Written by Alex Hays
Atlanta Councilman Antonio Brown had voted to withhold $73 million of the police budget as he supported Defund the Police movement. He also joined the Atlanta mayoral race and wants to achieve his goal to be the next city mayor.
Antonio Brown’s political career started when he was elected into the city council in 2019 and as a representative of District 3 which includes Vine City, English Avenue, and Atlantic Station. He was a successful CEO and a known humanitarian and was surprised at the number of black people dead by police officers over the national mass demonstrations. He grew up in poverty and had parents who were incarcerated frequently. Built from the ground up he made Level 13, a luxury men’s fashion brand sold in Nordstrom nationwide. He launched his campaign after the successful brand he leaked into the community with his Dreams of humanity (DOH) non-profit organization committed to helping and aiding the lives of disadvantaged people or marginalized people with access to education programs, generous charitable contributions.
During the ribbon-cutting event, Antonio’s Mercedes was left unlocked and was stolen by kids between the ages of six and twelve years old. He stated “You don’t immediately think that, ‘Oh, these kids are going to steal my car,” His car was keyless and had push-start ignition. The crime was committed as an increase in violent crimes has spread across a city-wide scale. The Atlanta Police Department had put out the crime data on the recent crime increase “homicides are up at least 52% from this time last year, while the number of shootings has increased more than 40% according to the Atlanta Police Department’s most recent crime data” as Brown was a victim of the crime wave.
The movement to defund the police is based on the belief that lowering police funds will assist in reducing police brutality. It had the opposite effect as lowering the budget of the police means lowering training standards. Not teaching our police forces to deal with situations correctly can result in far more harm than a professionally trained officer. De-escalation should be taught more in the police academy as the police forces currently have very little de-escalation training. If we lower the police budget we prevent recruiting of new police officers that are capable, smart, and who know how to de-escalate complex situations so they don’t cause more violence.
