Community to Hold Press Conference on Increasing Crime and the Media's Portrayal of our Neighborhoods

Part of the aftermath of last week's shooting death of a young male on Beecher and Cascade Avenue, has been that community representatives from NPU-T have had enough of what they see as false reporting from the major TV news stations.

Clairborne White, the newly elected President of NPU-T is organizing a press conference at the site of the recent murder to begin a discussion with the news media about our neighborhoods and the individualism each of our neighborhoods display.  White feels that too many times, the news media lumps all crime into coming from SW Atlanta instead of stating the actual neighborhood the crime was committed.

"In other parts of the city, they (TV news crews) say so and so was killed in Grant Park, or Midtown, or in East Atlanta.  Why do they pin point their neighborhoods, while in our case they lump EVERYTHING under SW Atlanta which covers a huge amount of territory," says White.  White believes by not pin-pointing where the crime occurred and by just saying SW Atlanta, this serves to put a black cloud over an entire quadrant of the city that is in no way helpful, supportive, or correct.

We wish to create a dialogue to address these issues and find solutions to address these situations.

Community representatives and residents from the following communities and organizations will be present: Community Business owners and residents, West End Neighborhood Development, Westview Community Organization, Beecher Donnelly Community Association, the Atlanta University Center, UCDC, and the West End Merchants Coalition.

They have also made requests for representatives from Zone 4 Police, Councilpersons Cleta Winslow and C.T. Martin, and State Rep. Pat Gardner to be in attendance.

The press conference will be held on Friday, December 14th at 5pm at the site of the most recent murder at the intersection of Beecher St. and Cascade.