Summary
Transcript
Atlanta. So if you from Atlanta, if you in Atlanta and you’ve been to Atlanta, then you are familiar with the racetrack. Okay, shout out to Darren Moore. I’m gonna be reading that super chat shortly. Downtown Atlanta, which, you know, you know, what’s so funny about a lot of these cities is that people be thinking that they so special. Oh, man. You know, people from Atlanta do this and that.
They don’t really do that. People from Houston do this and that. They really go over to the Galleria or this hidden spot. They don’t really be over in the downtown area. People in Miami don’t really go to Miami beach. They just be over there. And they don’t really go to Wynwood no more either, because it’s being gentrified. People be thinking that they so cool that they be knowing exactly what be going on in a city.
When I say that most people that are in cities don’t even have a clue of what’s happening in their cities. But if you’ve ever been to downtown Atlanta, then you’ve passed by the racetrack, especially late at night. Now, late at night, the racetrack can get a little bit racy. And here’s the interesting thing about the racetrack in downtown Atlanta. The racetrack in downtown Atlanta is really unsuspecting for people that visit because it’s almost like one of the most centrally located gas stations or spaces that you can go in, do whatever it is that you do or whatever, so on and so forth.
Right? But interestingly enough, the racetrack is calling it quits. The iconic racetrack down in downtown Atlanta said, we can’t take it no more. We can’t keep hanging out over here. It’s getting bad. Check it out. Racetrack is pulling out of downtown Atlanta because the young man was shot and killed near the store over the weekend. That store near Georgia State University, that area has been the scene of several shootings for more than a year.
Fox lives. Christopher King joins us there live. And Christopher, what does this mean for other businesses in the area? Well, Courtney, the pumps are dark. The store is closed. This racetrack shut its doors at this location near Georgia state. Why? It’s just gotten too dangerous. One council member says a big company leaving could have a ripple effect. Thank God. Lavivica Martin says she used to work at this racetrack at Piedmont.
And John Wesley Dobbs. I actually quit because I got threatened by somebody with a gun. The junior at Georgia State University is glad racetrack is closing up shop here. She says this location isn’t safe, highly dangerous. Honestly, it’s actually crazy. Racetrack shut down this operation near the campus of Georgia state. This after Jeffrey Shakira Fulford was shot and killed over the weekend. It’s the fourth shooting in this area since late 2022 where individuals are closing because they don’t feel that they have the public safety support that they need.
Atlanta city council member Keisha Waite says a big corporation like racetrack leaving could take an economic toll on downtown Atlanta. So it is a huge impact. She worries other businesses could follow suit. When you have one business that’s negatively impacted, it has a domino effect all around town. Anytime you have a business or a corporation that leaves the city of Atlanta, this is a sad day and it’s not good for business as a whole.
A spokesman for Mayor Andre Dickens says, quote, nuisance properties across the city have a history of violent crime. The city will continue working with the appropriate stakeholders to ensure the safety of the community while a new responsible tenant is identified. We’re live in downtown Atlanta. Christopher King, Fox Five News. All right, Christopher, thanks. So the racetrack in downtown Atlanta, which is basically a large corporation, and it’s been a staple in downtown Atlanta for quite some time.
Every single time that I’ve ever visited Atlanta, I drive by it. The first time that I ever went to Atlanta or downtown Atlanta, I went to know because it’s just a gas station. Hey, I’m about to drive by this gas station, see what’s happening, see what’s popping, whatever. And I didn’t realize that it was as bad as it was over there. But you quickly learn soon as you go in there.
Oh, man. It’s a different type of element in here and it’s a lot of homelessness around here. And this is happening and that is happening. But what’s happening in a lot of these liberal cities is that people are starting to call it quits. People are starting to call it quits. And it’s a collection of different things and different reasons why this stuff is happening. Right? Number one, it’s the culture and it’s the people.
Let’s first remove the politicians out of the conversation and let’s say it’s the culture and it’s the people. It’s the culture and it’s the people. Because if the elements are bad and the people are bad and there’s no focus on public safety and it’s bad, then every single weekend is always a robbery or it’s a killing or somebody dies there or a, when you start to get the reputation where people say, hey, man, listen, you don’t want to stop over there.
You just want to keep going. It gets bad. It gets really bad. So that is basically what’s happening over in Atlanta. And what they don’t realize, because they think that it’s so popular and that it’s a lot of people that still want to be there and still there and all of that, they don’t realize that it’s a ripple effect. It’s a slow roll because without business and without tenants and when things start to become a ghost town and without tax revenue, then that starts to impact your city coffers, which starts to impact your ability to even be able to hire police officers, which impacts your schools, it impacts the property taxes, it impacts the villages, it impacts the universities, it impacts everything.
So that’s what’s really happening over there in downtown Atlanta. It’s getting really bad over there. In addition to that, over in New York, the Bronx subway shooting suspects was arrested because a lot of people may not feel familiar with it or be familiar with it, but there’s more to the story than just that. Take a look. Well, three people are in custody wanted in connection to the murder of a man on a D train in the Bronx.
All right. It happened as the train was pulling into a station in the Fordham Heights section. Fox Five’s Ashley Rodriguez joins us live from the scene. Ashley, this comes as crime is spiking on the subway. Oh, absolutely. Subway crime has shot up by 45% last month alone. Now the NYPD says they’re down there, they’re arresting the bad guys. It’s the city’s criminal justice system that keeps letting them go.
