The Update - 6/19: Breaking-Decatur's Confederate monument is brought down, the APD walkout and more
I'm still mortified from yesterday but here's today's update
Welcome to my freemium newsletter by me, King Williams. A documentary filmmaker, journalist, podcast host, and author based in Atlanta, Georgia.
This is a newsletter covering the hidden connections of everything in the world of Atlanta from urbanism, to politics and entertainment.
This was a monument dedicated to the confederacy in the heart of downtown Decatur. It is no longer here as of June 18th at 11:30 pm
BREAKING: DeKalb County is getting rid of its Confederate monument
And much to the chagrin of The Sons of Confederacy who are threatening action against the county as a judge has ruled the 30-foot obelisk can be moved to storage.
This is happening now as we speak and the monument is being moved per county officials.
This will no doubt lead to a lawsuit against the county as well as CEO Michael Thurmond, who is now the first government official to openly challenge the confederate monuments law.
This wouldn't have reached this far unless it was for a consistent effort by Decatur residents as well as the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights and Hate Free Decatur.
The monument for years has been asked to be removed by residents and as recent as last summer the thought of removing any confederate monument in Georgia was thought to be dead as a result of a 2019 confederate monuments bill passed by Governor Brian Kemp.
This sets up an interesting question as to what happens next as the largest Confederate memorial in the world, Stone Mountain Park also sits in the county.
Stone Mountain was purchased by the Venable brothers, William and Sam in 1887 to be used as a rock quarry. The brothers also were also Klansmen and used the site for activities for the Klu Klux Klan, which included the first recorded cross burning in 1915.
The Venerable brothers allowed for Stone Mountain to be used as the staging venue of the rebirth of the Klan in 1915. This rebirth was inspired by the film D.W. Griffith, A Birth of a Nation which was inspired by the 1905 book The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Clansman was the second book in a trilogy that gained wide success as a stage play at the time.
The key tenets of the book were the need to stop the south from Negro political control, the need to stop violence of coming Black men, and restore the south to glory.
The book, play and film are all byproducts of Southern revisionism that emerged after the Civil War.
This revisionism was aided by women-led, confederate memorial organizations and was taught in schools, alongside being used as entertainment.
This ecosystem aided in the construction of Confederate memorials throughout the south as a testament to the notion of ‘the lost cause’ and symbols of intimidation towards Black southerners.
If you haven’t read my article on the history of Memorial Day and how it was whitewashed by confederate memorial societies, please read it.
Atlanta Police Department (alleged) walkout
Several members of the Atlanta Police Department are believed to be engaging in a walkout of their evening posts. According to CBS46 anchor Shon Gables, several Zone 6 and Zone 3 evening shift officers have allegedly used the “blue flu” excuse.
This comes as under the cloud of three weeks of national protests, calls of reforms, and questions on the nature of policing.
In Atlanta, this heightened environment of scrutiny of police officers comes with real concerns as APD officers in the last few weeks have been seen on camera engaging in several instances of misconduct. This misconduct includes aggressively handling protestors protesting police brutality, tasing two college students on live tv, and the killing of Ryshard Brooks in a Wendy’s parking lot on Friday.
This anger among officers is growing as two officers from the tasing incident are now facing charges, four more taking desk jobs, and now the officer who killed Ryshard Brooks is facing murder charges.
So far eight officers have quit the force as a result of “low morale” and if the rumors are true of last night’s walk-off, Mayor Keshia Lance Bottoms list of problems is getting close to an even 100.
Local News
Family tear-gassed at Chevron at the corner of University Ave and Pryor St
Two days ago Cliff Palmer, his wife, and their young children were out at the peaceful protests at the corner of University Avenue and Pryor Street, near the cite of where Ryshard Brooks was killed. The family was using the time to show his children what a peaceful protest looked like.
The family was using a pickup truck to provide water for the protestors and were a decent distance away from the action when police began to teargas the crowd.
@CityofAtlanta must stop deploying violence upon our community as we respond to murder of our people. @Atlanta_Police tear gassed a child, community, and local reporters. Stop the violence and work with local organizers to end this now. #RayshardBrooksBut as protestors quickly fled, the family was hit with teargas in their vehicle, while their children were in the car but managed to escape. Palmer went to Instagram to vent about the ordeal and while everyone is glad they are alive, this is an ordeal they will not soon forget.
Canopy Atlanta
There’s a new journalism an issue that’s happening in Atlanta and it comes from a few of my journalistic buddies. It’s called Canopy Atlanta and I really hope that you could support this.
They currently are trying to create a new form of citizen journalism in the city as a result of so many cuts to big organizations around town. They have just launched a fellowship that if you believe yourself or someone should be interested in some apply, click on the link below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf0FCiVsHMAxkbFj3XhITpV4lPIX532p1g4pmfFWGzwjy4idg/viewform
Clayton County cop points gun on children
And what was generally one of the worst and horrifying videos to come out of metro Atlanta since the Richard Brooks killing last week. Clayton County police officer points a gun at five middle school-age children.
