海角大神

Social justice activist Kelsea Bond spends a lot of time canvassing Atlanta鈥檚 highest-crime neighborhoods.

Her mission: Convince residents that, if core social and economic inequities were resolved, crime would abate and the city wouldn鈥檛 need a police department.

Less than a year ago, amid massive social justice protests across the United States, the idea of fundamentally reducing the role of police rose from nonstarter to distinct possibility.

Minneapolis voters will in November consider whether to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety, which would include some component of law enforcement. New York cut $1 billion from the nation鈥檚 largest police force. Atlanta came within one city council vote of cutting $72 million from its police department.

Today, however, that momentum has almost completely reversed. Ms. Bond says there has been 鈥渁 doubling down on policing, increasing surveillance, and building a massive training center, which is in such stark contrast to the conversation we were trying to begin over the summer. What happened? What changed?鈥�

The simple answer is crime. Like other cities, Atlanta has witnessed a new crime wave 鈥� bad enough that one affluent part of the city is considering secession. Yet in talking to residents across Atlanta, even those sympathetic to the defund movement now say it overreached. The way forward, many say, is not in getting rid of the police, but helping them do a better job.

鈥溾�楧efund the police鈥� was a slogan that really backfired ... because across the country 鈥� not only in Atlanta 鈥� people living in those neighborhoods who aren鈥檛 necessarily activists don鈥檛 want the police gone, especially with crime spiking,鈥� says Ron Bayor, a historian at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 鈥淲hat people do want is police reform.鈥�

Atlanta backlash

The question of how hard to push police hit home quickly for Atlanta. The killing of Rayshard Brooks a few weeks after George Floyd鈥檚 murder further fueled protests, and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms immediately called for the arrest of the officer.

The response from local cops: 170 officers called out sick as morale plummeted. In the past year, more than 200 officers have left the force and only 60 have been hired. Arrests nose-dived in the months after the protests, according to internal Atlanta Police Department records provided to the Monitor last year.

For Risaiah Osborne, a 20-something student who lives near where Mr. Brooks was killed, gunfire has been a weekly occurrence outside his home.

A participant in last year鈥檚 protests, he says, 鈥渢he movement was growing and growing 鈥� and then it just died.鈥�

He admits his own personal evolution is part of it. Though he believes that the city can invest more resources into its toughest neighborhoods, he says, 鈥渢he fact is, defund the police was never a winning message. Without the cops, I know folks would be up running into my house.鈥�

He now believes the answer is what he saw during an afternoon run. He spotted two Black officers on bicycles, talking to locals. 鈥淎s a Black man, I just breathe a little easier when I see cops that look like me. It鈥檚 easier to stop and talk.鈥�

鈥淭he more I think about this, I think we need to change American culture more than we need to change the cops,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f you think about sports, it feels like this country is a losing team right now. It鈥檚 not the players who need to be changed. It鈥檚 the culture and the values of the team.鈥�

Changing messages

The crime spike has had a political impact, here and beyond. Mayor Lance Bottoms recently announced, with few details, that she was not seeking a second term. In New York City, front-runner Eric Adams, a former officer who wants to see more officers on the street, took a strong early lead in the city鈥檚 working-class boroughs while struggling in Manhattan.

Last year, nine city council members in Minneapolis stood on a stage set with a 鈥渄efund the police鈥� banner. Voters will face one charter proposal in November that would eliminate the department altogether.

But Mayor Jacob Frey has put forward his own proposal. He wants to reduce traffic stops, boost internal affairs, and give rank-and-file officers the power to intervene when they see professionalism slip among other officers. Yet crucially, Mayor Frey also wants to build the decimated department back to its full 888 members by 2023.

鈥淚f we were having [the defund] discussion when violent crime was kind of at historic lows, it would be a different debate,鈥� says Wesley Skogan, author of 鈥淐ommunity Policing: Can it work?鈥� 鈥淭he question now is: 鈥榃hat am I, as the mayor, going to do right now?鈥� Fixing the police and getting them paid enough and getting them deployed smartly by tomorrow night is what you come back to.鈥�

For her part, Ms. Bond, the activist, worries that police were able to change the conversation by not doing their jobs.

