This week is the 3rd anniversary of the killing of Kathryn Johnston by the Atlanta Police Department. Chief Pennington attended a community meeting where he said he was sorry. Indeed, he's very sorry. Below is the AJC story about how sorry he is. Of course, the neighborhood situation is the same as before. The police are still out of control. The review board still doesn't have subpoena power, and the APD wants it that way. But Pennington is really sorry.

Wait, did I say the neighborhood situation is the same as before? According to the Associated Press, I'm wrong on that account. Their in-depth coverage (4 paragraphs) shows how much better things are. They even talked to a businessman, so you know things must be just peachy.

The Atlanta Police Department seems in the news a lot lately. Perhaps this is only because I've been watching more intensely. Of course, the mayor's race may have something to do with it. The police union recently endorsed Kasim Reed. Chief Pennington issued an order that officer have to cooperate with the civilian review board (CRB), although the officers do not have to testify before the board. Pennington is committed to keeping a CRB without the power to do its work, a stance consistent with the APD. He only issued this order after significant prodding from the CRB to keep his promise.

Lastly there is the CBS Atlanta story on bad cops, posted on November 16 and updated on November 17. While it's interesting to read the stories of cops gone bad, the problem is it positions police misconduct as the problem of a few bad apples. The lesson from the CBS story is that most cops are good people, but sometimes there are bad ones. We have to weed out the bad ones and we'll be fine. What if the problem is systemic? What if we're not talking about bad apples, but a tree that produces poison fruit?

If this sounds interesting, I recommend Kristian Williams's book, Our Enemies in Blue.

For what it's worth, the CBS Atlanta story is reprinted below.

CBS Atlanta News Investigates Cops On Other Side Of Law

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/21632579/detail.html

ATLANTA -- CBS Atlanta News is asking tough questions about good cops gone bad. The people protecting the streets in Atlanta have found themselves behind bars for drinking and driving and even charged with murder. In less than two years, 27 Atlanta police officers have had run-ins with the law, some of them more than once.

Reporter Jennifer Mayerle asked Maj. Lane Hagin what the arrests say about the department.

“It says police officers are human. Certainly it's not the image we want to present as a police department,” said Hagin.

CBS Atlanta News obtained video of Officer William Greenwell after drinking with another Atlanta police officer. He stumbles during a sobriety test, telling the Smyrna Police officer who pulled him over he had eight or nine mixed drinks. The incident reports shows Greenwell’s initial blood alcohol level was .17. He pleaded guilty to DUI.

John Freeman is in jail awaiting trial on a charge of murder. He admits shooting the security guard at his apartment complex multiple times.

“It’s embarrassing to even have someone accused of that as a police officer, and certainly if it's proven to be true and he's convicted, that's a black eye,” said Hagin.

Edward Rabb was charged with the rape of a neighbor in 2008. The District Attorney’s office decided not to take the case to court. Less than a year later, he was arrested for drinking and driving. Reports show he blew an initial .18, more than twice the legal limit. Police reports show his "eyes were blood shot and watery, and he had urinated on himself."

William Rucker is another double offender. Video CBS Atlanta News obtained of Rucker weaving in and out of traffic is what landed him in jail for a week, while APD kept him on the payroll. He was found guilty of numerous traffic violations. Rucker was also jailed for lying to police in South Carolina. Rucker is currently on desk duty.

Stephen Moyet was charged with simple assault and battery for attacking a fellow officer responding to a domestic 911 call.

Two officers resigned while still under investigation. Justin Green pleaded guilty to hit and run. He didn't resign until he tested positive for cocaine, and admitted to losing his gun while out partying.

Duane Grundy was already on administrative leave when he was locked up for the attack on then girlfriend, Brittani Lewis. Lewis said she feared for her life.

“He actually started choking me, and my head was down in my leather couches and I couldn't breathe. My 3-year-old son was hitting him, fighting him, trying to pull his pants, trying to get him off of me,” said Lewis.

Grundy also admitted to smoking marijuana while working at APD. CBS Atlanta News has learned he is now working at Lenox mall.