We have more cameras than a Las Vegas casino in this system. The NYPD and MTA celebrating the arrest of three suspects they say shot 45 year old William Alvarez on a D train in the Bronx. They say the suspects, 24 year old Justin Herday, 38 year old Betty Kado, and 42 year old Alfredo Trinidad, were all clearly caught on cameras. Governor Hokel has vowed to install them on every train and platform, much to the appreciation of investigators.
Let me start by saying that January was a challenging month for us here in the transit bureau. Crime was 45% higher this January compared to last year, with grand larceny being the main driver. Officers patrolling the trains recovered 17 guns in the last month. That’s triple the amount last year. And they made more than 250 arrests for other weapons, a 44% increase. We’ve got individuals roaming the subway with guns, with weapons.
Our police officers are being assaulted. So far this year, seven MTA employees were assaulted, four people who have 50 prior arrests amongst themselves have been arrested. 50 strikes seems like a lot of strikes. And I have to say that we’ve got to do something to keep our people safe. In response, Mayor Adams and NYPD commissioner Edward Caban are deploying upwards of a thousand officers in the subway system every day since February.
They say the surge is a similar strategy to how they reversed crime last year, but the implication is to really keep the subway safe. Those in charge of sentencing recidivist criminals, the state’s legislators need to get rid of bail reform laws. We’re making arrests at or near historic highs. The question is, why are we arresting certain people 50 times? But here’s the real question that you have to ask yourself.
Is this the thing that the people supported and voted for? And when you start to get down to the nitty gritty, you have to say, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Anton, what do you mean? Why would the people support offenders and crime happening on our subways? Let me remind you, and let me actually rejog your memory, isn’t this the very thing that meek Mill and Jay Z stood for and funded as a form of reform to make sure that the bail system allows for people to not have to hold or pay any kind of consequences as a result of committing crimes? Because they wanted to make sure that the justice system was equal and fair across the board for black people and Hispanics and white people and all of that? Isn’t this the very thing that we advocated for when Meek Mill went to jail? And this became the big thing because we wanted to have identity politics? Isn’t this the thing that y’all marched for when black lives matter stood on behalf of y’all? And they said that, hey, we need to make sure that we reform the justice system.
Now, you have all of your officers, because let me throw Eric Adams a little bit of bail here, because I can’t hold him accountable for this and say, well, it’s Eric Adams fault, because if they deploy in police officers and they’re arresting the suspects every single day, but the crime continues to spike, but then you see a re entry of the criminals continuing to do the same thing over and over again, then you have to start saying, well, if one part of the justice system doesn’t work because you can arrest the offenders, but if the offenders is easily able to get out and they’re not held accountable, what difference do it make? What difference does it make if the people that’s offending can just get out and offend, and they’re not worried about the fact that they don’t have to go to jail for the crabs or that they’re going to be held on bail and they know that they’re going to be out tomorrow.
If I know I’m going to be out tomorrow and I ain’t got nothing that’s preventing me from going out and doing the same thing that I did before, then there’s nothing that’s holding me accountable and there’s no consequences for my actions. What difference do it make? This is what y’all get for following rappers. This is what y’all get for following the Jay Z’s. Jay Z don’t even live in New York.
Jay Z don’t even be in New York. The very ones that’s funding and advocating for the very thing that’s not best for you ain’t even where you live. That’s like me sitting here and, you know, I don’t like what’s going on in Detroit, but I ain’t in Detroit. Every single person, every single person that’s ever come up on this platform and tried to hold me accountable for me saying something about Chicago or York.
Oh, because I’m from there. But are you there? No, I ain’t. Uh uh. Why would I live there? So you don’t have no vested interest in what’s really going on in your communities. So you ran. You left. You left the thing that you advocated against, you left. You’re not really a part of the fabric of that. You don’t stand for that. And I’m not criticizing you, but you can’t speak with a forked tongue.
You can’t be in two places at once. You can’t sit there and not vote, but then get mad at the politicians that’s making the laws and legislating on your behalf. You can’t advocate for Black Lives matters, buy their t shirts and enforce all of these companies to participate in diversity, equity and inclusion and defunding the police, but then at the same time complain about crime. You can’t have it both ways.
So now it’s difficult for me because then I hold the people accountable. Then at the same time, I got to say, well, is your fault that they in there in the first place? It’s your fault that the criminals is running the streets. It’s your fault that they keep offending and then arresting the offenders 50 different times. How are you going to have 50 different charges amongst four people? How are you going to have 50 different charges? 50 different charges, rap sheets.
As long as you can think amongst four people. And then I get on a live stream on Sunday, and they’re like, nah, man, listen. I’m all for the governor because he letting all of the criminals out. It’s the reason why they in jail. It’s the reason why they call criminals. When you say it’s a 43% spike, a 43% spike in crime, that’s crazy. Year over year, 43%. And ain’t nothing they could do about it because they got more.
He said it. He said, we got more cameras than a Las Vegas casino down in that joint. We can identify the offenders. We can find the people. We can get them. But we know that we’re going to be arresting these same people the next day. Y’all making it difficult for them to do their jobs. They already ain’t even got enough police officers. I remember when New York used to be a place where you used to look forward to because that was a part of the experience.
No, for out of towners. Hey, man, listen. Don’t you want to ride the subway? See, that’s normal for you all. But for the visitors and the out of towners, they want to go and check out the subway. That’s a part of the culture, right? Well, you might get robbed on a subway, and then they might be calling the warriors. Come out and play a. .