Buckhead made national headlines Monday after Fox News host Tucker Carlson described, in sometimes graphic terms, how crime rates in this Atlanta residential district have soared and he also said certain of Atlanta’s politicians incited that violence.
Buckhead residents have organized and wish to secede from Atlanta.
Carlson said Atlanta leaders have made too many inflammatory remarks about Buckhead, which is wealthy, and that district residents have endured the abuse in silence. Buckhead residents account for a fifth of Atlanta’s entire budget, he said. Carlson said Buckhead residents shouldn’t have to “send huge sums of money to a city that hates them.” He blamed Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for motivating hundreds of Atlanta Police Department officers to exit the force. Atlanta’s crime rate, Carlson went on to say, swelled.
“They [Buckhead residents] have been attacked by reckless politicians ginning up hatred against Buckhead for political reasons,” Carlson said.
“Why wouldn’t shootings and stabbings be the end result?
Buckhead City Committee CEO Bill White told Carlson he and his neighbors “are living in a war zone.”
“What has happened here in the last several years is an incredibly dangerous spike in crime and a complete vacuum of leadership. The police in Atlanta are great policemen and women. We love them. They just want to do their job. They are not being allowed to do that. This is a very diverse community. We, in fact, are the most diverse community in all of Atlanta. We have decided to file for divorce, and the divorce is final,” White said.
“What we are saying to the city of Atlanta is we are going to form our own city. We have two bills in the state legislature. We have raised the requisite amount of money we need right now to move this forward. There will be a ballot initiative on the ballot next November, and we are going to take our city back for the great families of Buckhead once and for all.”
White said a separate Buckhead police force “will put the smackdown on crime once and for all.”
Members of a separate group, A Committee for a United Atlanta, said last month that the prospect of Buckhead seceding from Atlanta is dangerous. A Committee for a United Atlanta spokesman Billy Linville declined comment when The Georgia Star News contacted him Tuesday. He said he could speak Wednesday instead.
Buckhead had another violent weekend this month. According to the Atlanta Police Department’s (APD’s) website, someone shot a man as he jogged through the 1200 block of West Wesley Road in Buckhead. APD officers also reported a fatal shooting at the Intercontinental Hotel at the 3300 block of Peachtree Road. Hotel staff told The Georgia Star News Sunday that the hotel is in Buckhead.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Buckhead” by Kburkha2. CC BY-SA 4.0.
