The Barnett Street Slaying

Thursday night, August 16th, saw a tragic snuffing out of a human life here in VaHi at the ATL FoodMart on Barnett Street. Rather than retyping the details – I’ll give links to the media stories about the senseless killing of Mushtaq “Mike” Moloo.

CBS Atlanta – WSB – AJC – and this follow-up story from channel 46
Going along with this last story is a link I forgot to put into the last Safety Report about our additional police coverage

That same evening also saw another very similar tragedy in northwest Atlanta, when yet another well-liked businessperson’s, Vanessa Thrasher, life was ended.

There was a very well thought-out essay posted on the VaHi nextdoor message board, that I would like for the entire community to see and think about, written by Robert.

“Perhaps it’s time that we, as citizens, begin to accept our part of the blame for the surge of vagrants and thugs in the southern VaHi area. The police have noticeably increased marked patrols, but we are doing little to assist them in cleaning our own streets by believing we are helpless and too afraid to stop it ourselves. Our complete reliance on uniformed police and undercover patrols is proving to be destructive. Anyone that lives on St. Charles Avenue can sit outside for an hour and see the evidence.
There was an instance earlier this week of inappropriate, sexually-based activity in a supermarket where many of us go. A police officer, the store manager, and the entire neighborhood were all notified (via the vhlist), but nothing was ever said to the man causing the problem. I guarantee that loudly asking the man what he was doing, would have stopped him immediately, gotten more attention from the officer in the store, turned the heads of a few of the husbands and boyfriends whose partners were being openly disrespected. I don’t mean to bash the person involved in that instance, it’s just an example of what seems to be the overall neighborhood mentality of reliance on others to keep our lives orderly for us.
Two days ago a man that had no business in our neighborhood was rifling through a truck bed parked on St. Charles Avenue. Simply asking him what he was doing stopped him and sent him on his way. If he had a gun, would he have started shooting because someone noticed him? Possibly, but probably not. If no one had said anything would he have stolen something and continued coming to the neighborhood, escalating his activity with time? Almost certainly. Hopefully he will now know that the neighborhood is not an open field of frozen and frightened deer for the hunting, and he will take his activity elsewhere. The criminals interested in robberies and random violence are only here in the first place because we are perceived as easy targets.
Assuming that we’re helpless victims will be a self-fulfilling prophecy, but if we speak up as people that are responsible for what happens around us then we may start carrying our weight in our own lives.”

This neighborhood came together and was stronger than ever, after the December 2010 slaying on Virginia Avenue, and I expect the same outcome after this tragedy. Being more alert and aware is one way we can honor the life of Moloo.