Communities in Atlanta fearing for public safety

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    ATLANTA (WGCL) — The Buckhead community is lamenting the city’s crime rate. “We don’t feel safe, you can read about it almost every day,” said Dr. Bruce Salzinger.

This week authorities have responded to a number of people shot in the Buckhead area including this incident showing two men fighting over a gun that left two in hospital.

“If you’re a great human being working at the Lenox mall as a security guard you know for $30hr and you don’t hand over your keys to the Apple store, you’re going to get blown away,” said Bill White, Chairman and CEO of the Buckhead City Group.

“Crime is out of control, it is so dangerous, it is so dangerous, the criminals feel absolutely emboldened,” said White.

Public safety is also at the top of the agenda for Midtown neighbors.

The community dealing with a peeping tom, shootings, car jackings and car thefts from juveniles.

Atlanta police say last week only one auto theft happened but this week is a different story.

“Only one last week in midtown, which is unheard of as you all know, we know this week we are incredibly up in auto thefts, so we know somebody somewhere is out of jail,” said Maj. Prenzinna Spann of the Atlanta Police Department.

Each community said they are trying to be proactive and assist.

Many feel the court systems and city leaders are letting them down some of the factors leading Buckhead to as they say ‘divorce’ the city.

“The clinical definition of insanity is when you keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, so we don’t want people to think we’re insane, so we’re going to do something different,” said White.

The Midtown Neighbors’ Association will be holding a virtual townhall on public safety with Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant on June 29.

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