I hold your stories. I am Georgia’s red clay and black land. The silence that speaks beneath the roar of trains and traffic. I am a record. You call me soil, but I am memory. I remember how Black life rose after slavery’s end. How men and women carved businesses into my streets, lifted schools […]
criminal justice
Posted inIncarceration
Seventh Person to Die in Custody at DeKalb County Jail Raises Alarm
A 27-year-old Decatur man is the seventh person to die in custody at DeKalb County Jail this year. Larynz Redd was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday morning, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. The jail’s health care provider and DeKalb EMS unsuccessfully performed emergency medical services on-site. With seven deaths, the DeKalb […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
A Rare Look Inside Fulton County’s Crumbling Jail with Sheriff Labat
As you step off the elevators in Fulton County’s main jail, you hear the building’s quiet hum and maybe a few voices echoing in the distance. Incarcerated people, wearing gray jumpsuits labeled FCSO and bright orange plastic slippers, who are in the halls cleaning or being escorted to another part of the facility, are made […]
Posted inCourts, Policing, Public Safety
DA Doesn’t Appeal Judge’s Decision to Drop Charges Against Cop Who Killed Jimmy Atchison
An Atlanta father isn’t giving up after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did not appeal a federal judge’s ruling to dismiss the charges against the police officer who killed his son. Jimmy Hill said he is disappointed, but not surprised by the decision. On Jan. 22, 2019, Hill’s 21-year-old son, Jimmy Atchison, was shot […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, News, Policing
Calls for Mayor to Act After Witnesses Say Officer Who Shot Rayshard Brooks Punched Club Worker
Garrett Rolfe, the police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in 2020, was back in the news after a bar fight last Sunday. And the release of a 911 call is now shedding new light on the incident. Witnesses at X Midtown club described a chaotic scene to police where Rolfe reportedly punched one […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gentrification, History
History Beneath Our Feet: Atlanta’s Gentrifying Neighborhoods Hold Haunting Stories of 24 Murdered Black Women
On a quiet stretch of White and Lawton streets, in southwest Atlanta, there’s no marker. No sign. Just a patch of sidewalk, cars passing, and weeds curling from a cracked curb that offers no clues to its past. But in the summer of 1911, this is where Lizzie Watts was found — her throat slashed, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Atlanta ‘No Kings’ Protests Draws Thousands Amid News of Lawmakers’ Assassination
As President Donald Trump prepared to host a military parade in Washington to mark the 250th anniversary of the Army and his 79th birthday, thousands of Atlanta residents took to the streets for “No Kings” protests across the metro area. Protests occurred on Saturday around the country to denounce the $45 million parade and to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, News
Twins’ Suspicious Deaths Ruled Suicide. Family Seeks Private Investigation.
A grieving Georgia family still has questions after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ruled the deaths of 19-year-old identical twins Qaadir and Naazir Lewis a double suicide on Wednesday after weeks of investigation. Hikers found the Lewis brothers’ bodies at the top of Bell Mountain in Hiawassee, Georgia, near the Tennessee border, on the morning […]
Posted inIncarceration, Policing, Politics & Policy, Public Safety
Overcrowded and Understaffed: Fulton County Jail Gets Money to Hire More Deputies
Fulton County commissioners voted on Wednesday to allocate additional funding to staff Sheriff Patrick Labat’s office, following a scathing November U.S. Department of Justice report that cited understaffing as a cause of rampant, unchecked violence at Fulton County Jail. Vice Chair Bob Ellis introduced the resolution, which will support the hiring and retention of new […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Public Services
Could Texts Reduce Jailings? One Atlanta Suburb Says Yes.
Nate Mingo knew the havoc that missing a court date wreaked on the lives of residents in his suburban Atlanta community. He understood the prospect of a driver’s license suspension or jail detention — and how either consequence could jeopardize one’s employment and significantly worsen their legal troubles. As Riverdale’s director of court services, Mingo also […]