Affluent Buckhead, Plagued By Crime, Moves Closer To Seceding From Atlanta

Buckhead is a wealthy area Moved closer Georgia seceded from Atlanta on Monday as two bills related to the issue were introduced by GOP lawmakers in the Georgia Senate.

If the Senate and House pass the bills, and Governor Brian Kemp (R–GA) signs them respectively, Buckhead residents, which covers 24 miles and is 73.5% and 23.9% white, will be allowed to vote in November 2024.

Andre Dickens, the spokesperson for Atlanta Mayor, stated that Atlanta is in panic over the move and said that City Hall was ready to help. “will continue to work with the Senate to put an end to this legislation before it has disastrous consequences,” According to Fortune.

A series of violent crimes have occurred in the region. A Buckhead grandmother, who was preparing for Christmas in December, was attacked and killed in her garage.

Seventy-seven-year-old Eleanor Bowles, the mother of two, lived in the Buckhead residential district in a gated community. Her son Michael found her body, which had been stabbed several times, when he returned home for Christmas. Police stated that the grandmother had been making Christmas preparations and went into her garage to look for Antonio Brown, 23. Brown was allegedly trying to steal her Lexus SUV.

#BREAKINGAtlanta Police Department arrests suspect accused in stabbing Eleanor Bowles to death at her Buckhead residence. https://t.co/5mTBOimejq

— Atlanta Journal-Constitution (@ajc) December 13, 2022

ARREST IN BUCKHEAD HOMICIDE | @Atlanta_Police confirm 23-year-old Antonio Brown was arrested. @DeKalbCountyPD assisted in arrest. 77-year-old Ellen Bowles was stabbed to death on Saturday inside her Paces West gated subdivision. pic.twitter.com/DIg1kYDqCo

— Cody Alcorn (@CodyAlcorn) December 13, 2022

“I was on my way to visit her for the holidays and got to her a few hours too late,” Michael Bowles told FOX 5. “Finding her like that is something that will be with me forever. What happened to her was her worst nightmare. It’s most people’s worst nightmare.”

“I am committed to getting the word out about this outrageous tragedy. And I want everyone to understand that none of us are safe,” he continued. “I hope that people read this story and understand this, and then maybe we can all collectively effectuate some change. I will carry that message with me forever, for mom.”

In 2021, as a rash of crime affected Buckhead, residents gathered to form the Buckhead Exploratory Committee to petition Georgia to permit a vote on whether the district could secede from Atlanta. The effort raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to The Washington Post.

“The mayor and the city council have been making bad decisions, so at what point does anyone with a brain say, ‘Enough?'” Buckhead Exploratory Committee chairman Bill White said. “If crime is out of control and you are doing nothing about it, you are finished as a city.”

One local resident told Bloomberg News, “We are living in a war zone in Buckhead. Shootings and killings, it just never ends.”