Mayerle asked Hagin what the department is doing to make sure there aren't any more black eyes.

“We have good people here, we have good training. There's a very stringent hiring process that we put people through,” said Hagin.

If you see cops behaving badly, you can file a report with the department they work for over the phone or in person. You can also contact the Office of Professional Standards.

The Sunday Paper recently ran an open letter from Sgt. Scott Kreher. Sgt Kreher is president of the police union and a veteran of the Atlanta Police Department. After reading the letter I had some questions I would like to ask Sgt. Kreher. An edited version of this letter will be published, maybe, in The Sunday Paper this coming Sunday, November 15.

Dear Sgt. Scott Kreher:

I recently read your letter to the Atlanta mayoral candidates, “Save Our Cops: An open letter to Atlanta's next mayor.” In your letter you mention that in order “save our cops” the city should implement certain changes including pay raises, tuition reimbursement, and other steps to help reduce police turnover.

Based on your letter, the best way Atlanta can keep cops seems to be to prevent turnover. That sounds like a good strategy. But your letter is missing a key selling point: what’s in it for the people of Atlanta.

Are more cops the best strategy for insuring public safety? I’m not so sure. There are some things that police are particularly unable to help with. Domestic violence immediately comes to mind. “Most intimate partner victimizations are not reported to the police.” That’s a quote from a report by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. Here’s another quote, “The majority of victims who did not report their victimization to the police thought the police would not or could not do anything on their behalf. These findings suggest that most victims of intimate partner violence do not consider the justice system an appropriate vehicle for resolving conflicts with intimates.”

Can you imagine? Being beaten, threatened, abused every day and refusing to call the police. Why? Because the police bring problems, they don’t solve them.

Here’s my idea. Make a bargain with the people. Be the first police department to submit to civilian control. Why not make a contract with the people of Atlanta; civilian control for better working conditions. Specifically, I’m talking about a civilian review board with the actual power and funding to review the police. Right now Atlanta has a sham board incapable of holding police accountable for their actions. This isn’t the fault of the board. They are good people, but the board just doesn’t have the power to do the job. Given the continuous pattern of violence of the Atlanta police department, a body able to truly investigate misconduct would go a long way to restoring trust.

I know that supporting this idea goes against the tradition of the Atlanta Police Department. I also know that this pattern isn’t limited to the APD. Lots of police departments oppose the idea of a civilian review board. I dare say that the majority are absolutely opposed to the idea of a review board with independent subpoena power. To be honest, I can see the sense of that. If I had the chance to do my job with less supervision, I probably would accept it. If someone wanted to add another boss to my job, I would probably oppose it. Of course, if doing my job kept leading to people being abused and even killed, I wouldn’t doubt that this new boss would be added despite my objections. Back 2008, I believe, the APD opposed the civilian review board holding subpoena powers. Not a year before this the U.S. Attorney said there was a “culture of misconduct” in the department. Sergeant, it’s just quite clear that the Atlanta police need another boss. The current bosses aren’t doing the job.

Fortunately, there are some things the APD can do to redeem itself. First, they can support the demands of Atlanta BLOCS (Building Locally to Organize for Community Safety). The three demands are that the mayor support:

1) Creating a Search Committee to conduct a nationwide search for the next Chief of Police, and guaranteeing that this committee include members of the ACRB and concerned community members;

2) Appointing a police chief who publicly commits to ensuring full cooperation with the ACRB, including the disciplining of officers who refuse to comply; and

3) Calling for, and supporting a full ACRB investigation of the REDDOG unit with a commitment to following the recommendations produced by such an inquiry.

However, I would say this is only a first step. For the APD to really show it deserves support the department, the chief, and the union will have to support a fully funded civilian review board with subpoena power. The funding for the board can come from the same sources you outline in your letter. Towing fees, license enforcement, and better contracting of supplies (quartermastering) sound like a decent way of raising the funds. Personally, I’m willing to go on trust that this will work. The Southern Center for Human Rights has a report on the Atlanta civilian review board, including recommendations to make the board effective. If you and the rest of the police are willing to accept those recommendations, I’m sure the people of Atlanta wouldn’t begrudge you a small pay raise and tuition reimbursement. What do you say? If your answer is no, then what exactly about the APD is worth saving?

