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Got a story about ATLANTA #bailreform. Wanna hear it? Here it go.
But before we get started, go ahead and sign this @ColorOfChange petition urging Mayor Bottoms to VETO rollback legislation passed by @atlcouncil THE DAY BEFORE ELECTION DAY. https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/atlanta_bail_reform/?source=sms114T
But before we get started, go ahead and sign this @ColorOfChange petition urging Mayor Bottoms to VETO rollback legislation passed by @atlcouncil THE DAY BEFORE ELECTION DAY. https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/atlanta_bail_reform/?source=sms114T
The late ‘17 holidays in ATL were marked by two things among organizers (1) an awful wave of the flu & (2) late and sometimes overnight meetings drafting proposed bail reform legislation to offer to then Mayor-Elect Keisha Lance Bottoms who’d defeated Mary Norwood by <800 votes.
@ignitekindred @WomenOnTheRise1 @Snap4Freedom were just a few of the groups who joined lawyers, faith leaders and others to offer a first step in hopes that Atlanta would take a new direction.
After the legislation was vetted by the law dept., the section that would have provided needs assessments and court notifications systems was stricken. The promise was that those provisions would at some point become its own ordinance. We’re still waiting on that.
Then came the hearings and work sessions. The bail industry pulled out all of the stops. In addition to allowing Black bail bondsmen to be the face of the assault against community, they paraded their former clients before Council to stoke fear of the “criminal element.”
Feb 2018-Despite the best efforts of the wealthy bail industry, the ordinance made it to full council. Community showed up and showed out and the ordinance passed unanimously. This was not because of universal support, but because some realized opposition was not feasible.
Mayor Bottoms signed bail reform as her first legislative act the next day. Community showed up in support of what we thought was a first step of many. We knew there was a required 6-month review and that we were in for a fight.
Guess what happened about a month after bail reform passed. A MASSIVE RANSOMWARE ATTACK ON THE CITY. Everything from water bills to traffic tickets were shut down for weeks. RIP to all of the data points we recommended to be collected to track the impact of bail reform on systems
We submitted open records requests for data from the courts and the jail. Month after month we were told that there was no data (see: ransomware attack). So IMAGINE our surprise when news media started to drop stories with data from the court suggesting bench warrants were up.
Days before the review hearing we received a little raggedy half-page chart suggesting that Failures to Appear were on track to triple. We prepared to deal with this “data” at the committee hearing. There, Michael Julian Bond again began his transparent attempts to derail reform.
Community again showed up. Our framing: (1) we were entitled to clean RELIABLE data unaffected by the ransomware attack; (2) Council had failed to do any of the things they promised related to needs assessments & court notifications; and
(3) our folks saved $3mm because for 6 mo they didn’t have to purchase their freedom when arrested for traffic offenses and “non-violent” ordinance violations. It’s important that you remember the “non-violent” language for later. Council left the ordinance intact.
Now you have to understand that all of this is happening while there is both a concurrent assault on bail reform on the statewide level & intensifying grumbling from folks on the north side of town led in part by...Mary Norwood. Crime was down. They didn’t care.
Norwood & Co. were upset not only about bail reform, but also by other progressive measures being considered like @WomenOnTheRise1’s campaign to #CLOSETHEJAILATL. When the jail closure task force was up for a vote, Michael Julian Bond was the lone nay vote.
Ok, back to @bailreform. Aug 2019, we were told by an insider that Michael Julian Bond had authored bail reform repeal legislation. He denied it vehemently and even threatened to report us to Facebook (!!) for sounding the alarm. Unfortunately for him, we actually saw the doc.
As before, community showed up to Council and MJB denied that the draft existed. You can see it for yourself, authored by him and captioned as a REPEAL of the original bail reform ordinance. He never filed this repeal, but it appears that he never stopped undermining our work.
2020 came & we approached the 2-year mark of the passage of bail reform in Atlanta. No court notifications systems had been improved. No needs assessments had been funded. It was as though we were shouting into an abyss when talking to Council a/b next steps.
All the while, Buckhead’s alarmist mob politics had only intensified. It was they (not us) who appeared to have the full attention of the press & City Hall. The Taskforce to Reimagine the Atlanta City Detention Center made our final recommendations to the Mayor and then...COVID.
As those of us concerned a/b ALL Atlantans worked on COVID releases from all jails and prisons, who were our most vocal opponents? Mary Norwood and the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods. Decarceration frustrates their plan to keep the city jail open. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/former-councilwoman-mary-norwood-questions-decision-to-close-atlanta-jail/954889889/
As mostly young & black people began to use car stunt shows a form of recreation during the pandemic, Buckhead actively only ways to criminalize mostly black young people. Collisions had given rise to a few incidents of gun violence. That’s all they needed.
Council’s 1st response was to pass an unconstitutional & unenforceable ordinance that criminalized mere presence at stunt shows. This was our first sign that they were behaving AND LEGISLATING an an irrational fashion, motivated mostly by the fear stoked by Buckhead residents.
This brings us to Michael Julian Bond’s latest maneuver: an ordinance that modifies our bail reform ordinance to designate traffic offenses associated with stunt shows and racing as “violent” so that those arrested will be held pretrial and denied the benefits of reform.
This idea was floated by Chief Judge Portis who in response to Buckhead hysteria declared a state of emergency allowing him to get around court closures. Norwood’s folks were certain (w/no data) that stunt shows persisted mainly because courts were closed. https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/judge-weighs-in-on-atlantas-street-racing-problem
Bond’s legislation was before the Public Safety Committee on 10/26. Buckhead residents, many who claimed to be calling in response to “Mary Norwood’s email” gave hours of commentary full of dog whistles and pitchforks. Yet, the law made it out of committee. Progressive, where?
Now, organizers were faced with splitting our time between mobilizing voters for this historic election and rallying support to stop this ill-conceived law now before full council. We urged “leaders” to hold the paper until community could fully engage.
Despite a memo from @southerncenter, renderings for dedicated space for car shows offered by @Mvmnt4BlkLives, & an oppositional statement from @WfpGeorgia, Council voted 10-3 to pass the legislation KNOWING that experts were busy working to safeguard democracy.
What was most appalling is that when confronted by constituents who oppose this legislation, council members have continued to misrepresent what this legislation is.
Lie #1: It is not a rollback of bail reform. If not, why does it amend the original bail reform ordinance?
Lie #1: It is not a rollback of bail reform. If not, why does it amend the original bail reform ordinance?
Be clear: We know Atlanta must find ways to educate communities and mitigate potential harm caused by stunt shows. We also know that criminalizing everything we dislike is an impulse deeply rooted in the machinery of mass incarceration. It is behavior we must unlearn. Even here.
After November 3, we saw a lot of grandstanding on the part of our “progressive” council members. They elevate themselves on our backs and exploit community’s vision for a better Atlanta while degrading those things for which we have labored.
Who knows what would have happened in 2017 w/o brilliant organizers offering a progressive platform? We brought ideas & research & lent our courage. Now they believe we are no longer needed. Truly, the impulse to cage black people is non-partisan. Call it what you want.
Mayor Bottoms has until close of business today to VETO this attack on our communities and engage in meaningful work of seeking a solution that does not embolden those in Buckhead who believe that their money is the only power the City will honor. https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/atlanta_bail_reform/?source=sms114
We hope that the mayor does the right thing. We also embrace that despite how weary we are, the work is never done and we can’t follow in the footsteps of our city councilmembers who cower to Buckhead.
Our ancestors taught us.
It’s #CommunityOverCages for me. All day.
Our ancestors taught us.
It’s #CommunityOverCages for me. All day.