鈥淚f you claim to be somebody who cares about public safety and keeping communities safe, and then you fail to show up just because you鈥檙e having a bad day, well, what would happen if a teacher did that or a doctor?鈥� says Ms. Bond of Defund APD, Refund Communities (DARC). 鈥淚t takes a lot of audacity and sense of self-importance to say that you stand for one thing and then not show up to supposedly do that thing.鈥�

But those dynamics only illustrate that police reform is about more than 鈥渉ard, green dollars,鈥� says Robbie Friedmann, a policing expert at Georgia State University. When a profession that is ostensibly built on service and honor is cast as immoral, the consequences can be severe.

鈥淲hat the implications are is that officers are resigning, they鈥檙e retiring early, and new cadets are not coming in at the numbers police need them,鈥� says Mr. Friedmann, who runs an international police officer exchange program. 鈥淲hen you erode the moral basis of police authority and police deterrent powers, that is a boomerang [that is] counterproductive to policing itself and detrimental to the society that we live in.鈥�

Ready to secede?

Those stakes are on full display in the Buckhead neighborhood. Atlanta annexed Buckhead in the 1950s in a bid to bring economic and racial diversity to a largely Black city. Today, Buckhead is part of the urban-suburban coalition in Georgia that elected Joe Biden and two Democratic senators in 2020. But some in the area want to secede from Atlanta.

In the past year, Buckhead has seen robberies increase by 39%, aggravated assaults by 52%, and larceny by 40%. If Buckhead seceded, it would take 40% of Atlanta鈥檚 tax base.

鈥淚t would destroy Atlanta,鈥� says Mike Gunter, a record store clerk who has lived and worked in Buckhead for 40 years.

Mr. Gunter links the secession movement directly to the defund movement and mayor鈥檚 crackdown on policing. He points to a no-chase policy instituted under Mayor Lance Bottoms that has allowed street racers to tear up the streets with impunity, setting a lawless tone.

鈥淲e鈥檝e had crime waves before,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut nothing quite this sustained and intense.鈥�

Yet secession is a terrible idea, he says. 鈥淟et鈥檚 be clear: The annexation of Buckhead was about race. But this is not about race. It鈥檚 about crime and equitable policing. All our neighborhoods should be equally safe, and it鈥檚 up to the city to make that happen. But secession would be counterproductive.鈥�

Leaders in Atlanta now are trying to address these concerns. Officers have received a $2,500 bonus for staying put. The proposed police budget is up significantly. And city leaders want to incorporate new ideas and protocols for officers at a proposed police training center.

鈥淲e need more of them鈥�

The shift seems to reflect a prevailing attitude among residents, including Ted Jamison, a retiree out cleaning his truck in the Edgewood neighborhood.

To Mr. Jamison, the defund idea became a starting point in a necessary negotiation. But as an answer to the city鈥檚 problems, it falls short, he says. After all, 鈥渋t鈥檚 not the police who are committing all this crime,鈥� he notes.

He wants a strong, but respectful police force trained to de-escalate conflict, and focused on tackling serious criminality before it gets worse.

Despite prominent and tragic confrontations between police and the Black community, there has been progress, says Professor Bayor, author of 鈥淩ace and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta.鈥�

鈥淧olice are much better here than they were years ago. There鈥檚 diversity in terms of people and practice,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut you鈥檝e had a few outstanding incidents where the violence could have been de-escalated and nobody had to be shot. That鈥檚 what police have to work on.鈥�

Debra Flowers agrees.

The Atlanta retiree carries her ID in a shoulder bag just in case police approach her and her friends as they hang out in a park in the Mechanicsville neighborhood.

鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 annoying to be hassled by them, and sometimes they threaten you with a ticket,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut they are just doing their job. They are keeping watch. They are protecting us. I鈥檓 old, but I鈥檓 a tough lady. Ain鈥檛 nobody going to rob me, if I can help it. But I don鈥檛 think we need fewer cops. We need more of them.鈥�

As for officers who break the law, discriminate and hurt, even kill, people without reason, she says: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what lawyers are for.鈥