Heaven knows they need it.
If the police get this case solved quickly and by the book, their reputation will be partially restored. If they give the D.A. a case that is easy to prosecute that will help too. The District Attorney then needs to make it very clear that kidnappers will swiftly receive the full impact of justice.
The Mayor, Convention and Visitors Bureau, and club owners then need to work together to make sure that this does not happen again. That means more police at various clubs at all hours of the night. It means that the police are going to have to work harder and smarter and may not be able to take as many side gigs.
So far, people have felt safe moving back into the city, but if another kidnapping happens, or if worse, one is successful, those condos will become very inexpensive very quickly and Real Estate Developers will egg on an already eager legislature to punish the city.
The Mayor specifically needs to get her hands dirty here. She needs to find the money to hire more officers, pay them more, and make sure they’re not corrupt. She then needs to publicly put pressure on Chief Pennington to make real changes and to cooperate with the Union. She needs to get businesses to help with some support for officers and the families. Then, we need the cop on every corner pledge.
Downtown, you need to always be able to see a police officer. Chicago did this in the 1970s and it made a huge difference. Literally, there was a cop on every block, all the time. From Castleberry Hill to the Fox and from Centennial Park to the King Center, any should be able to simply say, “Excuse Me, Mr. Officer?” and get immediate friendly help.
Do that and downtown booms. Fail to do that, see one major crime happen, and the whole city will lose 20% of the its property tax value over night.
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:52 am
Important correction - this did not happen “outside of a nightclub”. It happened a few blocks away from East Atlanta Village (also, that’s not “downtown”). Your description makes this sound like these guys walked out of a club and were kidnapped right there, which isn’t what happened.
So I think your arguments are a little misplaced here. This wasn’t a “downtown” or tourist issue; it’s an issue of early-morning neighborhood crime. East Atlanta isn’t even in the area you say you would like to see this “cop on every corner” program.
Having residents and tourists feel safe intown is indeed very important, and this is a disturbing assault, but it’s not a case that relates to your arguments that follow from it.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:04 am
[…] -Bloglanta on early Sunday morning’s kidnapping of two men from an East Atlanta street. The two men were held captive in Cabbagetown while their kidnappers used their credit cards. […]
July 4th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
The men were booked in DeKalb, not Atlanta. I don’t know where the final jurisdiction may be, but DeKalb has the same issue - 800 officers short according to a report.
Taxes…people complain the government takes their money, and then they complain when they don’t get a certain level of service.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
More than 50% of the most recent City of Atlanta budget went to public safety. Payt for Atlanta police is more than most of the surrounding metro area. I absolutely agree that everyone must feel safe for the city to prosper. I wonder how many more cops the city can hire without raising taxes. And those side gigs that the cops take-they are usually acting as security guards in clubs.