Sincerely,

Dan

The Atlanta Progressive News wrote up a story on the police accountability press conference by BLOCS (Building Locally to Organize for Community Safety). You can read the full BLOCS letter at their website. Below is the APN report.

Group Calls for Citizen Review Board Powers, Red Dog Investigation

By Jonathan Springston, Senior Staff Writer, The Atlanta Progressive News (November 09, 2009)
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0543.html

(APN) ATLANTA – 30 community organizations called for police accountability during a rally at City Hall on Thursday, October 29, 2009.

A coalition led by Atlanta Building Locally to Organize for Community Safety (BLOCS) sent a letter to each of the Mayoral candidates prior to the General Election, asking that each pledge to lead a nationwide search for a new police chief, strengthen the Atlanta Citizen Review Board (ACRB), and call for a ACRB investigation of the Atlanta Police Department’s (APD) Red Dog Unit.

"Having a police force that is accountable to the community it serves is a bedrock principle of community and public safety," Moki Macias of Atlanta BLOCS said. "All of our Mayoral candidates have spoken of increasing numbers on our police force. What we’re now asking is that they commit to increasing the quality of the department by supporting community involvement and strong oversight mechanisms."

Several speakers offered troubling testimonials about clashes with police.

Felicia Kennedy, a West End resident, witnessed APD officers beating an unarmed suspect in front of her house on October 15, she said. When she began taking pictures of the incident, the officers confiscated the camera and placed Kennedy under arrest "for trying to be a member of my community."

"What is happening is not community policing," she said. "We need a more responsible police force."

Robby Kelley, co-owner of the Atlanta Eagle, experienced first-hand Red Dog tactics when 25 members of the controversial squad raided his club on September 10, a story first reported by Atlanta Progressive News.

Kelley recounted how officers stormed the bar with no warrant and forced employees and patrons to lie face down on the floor while the unit searched for drugs and inspected licenses.

He remembered officers enjoying the raid and using derogatory language, with one allegedly exclaiming, "We should do this to a fag bar every week."

"Not every member of the Atlanta police force are representative of [these officers]," Kelley said. "But those responsible should be held accountable."

The Atlanta City Council created the ACRB in the wake of the 2006 APD shooting of 92 year-old Kathryn Johnston to investigate questionable police action.

But without subpoena power, the ACRB remains a toothless body that has no ability to force APD cooperation.

Macias told APN three APD officers that week had said they would refuse to cooperate with any ACRB request unless Chief Richard Pennington directs them to do so.

"There is a culture here in the APD that is not accountable and is not transparent," she said. "We call for quality of officers before we have quantity of officers."

Former mayoral candidate Kyle Keyser, founder of Atlantans Together Against Crime (ATAC), concurred that the issue is "quality and not quantity when it comes to the Atlanta Police Department."

"Not all police officers are bad," former candidate Jesse Spikes said. "There are many officers out there doing hard work and I will support those doing that work."

Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed, and former candidate Lisa Borders were not on hand but representatives from the campaigns affirmed their support of the pledge.

Norwood's campaign first learned of the Atlanta BLOCS pledge when APN contacted their organization the day before the press conference. Norwood's campaign noted that they have stated their preference for a local police chief, although Atlanta BLOCS told APN they did not think that was inconsistent with the pledge because a national search could start locally.

There were also former candidates for Atlanta City Council on hand, including Dwanda Farmer (Post 1 At-Large), Darrien Fletcher (District 3), and former ACRB member LaShawn Hoffman (District 4), each of whom support the pledge.

Macias told APN that the community should be able to judge the police by "how much they respect the community."

"We want a transparent process... because that’s going to start them on the right path to healing with the community."

This was sent out by GSU Progressive Student Alliance (PSA). I don't know if it was previously published though.

