Buckhead, a portion of Atlanta, Georgia, is looking to break free from the rest of a city in rapid decline. After decades of increased safety that started ahead of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, it took one woman and a single summer to ruin it. Not even New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio can beat Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ time for running a city into the ground. It took de Blasio two terms. Bottoms has been so spectacular she’s announced she won’t even run for a second one.
As a result of her rank incompetence, Buckhead, a wealthier section of Atlanta with about 100,000 residents, has decided to control its own destiny. There are two bills in the state legislature to affect the split, and the group has raised the required amount of money to move forward. Buckhead is petitioning to become wholly independent and establish and enlarge their own police force under different leadership.
Tucker Carlson interviewed Bill White, the leader of the movement to create an independent Buckhead. White told Tucker that residents feel as if they are living in a war zone. They are filing for divorce, according to White, and it will be final. He expects there will be an initiative on the ballot in 2022. If it is successful, Atlanta will lose at least 20% of its tax base.
Carlson described the rise in crime during his monologue. Two recent assaults include a man shot while jogging by an unknown assailant in a residential neighborhood and the stabbing of a pregnant woman on a walking trail in broad daylight. Her baby had to be delivered three months early. Neither victim was robbed, just violently assaulted:
In Buckhead, murders year-to-date are up almost 50 percent—that’s a lot of new dead people. Robberies and aggravated assaults are up by nearly 40 percent. Car thefts are up 65 percent. Lenox Square mall in Buckhead, one of the first indoor shopping malls in the United States, is now too dangerous to visit. Beginning last year, someone was getting shot at the mall virtually every month.
Carlson noted that the mall is now highly secured with metal detectors and armed officers, but violent crimes are still happening. White explained at least part of the reason why. He showed a video of a drive-by shooting where one resident was hit. There were blue police lights visible in the video, but Bottoms has prohibited officers from vehicle pursuits to prevent auto accidents. So the shooters just drove away and the officers called an ambulance and rendered aid.
This video shows a shooting at Lenox Mall on June 13, motive unknown:
The shooting from Lenox Mall yesterday. This guard suffered serious injuries. These kids are 15y/o & we’re asking for the older people that follow..if you have family members moving in the streets like this, please tell them to stop. Easier said than done but it’s worth a try.. pic.twitter.com/FdUMKJjsyQ
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) June 14, 2021
Buckhead is not alone in seeking to redraw lines, though the reasons differ. An area of Cobb County referred to as West Cobb will be conducting a feasibility study to determine whether to become their own city. Unlike Buckhead, they do not plan a complete divorce. The residents would remain in Cobb County schools and rely on Cobb County emergency services. Instead, the residents want what many other towns in north Georgia have: control over zoning, code enforcement, and waste management. They hope to incorporate the city of Lost Mountain in 2023.
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Residents there wish to maintain the semi-rural nature of the area. They like the current infrastructure with lots of two-lane roads, small shopping centers, and open spaces for families to enjoy. Unfortunately, the newly elected leaders in Cobb County are targeting the area for industrial parks and high-density, low-income housing, right in line with President Biden’s drive to destroy the suburbs. Residents do not want the congestion or the massive projects required to accommodate the county’s plans.
Eastern Oregon is petitioning to join Idaho. There has been noise for years that southern Illinois would like to become part of Indiana. And I have to say, if Georgians are stupid enough to elect Stacey Abrams as governor in 2022, there may be a petition for North Georgia to join Tennessee. Abrams would do a fine job of destroying the state with the same progressive policies that Bottoms has employed to run Atlanta into the ground.
The two initiatives in Georgia are not partisan or racially motivated. Neither is the Oregon petition. Instead, there is a broad coalition of people in America who do not want to be governed to death or live under a government that can’t keep them safe. The sooner this coalition of Americans understands that a progressive government searching for equity will not keep you safe and wants to govern every area of your life, the sooner we can kill that project once again. It seems to be something we need to do every 70 years or so.
Until then, citizens redrawing the lines sounds like a fabulous idea. The founding fathers built our institutions on the consent of the governed, and residents of Buckhead, West Cobb, and Eastern Oregon no longer consent to be governed by incompetent people who put their lives, property, and prosperity at risk. Hopefully, more communities will use these tools when they are let down by leaders who fail at their most basic responsibilities.
WATCH Tucker Carlson eviscerate Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and rip CNN for their take on Buckhead
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