Yesterday in Clayton County, GA a officer pulled his gun out on 5 teenagers about 13-15 yrs old for going through the neighborhood shortcut to get to the store.This comes as a call from a local store clerk to police that children were planning to steal from the store (nothing was stolen). But the teens were playing with a BB gun as they were tossing it back-and-forth to each other. The children were walking through a neighborhood and crossed through a set of homes when the officer pulled a gun out on the children.
Luckily the young boys are making no sudden movements and community members got out of their car is in their homes to talk to Officer down. There is no word if any other disciplinary actions will be facing against the officer.
Gilly Brew Bar
One of the Black businesses I have championed the most in Atlanta has been Gilly Brew Bar. The Stone Mountain Village-based business has been an innovator in the coffee space in Atlanta for the last few years.
You can see a lot of the influence the flavor combinations, seasonal menus, and delivery methods in several coffee shops throughout the city.
They have just made the announcement that they will be moving to a second location in Casselberry Hills in the Peter Street Station building.
Peter Street Station is the brainchild of tattoo artist and creative Miya Bailey of the legendary City of Ink tattoo shop in Castleberry. Gilly Brew Bar will be hosting a pop-up today from 3 pm-9 pm, please stop by.
New Dollar General in…Midtown?
Midtown will get its first discount store in years. Dollar General, yes that Dollar General will be rolling out one of their new DGX properties. DGX is opening on 7th and Peachtree, at the 881 Peachtree development.
DGX has been a rebrand of Dollar General stores for urbanized millennials and has slowly been rolled out over the last few years in different cities across the US.
photo via Darin Givens
These smaller footprint stores feature a greater focus on fresh produce, a better selection of packaged food goods, cleaning products, and housewares. The stores themselves feel closer to the Whole Foods 365 brand or an upscale Aldi grocery store.
But not everyone is happy with having a dollar store in Atlanta’s hottest real estate market of the last decade.
Shoutout to my fellow ThreadATL board member Darin Givens for letting people know about it.
Amir Farohki’s UBI study
Atlanta City Councilman Amir Farohki is looking at implementing the first universal basic income (UBI) study in the state of Georgia. The councilman is slowly developing a feasibility study and is looking at Stockton, California’s ongoing UBI study as a reference point.
You may have remembered from my article on Andrew Yang’s UBI plan from earlier this year, on why UBI will probably take off.
Farohki also has done an innovative model regarding participatory budgeting since 2019, where residents can decide on what community projects could be accomplished using $1 million of his district’s budget.
Farohki is one of the few councilmembers who is pushing for new ideas constantly and is trying things out. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.
Hate Crimes law update
We still have no hate crimes law on the books in Georgia, but if it’s up to current Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan we will have something by the end of the session. Jeff Duncan is working with several Republicans to develop a hate crimes law in the state of Georgia.
This comes after the killing of Ahmaud Aubrey in Brunswick in February and an increased effort to finally pass legislation due to ongoing statewide protests. The Georgia NAACP chapter has called out Duncan as they have not been consulted on this plan.
This comes at a time where several large businesses in the state have called on a bill to be passed. Georgia is one of only four states in the US that does not currently have a hate crimes law.
DeKalb County giving out food on today, Juneteenth
This is an ongoing partnership between the county and the Atlanta Food Bank for anyone in need. The food given out beginning at 12:30 pm and will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. Thew boxes are between 15-20 lbs each, containing meat, dairy, and produce.
Please check the listings below:
—First African Community Development Corporation Food Pantry at Big Miller Grove Baptist Church: 3800 Big Miller Grove Way, Lithonia, GA 30038
—Tahoe Village Shopping Plaza: 4604 East Ponce de Leon Avenue, Clarkston, GA 30021
Bobb Barr and Tom Price back Kelly Loeffler
Kelly Leoffler will be facing off in November against Reverend Raphael Warnock to retain her US Senate seat. Loeffler is doing as much as she can to maintain establishment Republicans and large big-ticket donors by having two prominent former Republican lawmakers Bobb Barr and Tom Price to back her candidacy in November.
A proposed $1 billion in education cuts for the 2021 fiscal year
Georgia State Senate has released their update to their 2021 fiscal year budget. Includes $2.6 billion in overall cuts, including a whopping one billion dollars to K-12 education.
Georgia already ranks pretty low on the educational standards and these cuts comes at the worst time as every municipality will have depressed sales tax earnings due to COVID-19.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens going forward as these budget cuts may actually be more severe for fiscal year 2022.