Not quite Stonewall: 40 years later the cops haven't changed, but we have
By Giselda

"Hey, Red Dog: Bored with Grandmothers?" Those words, scribbled with marker on a makeshift sign, lingered above a crowd mostly confused by their meaning. Who was Red Dog and what grandmother? In other communities in Atlanta, away from the gentrifying "gayborhoods" of Midtown, that sign could probably escape any need for clarification. This wasn't southwest Atlanta, though. The rally was gathered behind a leather gay bar, the crowd predominately middle-aged gay white men.

The circumstances behind the rally shouldn't have been a shock to the attendees. Nights before, officers of the Atlanta Police Department, with participation from the particularly brutal Red Dog Narcotics Unit, entered The Atlanta Eagle bar, apparently tipped off by complaints ranging from drug use to public or solicited sex. Around 62 patrons and staff were forced on the ground for an hour, many handcuffed, and searched by cops freely uttering homophobic and racist remarks. Unfortunately for the APD, no weapons or drugs were found on anybody, forcing them to resort to Plan B - confiscating IDs and running a background check for potential outstanding warrants. Here, also, the APD struck out, so the patrol cars and paddy wagons left mostly empty, with the exception of The Eagle's staff, who were arrested for only wearing underwear. The officers charged the employees with stripping unlicensed (it was "underwear" night at the bar, but the act of actually stripping seems like a desperate stretch by the APD).

Fortunately, a reporter from Atlanta Progressive News was on scene to break the story, and by afternoon time the next day many Atlanta area queers (at least in the limited demographic world of facebook) opened up various internet accounts to find some sort of reference to the raid and growing outrage. It was Stonewall all over again, many cried. The national publication The Advocate ran the story alongside constant coverage from Atlanta's smaller news outlets (the major Atlanta paper, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, was skittish), and solidarity actions in Atlanta were quickly planned, the largest being the rally behind the bar which was attended by hundreds.

For many of us, especially queer radicals, the story and immediate growing reaction was full of promise. This could be a chance to realize a queer agenda beyond marriage, and one that could help build unity between the queer community and other communities that traditionally face police brutality (in Atlanta, those communities are overwhelmingly black and poor). It would also be a chance to build unity, or at least secure an acknowledgment, to those within the queer community to which these events aren't at all shocking but rather routine - queers of color, transgendered people (particularly homeless), even men in the leather scene. Those that do not look like, or share the vision of, the gay movers and shakers who attend the banquets of The Human Rights Campaign or Georgia Equality (both, not surprisingly, missing from the rally). Those queers whose reality more closely parallels straight black men indiscriminately stopped, searched and even shot unarmed by officers of the APD and their most uncontrollable unit, Red Dog, than the reality of gays rushing out of an expensive Midtown townhouse to catch the neighborhood association meeting and help decide how many more "undesirable" crime committing elements should be removed to help make the neighborhood safer and more profitable for its white newcomers.

The story had a lot of other political promise, as well. Atlanta's electoral atmosphere leading up to November's elections has basically boiled down to two things - I love the cops and can bring more into the city and I love the cops and can bring even more than your more. Public safety is on everyone's lips. The grandmother the sign at the rally was referring to, Kathryn Johnston - a 92 year old woman gunned down by Red Dog Narcotic Unit cops - was all but forgotten by white Atlanta as publications and neighborhood groups rushed to secure more cops, now, at any price. Ironically, the man at the head of this movement of white panic, Kyle Keyser, is gay, and was the only mayoral candidate to address the crowd at the rally, shedding his usual rhetoric of more cops with little oversight - instead timidly asking for answers from the force for this one event. The raid on The Eagle suddenly became a useful tool, not only to funnel a new, angry crowd into a movement for police accountability but also to put local political candidates in a position where they may have to condemn police conduct instead of lavishing praise on the force and promising hundreds more on our streets if they're elected. Considering the growing influence of mostly white, middle-class gay Atlanta from gentrifying neighborhoods local candidates may find themselves in a bit of a dilemma - condemn the raid and risk having an anti-police quote used by competitors in the pro-police frenzy that is white, middle/upper class Atlanta voting or stay as neutral as possible on the subject and risk the fury of gay voters?

