White Girl Bleed a Lot (31 page)

One poster at the Atlanta Topix Forum who goes by The Captain said race had nothing to do with the disturbance. He claimed to have seen mob attacks before and said that “almost all have been done by gangs of white kids. It’s you dumb fracks that feel the need to harp on the race if it’s not yours.”

The Captain reflects a frequently expressed opinion on many sites that the pattern of racial-based violence should not be part of any discussion of these crimes. And that white people and Asian people commit random acts of violence all the time as well.

Though, curiously, those videos rarely make it to YouTube.

Even the AJC says the violence was “not unprecedented.” Several news accounts did report similar, if smaller scale, acts of violence and harassment at a Screen on the Green showing of
National Treasure
the week before. Says The AJC:

Lisa Wells, who attended “National Treasure” with a friend from London, said a rowdy group of teens hijacked the event.

“[They] were smoking pot openly,” she said. “When another attendee reported this to police, the female officer radioed for a male officer who took his sweet time to show up.”

After learning they had been reported, the teens became hostile, Wells said.

“One stood up in front of the group who reported her to police and blocked their view from the screen intentionally for about 10 minutes,” she said.

When the second officer arrived, Wells said he chatted briefly with one of the teens, then left.

“The crowd around the teenagers was disgusted,” she said. “Many began to leave. Then the [firecrackers] went off and everyone in the area left quickly.”

Matt Burkhalter, of south Atlanta, compared the atmosphere during the “National Treasure” screening to a bar brawl.

“We left early,” said Burkhalter, 32. “We felt unsafe and uncomfortable.”
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As city officials prepared for the film event in 2011, many blamed the choice of action movies for the violence of the year before. So they switched it up and showed
Sixteen Candles
, a coming of age film starring Molly Ringwald. It did not make much difference. After the movie, directly outside the event area,
lots of black people were fighting. Three people were shot.

To most of the local media, the racial aspect was not worth reporting. Except for the plucky Patch. Talking to the Midtown Patch, police spokesman Carols Campos said:

“Preliminary investigation determined that witnesses reported two groups of black males fighting with each other at the intersection of Peachtree and 10th streets after leaving the Screen on the Green event.”
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A group of local residents even formed their own Facebook page to “Take Back Screen on the Green. Boycott Until It Is Safe for Everyone.”
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Too little, too late. The 2011 showing was the last year for the event.

Even though the media was able to keep the news of violence at Screen on the Green local, the 2011 black mob attack and robbery on two male Delta flight attendants aboard Atlanta’s MARTA train system received national attention.

No arrests were made in the “Clockwork Orange” style attack.

That could be because black mob violence in the MARTA is now routine. There are dozens of videos of mob violence on Marta and many of the incidents involve black women:

Even the daughters of Mayor Franklin of Atlanta were involved in mob violence last summer. It happened to their escort after he accused a photographer of bothering them, because they thought he was taking their picture. Ten black people beat the mayor’s daughters’ friend into a coma after the confrontation turned physical. According to witnesses, “Miller left a club in downtown Atlanta with friends, including the daughters of Franklin. The women were being harassed by a group of men and Miller stepped in to help.”

Officer James C. Polite, an Atlanta police spokesman, said, “He was just outnumbered and overpowered.”

“The men were working for ’01 Entertainment, a party promotion business, according to police. Witnesses said there were at least 10 of them. But only one, Apollo Holmes, turned himself in.” Holmes’s lawyer claims that Miller was drunk and agitated because the entertainment company was filming the mayor’s daughters. But it turns out, the photographer had no idea who they were.
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Violence and lawlessness have also spread to the campus of Georgia Tech. In 2011 at least eight students reported they were robbed and assaulted by two men at gun point, usually in search of cell phones and computers. Four of the robberies happened at the end of June. They happened on the street, in parking garages, and in dorm rooms or apartments.
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