Thursday, July 25, 2024
Good morning. In this week’s newsletter, we look at how a Savannah community responded to a surge in gun violence, a Georgia senator’s take on emergency preparations in Chatham County, and a teen’s shooting death in Brunswick. Let’s dive in.
FEATURE: PUBLIC SAFETY
Talking solutions, causes of gun violence
A spate of shootings in the historic Cann Park and Jackson Park neighborhoods in Savannah spurred fear, but also action.
Anxious members of the Cann Park/Jackson Park Neighborhood Association got together and held a meeting, where Savannah’s police chief directly heard their concerns for the first time earlier this month.
The shootings, one of which resulted in the killing of a 16-year-old, highlighted thorny questions over policing and safety in a Black neighborhood, where residents want solutions to gun violence and to know how they can get involved.
Read more from our story on the meeting.
NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY
‘Far from adequate’
Savannah’s hometown senator, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, swung through Chatham County’s 911 and emergency operations center as part of his visit to the county this week.
Chatham County is trying to scale up public safety services amid growth and investment in the area. One place it has struggled is emergency calls and storm response, largely due to old infrastructure. A new upgraded center has been in the works for over a decade.
“You can look at this building and this space and see that it’s far from adequate to meet the kind of emergency events that come from time to time,” Warnock told The Current on Monday.
The senator touted the $1.2 million in federal funding he secured for the new emergency operations facility last fiscal year, meant to house the county’s disaster response, new 911 workstations and airport police. Chatham County went ahead with a ground-breaking ceremony in May despite not securing a contractor to build the facility.
NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY
Brunswick teen shooting death
A week-and-a-half ago, a 17-year-old boy was killed in Brunswick after a heated argument turned deadly shooting, according to the Brunswick Police Department.
Xavier Williams, of Brunswick, died from his injuries. The shooting occurred after 11 p.m. on July 14 near the Glynnvilla public housing apartments. The police department charged a 22-year-old in his death last week.
“Far too often violence is used to solve our problems instead of speaking to one another and loving one another,” Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson said at a city commission meeting last week.
The shooting near public housing comes as the city of Brunswick is actively seeking bidders for a vast camera network “to closely monitor and minimize criminal activity and enhance public safety” using a nearly $1 million grant, The Current reported last year.
The proposal first arrived in city commission meetings last summer when the county suffered a slew of shootings, including one that killed a 16-year-old football player.
Brunswick will begin examining submitted bids for the camera contract at the end of next month, according to the city website.
FROM THE CURRENT
Last week, two Georgia reporters from The Current entered into unfamiliar, foreign territory: the Midwest.
Myself and Jabari Gibbs, our latest hire who covers accountability in Glynn County, attended last week’s Report for America conference in Minneapolis. Though neither of us had been to Minnesota before, we found solace in escaping the Georgia heat and 4 p.m. coastal storms.
More than anything though, we left the conference with a greater sense of community and purpose. RFA co-funds our positions with The Current, as part of a nationwide effort to fill in news vacuums in communities that need it: Communities like Coastal Georgia. We met other Georgia reporters, received trainings on data journalism and investigative reporting, and heard from top reporters in our industry.
All this is to say that we left the conference feeling reaffirmed about why we do this work — holding the powerful to account and informing our neighbors in Brunswick, Savannah, St. Marys and beyond.
If you have any feedback to share, news tips, or observations to help us keep doing this work, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our newsroom email address is staff@thecurrentga.org, mine is jake.shore@thecurrentga.org and Jabari’s is jabari.gibbs@thecurrentga.org.
Thanks for reading.
Gun violence shocked a Savannah neighborhood. Blame, solutions followed
Shootings over three days in Cann Park and Jackson Park, midtown Black neighborhoods in Savannah, shocked residents, who sought answers from the police department and among each other in a recent neighborhood association meeting.
Sapelo zoning referendum date set for Oct. 1 as county files suit
A petition filed in probate court met the signature threshold to force a county-wide vote on Hogg Hummock zoning, but the county is suing to prevent a referendum.
State House candidate’s fundraising letter strikes out
Padgett’s apparent breaches of Georgia campaign finance law raise questions about the degree to which state political parties examine past compliance with those laws when they recruit and vet their candidates.
As workers train, Hyundai Metaplant salary picture takes shape
Price tags on the first electric vehicles off the assembly line will exceed a year’s salary for most of the Georgia workers who made it.
Diminished Yamacraw community subject to rampant neglect, widening disparities
Yamacraw Village’s declining occupancy and rampant neglect set it apart from neighboring downtown areas. Demolition plans have been in the works for years, with little progress. Some residents attempt to maintain a semblance of community, while others who are forced to leave are not so lucky.
Warnock on Kamala Harris candidacy: ‘My bet is on the prosecutor’
What will it take for Georgia to vote for another Democratic presidential candidate? Sen. Raphael Warnock believes Georgia is definitely in play.
Support independent, solutions-based investigative journalism without bias, fear or favor on issues affecting Savannah and Coastal Georgia.
You must be logged in to post a comment.