Hopes for an unleashed queer fury, not quite Stonewall but not quite HRC, were quickly dimmed by the organizers of the rally, however. Messages were sent out on facebook reminding potential attendees that this was not a protest against the APD - in which we supposedly have queer allies - but rather one in support of gay establishments. Any suggestion that the protest actually happen at the police department was scuttled. People spread solidarity messages around facebook, referencing how similar this felt to being gay in '69 rather than black in '09. This shouldn't happen to us, this hasn't happened to us lately. An eery, subtle message being relayed through many such expressions was on display more explicitly by signs at the rally - how dare you treat us like THEM. Signs that kept asking the PD why they would target The Eagle rather than gangs, drug-pushers and muggers. "Who made this call?", one sign asked, placing The Eagle on one side of a seesaw and various street crimes piled up on the other. We're law-abiding citizens, many said, and I never thought I'd see this again.

Where are we looking that we don't see it, exactly? Not in the overcrowded jails of the APD, where arrests are brought in mass after a Red Dog Unit raid or traffic block. We're not looking, apparently, in the face of Tremaine Miller and hundreds like him, shot unarmed by Atlanta cops throughout the years with little protest or rallies. In the signs of the rally that asked for an apology, the speakers who assured the crowds most cops are good and this is an oddity, all who came out once this year and maybe once in a decade to ask why this happened and how do we get answers to this one event the message was unintentionally, unknowingly chilling - this doesn't happen all the time.

But it does, and will continue to. The question now is what sort of reaction should the Atlanta queer community have? Should it be one that seeks answers to one event, maybe even forces some empty political statements and press release apology? Should it be a movement to solely stand in solidarity with gay establishments? Or should we consider longer term accountability for cops, not just when they attack our community but when they attack all, and work towards strengthening the Citizen Review Board and fighting for any oversight and justice we can for the Atlanta PD? Should we consider that sign, referencing Kathryn Johnston, almost out of place at the rally - "Hey Red Dog: Bored with (African-American) Grandmothers?" Perhaps in that sign there was an ability to make a connection and more wisdom than any commentary from the self-appointed, bourgeois heads of gay advocacy and their white, middle-class allies can actualize.

Atlanta Progressive News has a good report on the protest of anti-human rights minister Rick Warren. While the article's details on the protest are fine, I was most impressed with how they revealed the tension between the different groups that coordinated the protest. This is rare in activist circles and shows what a reader can get from a truly progressive news source.

The groups involved in the protest, according to APN, were the Black LGBT Coalition, GLBTATL, and the Revolutionary Community Party (RCP). APN listed another group called World Can't Wait, but I consider this a front for the RCP. I'm not alone in this either, so let's call it as it is and say RCP was present in force. In the interest of full disclosure, during the 1991 anti-Gulf War march RCP activists tried to charge the police after seeing two busloads of protesters (me included) come up to the back of the White House. We were lost and looking for the front of the White House. The RCP called for a riot which would have been suicide. I've despised them ever since.

RCP doesn't organize, they don't build. They show up to shout and sell papers, then they go home.

GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRUGGLES FOR DEMOCRACY
A Lecture & Discussion with Selma James & Andaiye

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25th, 11:30am
ATLANTA FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE
701 West Howard Avenue
Decatur, Georgia
Location information contact: 404-377-2474 or afmquakers@hotmail.com

The Onyx Foundation: is excited to announce co-sponsorship, with the Atlanta Friends Meeting House, of a lecture by pathbreaking Feminist Movement theorists and activists Selma James and Andaiye. They are touring the United States to mark the 35th anniversary of the International Wages for Housework Campaign, which Selma James founded, and to speak to anti-sexist, anti-racist and anti-war women and men in North America.

Selma James is an activist, author, strategist, critical thinker, women's rights and anti-racist campaigner, colleague and partner of C.L.R. James. In 1972 she founded the International Wages for Housework Campaign, and has coordinated the Global Women's Strike since 2000. She is the co-author of The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community (1972), and author of Sex, Race and Class (1974), both classics, and also co-author of The Milk of Human Kindness (2002). Ms. James is a dynamic and exciting speaker who impresses audiences with the depth of her understanding and the scope of her interests. She has worked with democratic struggles in Venezuela since 2002.