DeKalb police are adding a ‘duty to intervene’ policy
The DeKalb County police force is adding a new policy for all officers, the policy is known as ‘the duty to intervene’. The move is meant to be a built-in procedure for officers to step in and avoid an incident of misconduct like the one by Officer Derek Chauvin which led to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May.
Carroll County youth struck on camera while trying to get a check
Another video is now surfacing online, concerning a group of Carol County police officer harassing a young Black man who is attempting to pick up his check.
The officers one of the officers a question bro daylight continue to question a young boy young man who trying to give us information to the officer out of nowhere the office and then strikes the boys to the ground and the other officers get on top of him to arrest them.
Subsequently, as a result of the video that was posted to social media, the officer is currently not in active duty.
Tyler Perry to pay for Rayshard Brooks funeral
Tyler Perry has agreed to pay for all the funeral costs related to Ryshard Brooks and the future costs of college for Brooks’s four children. The entertainment mogul has been moved by the story, which has led Perry to talk about his own experience with the police.
The city of Atlanta is inundated with calls for defunding the police
Listening session has begun on Atlanta’s proposed 2021 budget. More than 600 people have left messages for comment ... so meeting will take several hours. City Council is set to vote on the budget this Friday.Atlanta City Council Remote Public Listening Session FY21 Budget https://t.co/Qvl8dlzUee
Atlanta City Council @atlcouncilLil Baby’s BLM song
Atlanta rapper Lil’ Baby has released a new single entitled ‘The Bigger Picture’, The song is one of the few protest songs emanating from the recent wave black lives matter protest throughout Atlanta.
Lil’ Baby is on Atlanta-based record label Quality Control Music and is unusual in the sense that due to his age and his influence on a very young population millennials and Gen Z’s is making it cool to be active in protesting.
Morehouse and Spelman gets $40 million each from the founder of Netflix
Morehouse and Spelman College gets forty million each from Reed Hastings and his wife Patricia Quillin as the CEO is starting up his philanthropic efforts again. Additional funds of forty million dollars going to the United Negro College Fund to be dispersed to other schools.
For Hastings this is pretty in line with his donations in the past is Hastings has been a big advocate and donor in education-related causes.
Local stories you may have missed
More drama with absentee ballots
Yes, 10 days later, we are still counting absentee ballots in Georgia and current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he will not mail out new ones for the November election.
Raffensperger said he won’t send absentee ballot request forms to 6.9 million Georgia voters again, as he did in the primary. Instead, he’ll create a website where voters can request absentee ballots themselves. #gapolGeorgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger introduced proposals Wednesday to avoid another election debacle, calling for more voting locations, technical support and poll worker training: https://t.co/JFfBXjC5aa #gapol
Mark Niesse @markniesseManuels Tavern added to the National Register of Historic places
In happier news, Manuels Tavern, the in-town bar, which has hosted numerous political fundraisers and several US presidents is now a part of the national register of historic places.
Article on the enduring yellow grocery store in the Bluff
Here’s a great sure article on a local grocery store, the yellow grocery store on English Avenue, known by many native Atlantans as ‘The Bluff’. I suggest if you have time to take out and read it, it’s a fascinating read on a different type of Atlanta history.
The Carter Center calls on the nation to address police brutality
In a rare move, The Carter Center has asked the nation to address the issue of police brutality.
Possible unarmed ‘para-police’
Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore has floated around the idea of using para-police, police without guns to be used to de-escalate conflict in areas such as protest.
Takedown John B. Gordon’s statue
In the wake of statues, flags, and other confederate emblems being taken down throughout metro Atlanta, Governor Brian Kemp has been using use law-enforcement to keep up the statue of John B. Gordon.
RIP Anthony Bourdain
Last week marked the two-year anniversary of Anthony Bourdain’s passing and several fans of the chef took to sharing videos to social media. None has been more popular than his trip to an Atlanta area Waffle House.
National News
No more Aunt Jemima after the company finally admits it was based on a racial stereotype.
Taylor Swift has joined the resistance.
Ex-NYPD admits in a now-deleted Instagram post that they killed Eric Garner.
DC’s mayor is being sued because of the Black Lives Matter mural.
A BLM protestor in the UK helped an anti-BLM protestor to safety.
Shake Shack did not poison officers who got milkshakes in NYC, despite what MAGA-Twitter says.
Trump’s executive order on police reforms is toothless and don’t pay attention to it.
A Boogaloo extremist killed two cops at an Oakland BLM rally in hopes of starting a second civil war and this is quite frightening. Despite the silly name, this militia group is infiltrating protests across America.
A good look from CNN on how supermarkets excluded Black neighborhoods.
International News
Maria Ressa’s conviction in the Phillippines is a chilling example of what is happening to journalists worldwide in an era of autocratic leaders.
A second wave lockdowns due to coronavirus are being looked at in Pakistan and China, while the US is determined to keep everything open.
-KJW
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