Exploiting Atlanta's Grief

By Ellie McGrath

Residents now fear even for their town's good name

Atlanta has not been so besieged since the Civil War. Within the city, unknown killers have murdered 20 black youths in the past 20 months. Children are afraid to play outdoors; adults are afraid to let them. Anguished by the murders, Atlantans are also anxious about the barrage of publicity that is ruining its reputation as "the city too busy to hate." Journalists, con men and publicity seekers are all exploiting Atlanta's grief.

A newly formed Black Leadership Coalition, which was brought together to combat community fragmentation and includes Georgia State Assemblyman Tyrone Brooks and State Senator Julian Bond, last week denounced the "circus atmosphere" created by the worldwide publicity: They added: "When the tragedy of death is coupled with opportunism, vigilante action and fraudulent fund raising, concerned citizens must speak out."

To many Atlantans, however, the wrong people are speaking out. Although there is no evidence to support his thesis, Chicago-based Civil Rights Leader Jesse Jackson told an audience in Washington, D.C., that the Atlanta murders are part of a nationwide racial conspiracy. His conclusion: "It is open season on black people." The Communist Workers Revolutionary and Socialist Workers parties in Atlanta have joined mass rallies on behalf of the Atlanta children. Complains Camille Bell, head of the Committee to Stop Children's Murders (STOP) and mother of a victim, about the activities of such outsiders: "Those leeches follow us around and talk about 'the racist murders' when we don't know what the motivation is."

Like looters after a disaster, there are those capitalizing on Atlanta's tragedy. People have been arrested for collecting money for the victims' families without any authorization, presumably intending to pocket the proceeds. Officials of major Atlanta businesses say they are being bombarded by requests for contributions. Some financial exploitation is being done by people far removed from the murders. In Chicago, men posing as ministers collected $50 each from 75 people for a bus trip to Atlanta. When the donors met for the trip in a shopping center, the buses --and ministers--never showed up. Assemblyman Brooks has received similar complaints of illegal fundraising from California, New Orleans and Detroit.

Some Atlantans--to the consternation of police and the delight of worldwide TV crews--have come together to form armed vigilante groups. Israel Green, 55, a retired postal worker, set up one such patrol three weeks ago when rumors started circulating that Techwood Homes, a downtown project of over 1,200 apartments, would be next on the killer's agenda. Techwood's "bat patrol" consists of about 50 members ranging in age from 13 to 55, half of whom are women. Most of the patrollers have armed themselves with baseball bats, though some have carried guns. "The patrol is a legal activity and within the confines of the law," said Chimurenga Jenga, a community activist who helped organize the group. Nevertheless, police arrested Jenga and four others and charged them with carrying firearms illegally. The patrol has since agreed to stick to bats. Atlanta officials maintain that the vigilantes do not have the support of most of their neighbors. Says Mayor Maynard Jackson: "These things are upsetting people who are already distraught. This is rubbing salt into the wound."

Adding to the desperate atmosphere is an eleven-member contingent of the Guardian Angels, a publicity-conscious group of young New Yorkers who roam that city's troubled subway system in hopes of preventing crimes. Their fares to Atlanta were paid by a New York businessman, and local supporters gave them housing, a van and free gasoline. Since then the Angels, wearing their trademark red berets, have been patrolling Atlanta's black neighborhoods. The City-Wide Advisory Council on Housing, Inc., a public housing lobby group, has asked the Angels to establish a permanent chapter in Atlanta. Other people have not been so receptive. Says Public Safety Commissioner Lee Brown: "I think it's rather presumptuous that they think they can come in and organize our community."

Before the murders, Atlanta had enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, good national publicity and racial harmony. In 1974 Maynard Jackson became the first black big-city mayor in the Deep South. Today Atlanta has an impressive skyline and the country's largest airport --but also an array of typical urban problems. Though it ranks 33rd in population, Atlanta has the nation's third highest number of public housing units. Some 23% of Atlantans live below the poverty level, a percentage that is nearly double the national average. Blacks now constitute 66% of the city's population, but they claim a far smaller share of the wealth.

For years Atlanta was able to rise above those problems by focusing local and national attention on its signs of progress. But the murder victims are exclusively poor and black, and some Atlantans fear that the long-running crisis may affect the city's delicate balance of racial amity--especially if one or more of the killers turns out to be white. Thus both blacks and whites are becoming dismayed about the way their city is being portrayed.

When Cable News Network featured reports last week that Atlanta police were looking for a black man because of hair samples found on seven of the victims, Commissioner Brown hastened to deny the report. Dozens of publications reported that police in East Fishkill, N.Y., had arrested a black ex-convict who allegedly had abducted a nine-year-old boy and driven off in a truck with Georgia license plates. On the CBS Evening News, Anchorman Dan Rather detailed the arrest, linked it to Atlanta and did not until the last sentences of his minute-long report disclose to his viewers that authorities had decided the man could not have had anything to do with the Atlanta killings. Atlantans were even more irked at a Washington Post story last week that described their city as "about to crack" under the civic and racial pressures caused by the killings. "Where do they get that stuff?" asked Assemblyman Brooks.

But like it or not, Atlanta will have to endure until some break comes in its multiple murder cases. --ByEllie McGrath.

Reported by Joseph N. Boyce/Atlanta

With reporting by Joseph N Boyce/Atlanta

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