The House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee held a hearing Monday about the urgent need to address violent crime in Atlanta. Lawmakers assured the law enforcement officers who testified that they were ready to do anything, or almost anything, necessary to support their efforts.
House Speaker David Ralston spoke to the committee and said he’ll propose $3 million to add another 20 officers to the Georgia State Patrol in the Atlanta area.
And Gov. Brian Kemp encouraged lawmakers to move legislation to address crime through the special legislative session already on the books for this fall. The AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu has that story.
But when Todd Coyt, Assistant Chief of Atlanta Police, included considering modestly tighter gun laws as a part of an overall crime-fighting strategy, that’s when the pushback came.
Coyt explained that routine disagreements in his jurisdiction now quickly escalate to violence, in part because of the number of guns in the city, including illegal guns.
“One of the reasons that I believe we have an increase in violence is because everyone has access to guns,” he said.
During questioning with lawmakers, Coyt said the department is working to increase its manpower and that challenges in the criminal justice system mean suspects are sometimes released hours after they’re arrested.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
He also suggested toughening penalties for crimes committed with guns, as well as finding a way to secure guns in cars with a gun safe or lockbox since 1,100 guns have already been stolen out of cars in the City of Atlanta this year.
Rep. Clint Crowe, R-Jackson, wanted to make sure Coyt wasn’t blaming gun owners for having their guns stolen.
“Maybe I misheard that it sounded like it was a gun owner’s fault for having their guns stolen out of their car, which is already a locked box,” Crowe said. “I mean, is it a vehicle that’s locked.”
Coyt said no, he had not suggested that. Instead, “I’m just trying to make it even harder for that criminal to break into the vehicle and get something as dangerous as a gun.”
Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, said the answer to having guns taken from cars might be letting people carry their guns outside of their cars, even without a concealed carry license.
“I, myself, don’t think that would be an answer,” Coyt responded.
Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, reiterated to Coyt how much the committee supports the APD and the work they’re doing.
“I just want you to know we’re listening,” Jasperse said, saying he’s ready to move on some of the assistant chief’s ideas, including the length of time stolen cars are impounded,
“We can do that,” he said. “Now lock boxes in cars for guns? I don’t know about that one.”
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Tucked beneath museum exhibits at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, a dose of history played out yesterday as the Senate Rules Committee its first field hearing in 20 years to drum up support for the stalled federal voting overhaul now in the Senate.
The witnesses included Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and state Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, who testified about Georgia’s own legislative session to change state election laws, which she said was opaque and infuriating to Democrats. State Rep. Billy Mitchell, D- Stone Mountain, also spoke.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., all appeared alongside Georgia’s Jon Ossoff for the hearing. Just as noteworthy was who didn’t show up. Not a single Republican on the Senate panel made the trip to Atlanta and no local Republicans appeared as witnesses to defend Senate Bill 202.
Klobuchar, the committee’s chair, focused her fire on the no-shows.
“I understand people have a lot of different conflicts when you’re a U.S. senator, but I think more disturbing to me was that they didn’t have any witnesses to defend it,” she said.
“We welcomed hearing from their witnesses. We would have welcomed cross-examining their witnesses. We’re pretty good at it.”
Instead, state Republicans held a rival conference call with reporters in the closing minutes of the testimony.
Gov. Brian Kemp accused Democrats of “weaponizing and politicizing” voting measures by comparing the state’s overhaul to Jim Crow-era laws.
“We aren’t backing down. We’re going to continue to fight for the truth,” Kemp said. “And we’re going to stand up to secure, fair and accessible elections.”
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POSTED: The Delta variant of COVID-19 is now in Georgia and having a serious impact.
Our colleague Ariel Hart reports that Georgia’s hospitalizations from the disease have increased 30% in the last week. More:
The highly contagious delta variant now accounts for about 70% of all new cases, most of which are among those who haven't been vaccinated, including children too young for the shots. Of the 480 Georgia patients hospitalized with COVID-19 so far this month, 416 were not fully vaccinated, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
“There is a clear message that is coming through: This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press briefing last week.