Andaiye is co-founder and international coordinator of Red Thread (RT) in Guyana. RT began as a self-help income-generating group bringing low-income women together across violent racial divides. It has always given a voice to all grassroots women: Indo- and Afro-Guyanese as well as Indigenous. Andaiye is the author of The Valuing of Unwaged Work, an analysis of the cost to women in the Caribbean of structural adjustment policies. She represented CARICOM at the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, leading the negotiations which resulted in the agreement among governments, including the U.S. government, to measure and value unwaged work. In 1979, she was also a founding member and leader of the Working People*s Alliance in Guyana along with activist and historian Walter Rodney, author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

Atlanta Jobs with Justice has sent out a call for support for workers at Agnes Scott College. Friday, October 26 at 10:00 AM until 11:00 AM on the corner of E. College Ave. and S. McDonough. I'm reprinting the original call below. You can find some more information on the Agnes Scott Living Wage Blog, but it looks like it's a out of date.

Atlanta JwJ/Atlanta Transit Riders Union has been working with and supporting the Agnes Scott College worker/student Living Wage campaign for some time, because we understand that creating justice on this campus is morally correct, and it helps create conditions for justice elsewhere. And now, workers and students are asking for our support this Friday. They want to demonstrate to the ASC Board of Trustees that students, workers, and community favor human rights, over privilege and oppression.

The ASC Board of Trustees has been making empty promises to respect the dignity and the human rights of ASC workers by providing Living Wages & Decision Making Power. But thus far, they've done very little to live up to those promises. We know all too well about Atlanta's history of empty promises; they made promises at MARTA; they're making promises at Grady; Barney Simms and Renee Glover are making promises in Housing. None have ever or will ever be kept without our voices!

The Agnes Scott Living Wage Campaign is having a Rally on Friday, October 26th at 10:00 AM until 11:00 AM on the corner of E. College Ave. and S. McDonough. Please invite your friends to this event

Thursday, October 18 @ 7pm
The Solarium
Fun, Fun, FUN

I'm forwarding you information on Sex, Wine and Chocolate. This is a fundraiser for Georgians for Choice and Generation FIVE. The event (a sex-positive cabaret) is Thursday, October 18. It's a night of fun, wine, and chocolate. How cool is that?

I've seen a trend of Mayor Franklin trying to show she's a "people's mayor." She's been on talk shows and traveled around the country to show what a success she's had in Atlanta. She's been really successful for business interests, that's about it. This opinion piece originally ran in the AJC.

Mayor Franklin targets the homeless

By BOB CRAMER
Published on: 09/10/07

Since her first days in office, Mayor Shirley Franklin has presented herself as someone interested in helping Atlanta's homeless. She speaks eloquently about her own father's experience with homelessness, and she has personally told me that she considers serving the homeless "God's work."

Against this backdrop, it is shocking and disappointing that Franklin would go out of her way to try to deny funding to Atlanta's largest facility serving homeless people. In an August letter to the state Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless, she writes, "as the mayor of the city of Atlanta, I am stating that we do not support the allocation of funding for the Peachtree-Pine facility."

One has to question why Franklin is now personally involved in reversing a letter of certification for the Peachtree-Pine facility that her own administration had provided to the state just months earlier. What would cause her to take such an unprecedented action harming hundreds of homeless people? How could she make any judgment on the Peachtree-Pine facility when she has never visited in her two terms in office?

Perhaps Franklin is not really leveling with us when it comes to her support of the homeless. Certainly her record in office does not equate with her rhetoric. Four years ago, she put together a commission that promised to end chronic homelessness in Atlanta in 10 years. This summer even The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board called the commission's efforts far from successful.

Franklin and her team oversold their $10 million, 24-hour Gateway facility. Today this downtown building serves only 300 people at full capacity, thus shutting out homeless people who are forced to sleep outside.

