Criminal threats as evidence of up-and-coming entrepreneurs

Our local newspaper is doing its best to put a good spin on things and to hide bad news.

One of the common complaints is gangs of youths descending upon cars at an intersection, nominally offering to sell bottles of water but actually aggressively panhandling and threatening drivers with guns.

From Cops: 2 teens threatened people with guns for not buying water in Buckhead by Zachary Hansen.

Two teenagers face charges after authorities said they threatened people with guns for not buying water from them in Buckhead.


The separate incidents took place along a half-mile stretch of Peachtree Road on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, Atlanta police Sgt. John Chafee said Friday in a statement.

About 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers were flagged down by a man near Peachtree and Piedmont roads, according to the statement. The man said a group of juveniles who had been selling water at the intersection assaulted him.


When he pointed toward the group, two teenage boys began to run away, Chafee said. Officers were able to catch a 15-year-old, but the other teen got away.

Police found a loaded handgun in the suspect’s bag, but the victim declined to press assault charges against the juvenile. Instead, officers charged the teen with possession of a firearm by a minor and pedestrian in the roadway, Chafee said.

The teen offered officers $300 if they would let him go, which led to an additional charge of bribery.

And here is a common problem that existed before Covid-19 and made now much worse.

According to police, he had been arrested several times before on charges of armed robbery, breaking into a vehicle and theft of a vehicle. The Fulton County Juvenile Intake Unit declined to take the suspect, who was released to his mother later that day.

The police capture the criminal, the Mayor and City Council prevent them from being charged, and the County Jail automatically releases them back into the community to commit more crimes. No wonder they are running armed shakedowns on the busiest roads in the city. No consequences.

This is no kids-will-be-kids matter. The AJC reports on a second similar assault the next day. Then

The incidents are the latest in a string of disputes between children selling water and drivers on Atlanta’s roads. A man was shot Thursday on an I-20 exit ramp after a dispute with a group selling water, AJC.com previously reported.

An 18-year-old was shot and killed late last month during an altercation in Midtown. Surveillance footage from the scene indicated the victim may have been with a group of teens selling water just before he was shot multiple times, police said.

"Children selling water" is a new euphemism for mobile shakedown gangs. This is not you parent's lemonade stand.

And how is our inept Mayor problem solving this plague of armed violence? She reverts to her preferred fantasyland.

Earlier this month, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an administrative order creating an advisory council tasked with developing strategies to help promote youth entrepreneurship in the city.

“Our youth, including those who take to the streets to sell water and other goods, have shown us how productive and capable they can be as up-and-coming entrepreneurs,” Bottoms said.

People are being threatened, shot and killed by gangs of youth and she takes this as evidence of "how productive and capable they can be as up-and-coming entrepreneurs." It is not even bad comedy. It is the dangerous mental illness or delusion of an incapitated individual without the fortitude or moral compass to serve as Mayor.