Posted on 07/08/2005 6:58:07 AM PDT by madprof98
It could have been a scene out of Baghdad.
At 2 a.m. Tuesday, a tanker carrying 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel was ambushed by a group of kids who pelted it with rocks and fireworks.
Police say a bottle rocket blew up inside the cab, injuring the driver and causing him to lose control of the massive tanker. It rolled over on the side of the road.
Investigators still are trying to determine exactly what happened next. But friends of the driver say he told them he prayed for help as some of the youths broke out the windows of the cab, hauled him out and beat him. Others danced on his truck.
The "terrorist attack," as it has been described by some, was not in Baghdad, but on a small stretch of road in northwest Atlanta, known by most as "Bankhead."
Officially, the name of the street is now Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, named after a famed civil rights lawyer. But the stigma of crime and poverty clings to the area, which is also the home of one of Atlanta's largest public housing complexes, Bankhead Courts.
On Thursday, Atlanta police arrested Anthony Boyd Jr. and charged him with reckless conduct for his part in the attack on driver Rafael Diaz. Police say Boyd is suspected of throwing the bottle rocket into the cab of Diaz's truck. The rocket exploded as it hit his face, injuring him severely. He is in intensive care at Grady Memorial Hospital, having undergone hours-long brain surgery after the attack.
Boyd was released on a $1,000 bond Thursday evening. Atlanta Police Department spokeswoman Sylvia Abernathy said investigators were awaiting a signature on an arrest warrant for another teenager in connection with the incident.
Councilwoman tours area
On Thursday, Atlanta City Councilwoman Felicia Moore toured the housing complex and talked to residents about the problems.
"I'm hoping this is an isolated incident," Moore said. "I don't see it as a group of people who want to terrorize truckers. I see this as a few teens who need to find something productive to do. It is obvious that they need programs in here, especially for the teenagers. I am going to work to get some programs in here."
Renee Glover, executive director of the Atlanta Housing Authority, said more needs to be done. The AHA is in the process of tearing down all traditional housing projects in Atlanta to create mixed-income communities.
"I have been very outspoken about the concentration of the poor in those communities. It yields very bad outcomes," she said. "You can't build a community around poverty, hopelessness and stress."
Several places like Techwood Homes, Carver Homes and Perry Homes already have been changed into thriving communities.
"It takes time and resources," Glover said. "We have been moving at a pretty good pace. Bankhead is one of the communities, not at the top, but one of the family communities we are looking to revitalize."
That time frame doesn't work for Angie Jones, who used Hollowell on her commute from Douglas County to Atlanta until a recent incident at Hollowell and Bolton Road. She said several youths were at the intersection, holding up signs requesting money for a "Boys Club."
"When I said no, one of them called me a [epithet]," Jones said. " So I pulled up to the light to call 911, when another one came to my car and tried to get me to roll the window down. When the light changed, I left. It makes you think, what is going on when you can't even drive home from work without someone harassing you."
Need for activities cited
No one is immune. Two years ago, on her way home from Wal-Mart, the back window of Karen Walker's van was knocked out by a brick. Karen Walker is married to Jeffrey Walker, the head of the residents association.
Walker, known in the community as "Coach Jeff" because he runs at least five local football teams for 6- to 12-year-olds, said the problems occur when football and other activities for kids disappear.
"They just hang out, period. Thirteen- and 14-year-olds — what are they doing out at 2 in the morning?" Walker said.
Mid-Thursday morning, Walker stood in the middle of Bankhead Courts, having just unloaded a truckload of free lunches. The 1,387 or so residents had begun to wander over for their midday meals.
In a light drizzle, he discussed his neighborhood, his voice alternately mellow, then agitated.
"That incident hurt me. I have seen the bad, the good, the bad and the good again," Walker said. "No one ever talks about the fact that the scores in the elementary school are higher, and that our kids from Douglass High School are going off to college and the military."
Bankhead Courts is in the midst of the Catalyst program, which requires everybody between ages 18 and 61 to work, enroll in school or a job training program, or face eviction. Steven D. Lee, whose organization runs the Marsha Walker Community Center across the street, said with the advent of Catalyst, 20 people enrolled in his GED program. Another 38 are on a waiting list for the next session.
But before Catalyst, few people enrolled in any of his training programs. Aside from the GED, everything else is pretty much ignored, he said.
Glover said that of the 434 adults in Bankhead Courts, 288 are not in compliance with Catalyst guidelines.
"We should have 200 people in this GED class," Lee said. "This whole place should be full. It is free. All they have to do is walk across the street. We are doing our part, but it is a matter of if you want to do your part."
The liberal mindset perfectly captured.
How come all asian, all India ethnic communities never have these type of problems in America? How is it they seem to thrive among themselves with profitable businesses and structure for their kids?
Things that make you go hmmm? Bill Cosby is right!
Someone add up what this project cost- start to demolition. I did that for a project in Buffalo once- they could have BOUGHT EVERYONE a $120,000 home for what they spent. And I do mean EVERYONE- every man woman AND child. Oh, and the average housing price for a GOOD HOME in that area at that time was $30,000. The average price after the 'project' went in and destroyed the neighborhood- $5000
Africa in America.
Good thing they didn't have any RPGs.
This is not a terrorist attack. It is a criminal problem. While, yes, "programs" might help a few bored kids (I'm not against that type of program), it really doesn't address the problem like this article suggests. It's a heart problem. These kids have no respect for other people and their property, a problem that's not going to change because they can play basketball for a few extra hours a day or week. Unless, they can get a fearless person in there who can teach some values and the young people themselves are willing to listen and respond, nothing will change. Families need to step up to the plate too.
Maybe midnight basketball would be a solution....</s>
I had copied the exact same quote from Atlanta City Councilwoman Felicia Moore. Truly the level of willful blindness is staggering.
Yes, if only they had midnight basketball. I'm sure that would solve the problem. Either that or lock them the hell up with something more than a lousy $1000 bond.
..."mixed-income communities..."---read giving do-nothings what their neighbors worked for all their lives. The HUD did this in CA, buying or helping to buy houses no longer affordable for middle-class workers losing their jobs for welfare recipients. Instead of building up a neighborhood, it tears it down.
vaudine
Ah yes, the city of Atlanta where a man is innocent until proven guilty, and a black man is innocent even when proven guilty.
We can safely assume that Boyd is black because of the scrupulous avoidance of any mention of his race by the Urinal/Constipation. I wonder what they'd do to some white guy who did this.
There aren't any "families" in places like this. There are women who have babies and let them raise one another, and there are men who stop by to spend the night - with the women or with the children.
Those dumba$$ Atlanta judges didn't learn a damn thing.
Not yet anyway.
What father?
Its really amazing that Arabs, Indians, Chinese and Japanese in America manage to get around what the left believes is omni-present racism. To not only equal what white Americans have done, but from my reading actually earn more then white Americans.
Of course the left is simply redifining the oppressor group, to include all these successful ethnic groups. Now they've joined the conspiracy with white males, to hold down blacks and latinos.
Victicrat.
It would be front page news in the MSM. There is no such thing as "black" crime as a definition in itself, just like there's no Muslim terrorism.
Naw, just change the names of the streets and everything will be better.
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