In Gordon County, news broke over the weekend that a 5-year-old Calhoun boy died of the disease.
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Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene faced another temporary Twitter suspension yesterday after posting misleading information about the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York Times reported.
The suspension did not restrict public access to Greene’s posts, some of which the social media platform labeled as disinformation, but would have restricted Greene from adding new content for 12 hours, according to the Times’ report.
Among the flagged tweets was one that described the COVID-19 vaccine as controversial and falsely said it was connected to 6,000 deaths. Twitter restricted shares and replies on the post.
A Twitter spokesperson told the Times that, “We took enforcement action on the account @mtgreenee for violations of the Twitter Rules, specifically the Covid-19 misleading information policy.”
Earlier this year, Greene told the AJC that she chose not to be vaccinated because she feels that her own immune system is strong enough to withstand the coronavirus if she is infected. But she said she honored the right of others to get their shots and that her parents had been inoculated.
This wasn’t the first time that Greene has been temporarily locked out of her account. Earlier this year, she faced a similar 12-hour suspension after posting election misinformation.
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Another day, another loss for those trying and failing to overturn Georgia’s most recent election results.
This time, it was an attempt to invalidate the January U.S. Senate runoff victories of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. The AJC’s David Wickert writes that a Henry County judge bounced the lawsuit out of court Monday, ruling that the suit was not filed in time and that the senators were not properly served.
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The rising crime rate in metro Atlanta has become the center of the race for City Hall -- and a major sticking point in statewide races.
The AJC’s Wilborn Nobles has a dispatch about how the top five Atlanta mayoral hopefuls are pitching public safety plans to fill vacancies in the police department and implement new programs to keep young people off the streets.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is not running for reelection, has proposed spending $70 million on various strategies, including the creation of a Mayor’s Office of Violence Reduction.
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It’s over. The chaotic race for Fulton County GOP chair ended over the weekend when Trey Kelly was elected to a fourth term over newcomer Susan Opraseuth.
It ends a drawn-out fight that involved allegations of voter fraud and cheating between the dueling GOP factions.
“It’s time to move forward,” wrote Kelly, who is no relation to GOP state Rep. Trey Kelley.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for The Atlanta-Journal-Constitution
Credit: Nathan Posner for The Atlanta-Journal-Constitution
The race to replace U.S. Rep. Jody Hice in the 10th Congressional District is only growing more crowded.
Retired Air Force Col. Alan Sims became the latest candidate to join the contest for the deeply conservative northeast Georgia seat. At least 10 candidates (seven Republicans and three Democrats) are in the race, but there’s no clear frontrunner yet.
Sims’ campaign announcement bills him as a homegrown conservative who fought the Taliban in Afghanistan, helped operate the Iron Dome missile defense system in Israel and spearheaded evacuation operations during Hurricane Katrina.
“We need leaders in Washington who know how to defend our Georgia way of life, and our safety abroad,” he said. “We need a proven fighter, and I’m ready to serve. Again.”
Among the other contenders in the race are trucking executive Mike Collins, state Rep. Timothy Barr and former state revenue commissioner David Curry.
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More from the Elections Update Files:
- Republican Jake Evans, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Rep. Lucy McBath in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, has received Newt Gingrich’s endorsement. Gingrich held the seat from 1979 to 1999, and Evans’ father Randy was the former speaker’s attorney.
- Gingrich has also endorsed Mike Collins in his bid for Georgia’s 10th District. Read his endorsement here.
- Gary Vowell, the former Georgia Department of Public Safety commissioner, is running for the South Georgia state Senate district now represented by Republican Tyler Harper. Vowell, the former Tift County sheriff, said he doesn’t want “our values being left in the dust by Atlanta or leftist elites.”
Harper is running for Georgia agriculture commissioner.
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As always, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
