Citizen pressure on Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the city’s police chief to do something about crime reveal a very under-reported issue: the criminal gang factor and state law.
When it comes to criticism of Atlanta’s mayor, Fulton County magistrate court judges and the county’s district attorney, the public should remember this fact: The law stipulates that Street Gang Act violations must go before a Superior Court judge.
This being true, if the Atlanta Police Department and others in Fulton County law enforcement (and prosecution) were taking aggressive and proper action against gangs, then the entire “what are the magistrate judges doing” issue would be moot.
Plus, there are significant, mandatory conditions on Street Gang Act violation bonds. As to criminal records supposedly not being “known,” to make out a Street Gang Act violation charge the following must be established:
1. The existence of a criminal street gang;
2. The suspect’s association with the criminal street gang;
3. The suspect’s commission of the underlying crime; and
4. That the commission of the crime was part of participating in the gang.
Accordingly, even without the criminal history “in hand,” a Street Gang Act violation charge makes the suspect’s criminality and criminal associations open to scrutiny. And, of course, being part of a gang always requires a criminal act by the aspirant.
Incredibly, though, records show all Fulton County law enforcement combined arrested less than 100 suspects on Street Gang Act violations in 2018. And Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard indicted less than 100 defendants on Street Gang Act violations last year.
Once again, the public needs to know that police investigating gang elements– and district attorneys “charging gang”– would not only benefit Georgia’s public safety, it would have precluded this latest Atlanta political flap.