On a broader scale, Franklin supports tearing down more than 3,000 units of public housing. She doesn't say much about it, but I'm sure if she were against evicting more than 9,600 people, many highly vulnerable, she would not hesitate to write a letter. Perhaps the developers in town have persuaded her that she is in office to look after their interests, not the interests of the poor and vulnerable.

Finally, Franklin is not content with just preventing $110,000 of state money from reaching needy homeless people. Her administration is also trying to stop $340,000 of federal Housing and Urban Development funds from coming to the Peachtree Street-located Peachtree-Pine facility. Frankly, if you did not know better, you'd think Franklin was out to get Peachtree-Pine.

Which, of course, is exactly the case. The mayor's premeditated assault on the hundreds of predominantly African-American men who live at and depend on the Peachtree-Pine facility needs to be spelled out in black and white for all to see. Her recent letter to the state shows her true agenda. It is truly disheartening that she would stoop so low.

Stuff like this just gets under my skin. This is what happens when the contradictions are pulled away. The article comes from The Atlanta Progressive News. The original URL is http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0226.html.

HA Security Forces Activist out of Tenants’ Meeting

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, The Atlanta Progressive News (September 12, 2007)
Photograph by Jonathan Springston, Senior Staff Writer, The Atlanta Progressive News

(APN) ATLANTA – Activist Terence Courtney, director of Atlanta Jobs with Justice, was forcibly escorted out of a residents’ association meeting by Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) security on Wednesday, August 22, 2007, he and two resident leaders told Atlanta Progressive News.

"We were expecting a normal meeting," Eleanor Rayton, President of the Palmer House highrise resident association, said.

"Then, when Mr. Terence got there, all these security and people from [AHA] Mr. [Barney] Simms’s office was there to greet me. They escorted him off the property. Mr. Mitchell said that was Barney Simms’s meeting and he proceeded," Rayton said.

"When Terence was down front prepared to start speaking, Simms walks in, with Mr. Mitchell and Charles Walker and one other. They proceeded to tell him he couldn’t say what he was going to say. They were confronting him. They told him he had to leave," Cornelia Chapman, Secretary of the Palmer House resident association, said.

"They don’t want someone to put the clean glass of water up next to a dirty glass of water," Shirley Hightower, President of Bowen Homes and Treasurer of Jurisdiction-Wide Resident Advisory Board (RAB), who heard about the incident, told Atlanta Progressive News.

"They must be trying to hide something from the residents. Why didn’t they let Terence speak?" Rayton said.

"This all happened in front of a room of residents, as if we don’t know what we’re doing," Chapman said.

"There appeared to be sheriffs there and dozens of suits. Simms and I got into a discussion of Democracy and people having the right to speak, and that fell on deaf ears. Residents at the Palmer House wanted to hear an alternate side to the story of the housing question," Courtney said.

"We helped organize a meeting to hold that discussion. On the day of that meeting, the AHA who were numbered in really at least a dozen or more was along with at least what I can remember to be about three sheriffs or officers. It wasn't blue uniform officers, they were brown. There were at least three plainclothes officers," Courtney said.

"As we were beginning the meeting, they approached me about how the meeting came about. They approached me about a flyer that I had managed to get distributed and they expressed concern about me conducting the meeting. They also asked me why I didn't go through the Administration of the Housing Authority," Courtney recalled.

"My reply is that I had spoken to residents and it was my opinion that the residents get to determine what they do and do not hear, and Democracy demands that I pay attention to that. It's the residents that really make the Housing Authority what it was," Courtney said.

"That reply seemed to take them aback. We went back and forth on that. It was at that point that Barney threatened to cancel the meeting. He and I argued and his right to do so. He claimed that what Palmer House represented was private property. I disagreed, since this was public property, being public housing, and since the residents were interested in what I had to say, that I had every right to have a discussion with people," Courtney said.

That was then he was surrounded and escorted off the property, he said.

Rayton and Courtney told APN that some residents came with Courtney off the property and held their tenant association under a nearby tree.

