Sunday, January 17, 2010
Opinion, Politics, Atlanta
The APD's private party
I got thrown out. Were you invited?
A photo at the APD’s meeting, from the back so as not to identify attendees. Inset: Nehemiah Haire at Public Safety Committee.
By Stephanie Ramage
When Acting Police Chief George Turner had me thrown out of the Atlanta Police Department’s meeting with neighborhood planning units (NPUs) and others last week, he said it was because media were not invited.
But why weren't we?
The APD’s get-together on Jan. 12 wasn’t exactly a secret. If the APD wanted you there, you knew about it. One neighborhood activist knew about it only because she happened to hear about it from an acquaintance at another meeting, and even then she had to submit what amounted to a dossier to be allowed to attend. Some NPU members were not informed of the meeting, either.
The press was not notified, so we couldn’t announce the meeting to the public. Yet the APD honchos, I happen to know, made sure to invite at least a couple of fans from each zone so they could put on a good show for the City Council and the mayor, who had not been part of the meeting’s planning.
Mayor Kasim Reed, a strong advocate for transparency, acted quickly to correct Turner’s mistake when he became aware the press had been ejected, and had me called back in. But by the time I got back to APD headquarters 20 minutes later, the event had ended. That was about when the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Eric Stirgus showed up.
Turner apologized and said he had closed the meeting to the press to protect the privacy of those who wanted to speak out about specific offenders in their neighborhoods. That could have been accomplished by many other means: Residents could have submitted an anonymous lead sheet to the APD; they could have talked with officers in a side room; us reporters could have signed an agreement pledging that we would not report identifying information on pain of having our credentials revoked.
Of much greater importance to Atlantans is the fact that the APD kept the meeting from the public. Turner told me the meeting wasn’t just for NPUs; there were some others there who had things they wanted to discuss. The problem is, with the APD brass in charge of the invitations, residents who have serious issues with their police protection might not have known about the meeting.
Nehemiah Haire never would have known about it if not for the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.
Haire, an active NPU member, had spoken to the committee earlier that day about his extreme frustration with the APD. About 10 years ago, Haire, a contractor, and his partner Tamara Toth, a chemical engineer, bought a house for themselves in the southwest corner of the city, the APD’s Zone 4, and then another for Haire’s sister. Just starting a family, Haire and Toth felt optimistic about the neighborhood and bought two more houses nearby in hopes of renting them out. It wasn’t long, however, before the relentless war to defend what was theirs had begun.
Haire told the committee his houses, including the one his family lived in, have been broken into “in excess of 10 times” in the past two years. They have been stripped of pipes, wiring, sinks, countertops, air conditioners and refrigerators. Getting insurance has become a real problem. Getting someone to rent the unoccupied houses is impossible.
Haire stayed up nights worried sick, not just about his finances, but about the safety of his family. Their lives have been threatened. Last week, his little son and daughter stood quietly at the back of the committee room as their Daddy told the council members about two sex offenders in the area. One molested two little girls who live up the street and is still in the neighborhood. Haire reported this to the APD, he said, without any result.
Consequently, Tamara and the children have moved to Chattahoochee Hills. The family is split by nearly 40 miles. Tamara says she supports Nehemiah in his fight, but she has given up on the City of Atlanta’s ability to maintain public safety.
Things have been stolen from Haire’s property with such frequency that he has stopped calling the police to report thefts. As a result, there may be less
reported crime on his street, but the crime continues.
Haire recalls the day a local crackhead attempted to break a window with a two-by-four. Haire demanded to know what the man was doing on his property. “I left a bag in your house last night,” the man laughed.
Haire called the police and tried to hold the suspect until they got there. He ended up pummeling the perpetrator, who got away, and when the cops showed up, it was Haire who was arrested—for beating up the perp. The court eventually dismissed the charge.
Police do not seem to care about the area,, Haire says, and he is not hopeful that the APD’s recent reorganization will make much difference.
Thankfully, Councilman C.T. Martin stated the location and time of the APD’s meeting. Members Joyce Sheperd and Ivory Lee Young Jr. encouraged Haire to go and address the police directly. (The APD meeting was immediately after the Public Safety Committee meeting.) So Haire gathered up his small children and headed out into the cold dark. He spoke at the APD meeting—I got to see him just before I was hustled out—but he would have never known about it if it hadn’t been for those council members.
Every candidate in the mayor’s race promised to make sure Atlantans have equal access to police protection. The police meeting with the NPUs is a great first step in that direction. It is wonderful to know that Turner plans to do that more often, but if the APD gets to be in charge of the invitations, Atlantans with serious criticisms of the police might get left out.
SP