Atlanta Was Already Broken

Recently I stumbled upon a link to an AJC op-ed, published August 2021: “The Wendy’s fiasco: The one that broke the city?” The piece—authored by notoriously pro-police AJC contributor Bill Torpy⁠—sought to portray Atlanta as a city rife with gang activity and lawlessness. Throughout the piece, Torpy paints a picture of a “Mad Max Atlanta”. In particular, he references the events occurring at the protester-occupied Wendy’s at which Rayshard Brooks was murdered by police during the summer of 2020. Torpy laments the position in which the Atlanta Police Department found itself during a time of increased scrutiny towards policing, and attempts to connect the violence which occured at the occupied Wendy’s to the larger “crime wave” of 2020—specifically citing the tragic murder of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner on July 4th, 2020  to make his case. Well, I was there too. 

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They Want to Build a Cop City. We Don’t Need It.

All opinions are the author’s own and are not representative of any models pictured.

If a budget can reveal character, then so too can an investment. 

It’s been a  year and a half out from the public onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. How far have we come?

Workers, once labeled “heroes,” are now being forgotten and exploited more than ever before. Let’s remember that the sentiment was never genuine for those forced back to their jobs on the frontlines amid a global public safety crisis – with no real material benefits to show for it, all while the corporations they work for are clocking record profits. 

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Socialism is Patriotism

All men are created equal… Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These words tower over our country as central to the social contract that America represents — on no day more-so than July 4th, Independence Day, a day where no matter where you may be, you’ll hear the “cannons of freedom” made family-friendly and spectacular. At the same time, no day more-so than Independence Day makes clear the hypocrisies that work in unison to create the modern conception of America and its history.

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