"One, they do not allow the people to have the opportunity to talk amongst themselves about what's going on. What the Housing Authority is trying to do is maintain very tight control over information and what the people get to hear," Courtney said.

"They don't really respect the will of their residents. They enjoy too much control of the people. Barney Simms should not individually have the right to throw me out of a meeting that residents and myself organized," Courtney said.

"The other thing is they're fearful. They're afraid of alternative points of view, they're afraid the residents will come to see this whole program of moving them out of public is all about giving the land over to the developers for the enrichment of the rich White and Black elite," Courtney said.

"From what people saw from my removal and what went down, some folks became suspicious of the AHA program. Even though I haven't spoken to all the residents that were there, overwhelmingly they said they thought this plan was really about giving developers what they want," Courtney said.

"It was outrageous for him to say I can cancel this meeting if I want to. From his point of view, he might actually believe that," Courtney said.

Two individuals familiar with the matter expressed concern about the resident leaders’ names being used in this article because they feel AHA, particularly Barney Simms, has intimidated the senior residents. Despite this concern, the resident leaders told APN they wanted their names to be used.

Atlanta Progressive News is still waiting on responses to several questions posed to Atlanta Housing Authority over three weeks ago.

It's nice to finally see politicians realizing the problem at Grady: there's not enough money. The state legislature will probably fall for the Chamber of Poverty (aka Chamber of Commerce) neoliberal, privatization agenda. That doesn't mean losing a valuable resource like Grady is inevitable. It means a tough fight though. This story is from today's AJC.

By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/05/07

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners handed over $15 million Wednesday to prop up the financially teetering Grady hospital, providing some help to a facility that could start running out of cash in about 12 weeks.

Commissioners fought their way to the decision in an almost 90-minute discussion that featured rancorous debate on how to save the hospital, impassioned speeches and a flurry of failed motions and votes. In the end they reached final agreement on a single point: They all want to save Grady.

"Take all the nonsense out, and give the people $15 million," Commissioner Bill Edwards said. And that's just what they did, stripping down vying proposals filled with conditions to a point of agreement.

The gift of $15 million comes on top of Fulton's annual funding of $84 million for the hospital. But Grady officials acknowledged that it will make little difference in the overall survival of the hospital, which officials say could start running out of money by Nov. 30.

"This gives us some breathing room," said Grady CEO Otis Story, noting the money will help provide for payroll.

The $15 million was part of a larger plan hatched several weeks ago to shore up the hospital. It also included a request for $5 million from DeKalb County, the other county involved in the running of the hospital. DeKalb has yet to act on that request, and county CEO Vernon Jones declined comment Wednesday.

Grady has also asked these two counties to back up a $100 million loan it hopes to obtain, though neither county has acted on that.

If Grady were to close, the region could lose a major trauma center and teaching hospital — and thousands of poor people who are treated at Grady each year would have to find other emergency rooms to take them.

Grady is one of the nation's oldest public hospitals, and it has lost money over the last seven years, in part because of changes to the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs and an increase in the number of patients who are poor and uninsured.

The Fulton commission appoints seven of the 10 members of the Grady board, which controls the hospital. The DeKalb commission appoints the remaining members.

Fulton commissioners were sharply divided on what should be done to save Grady.

Commissioner Tom Lowe said control of the hospital must be wrested from the existing Grady board, which he blamed for mismanagement and bad financial planning.

"This outfit down there will continue to waste money ... and put people on the payroll they don't need," Lowe said. "It's not going to be fixed by the board down there — ever."

Commissioners Lynne Riley and John Eaves favored tying the $15 million to a pledge that the Grady board would hand over control of daily operations to a nonprofit, nonpolitical corporation.

But Commissioner Emma Darnell blasted that as "extortion" and "shotgun tactics." She blamed Grady's problems on rising costs at a time of funding cuts, and she favored keeping a board of political appointees that remains "responsible to the taxpayers."

In the end, the commission narrowly approved urging the Grady board to form a committee to explore forming a nonprofit corporation.

The Grady board has hired a law firm to study the prospect of a nonprofit corporation, and the firm is expected to report back by the end of this month.