Newspaper Page Text
The Champion, Thursday, April 16 - 22, 2015
LOCAL
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Rally
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have sensitivity training.
“When you see someone com
ing towards you who is unclothed,
the first thing that should come to
your mind is victim and not suspect,”
Echols said. “When you have that in
mind, then the dynamics change on
how you are going to respond.
“DeKalb has a pretty good po
lice department, however, there are
a small few that ruin the bunch,”
Echols said. “That’s a lack of training,
that’s a lack of education.
“The system failed him,” Echols
said about Hill.
Anthony Showell, 27, president
of the John Marshall’s Black Law Stu
dents Association, said the purpose
of the rally was to “continue the dia
log that Black lives do matter.
“We want people to know that
the.. .unjustified killing of unarmed
African-American men is unaccept
able,” said Showell, 27. “We just want
to ensure that there is justice and
fairness for all.
“We just want to make sure
there’s adequate procedures in place
to ensure that the right thing is hap
pening for all, regardless of what
color you are,” he said. “I want to
make sure there is justice for Afri
can-American men.”
Showell said people should not
rally only when someone is “mur
dered.”
“We are here today to make sure
that people are continuing to talk
about it, regardless of where you
stand on the issue, to ensure that a
difference is made in the community
and in the world,” he said.
Peggy Ellison, a John Marshall
Law School student and Henry
County resident, was one of a few
who attended the rally to support
DeKalb police.
“I think as a general rule, police
have a very dangerous job and that
we should support them,” said El
lison, adding that John Marshall Law
School students will receive extra
credit if they take a picture at the
rally.
Ellison said she supports, the
county’s deputy chief operating of
ficer for public safety, “who has been
handpicked by President Barack
Obama to serve on his task force to
look at these issues.
“I think [Alexander] does a very
good job and I think if there’s a prob
lem within his department he’s going
to handle it,” Ellison said.
“The reputation of what he’s done
in DeKalb speaks for itself that we
have as few incidents as we do,” she
added. “I think they do a fine job and
I’m here to support them.”
Calling police-involved shoot
ings “unfortunate incidents,” Ellison
said, “We don’t know all the facts.
As law students, before we react we
should.. .let the police officers do
their job before we prematurely go
protest.”
Panel members applaud MARTA CEO and General Manager Keith Parker.
MARTA CEO and General Manager Keith Parker speaks with SCLC-DeKalb
County President Nathan Knight. Photos by Carla Parker
MARTA CEO and General Manager Keith Parker urged the people to contact
their congressional leaders to let them know how much transportation is
important to them.
■ kill!
Congressman David Scott (District 13) believes democrats and republicans
can come together and pass the Highway Trust Fund bill.
MARTA
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federal government.
“There is a threat right now that
if Congress does not get together and
pass these bills and make it a long-term
sustainable bill, then those funds are in
jeopardy,” Parker said. “If that $120 mil
lion went away this record-long period
of no fare increase, ridership increases,
investment in our employees, technologi
cal investments that’s challenging any
other transit system in the nation right
now, that moment could really grind to a
halt. We need you to make commitments
and call your Congress people, call all of
the folks at the federal level and let them
know that it’s important that mass transit
receives ample investment.”
Congressman David Scott (District
13) believes Democrats and Republicans
can come together and pass this bill.
“I think we got a good shot at it,”
Scott said. “We [have] Democrats and Re
publicans working. The key is bipartisan
ship that went over into the legislature.
Congress is waiting on Georgia. We’ve
brought plenty of money down here—$90
million for the commuter rail and they
did nothing. So, this move that they did
last week to put almost a billion dollars in
there gives us tremendous momentum in
Washington.”
The Georgia General Assembly
passed HB 170, which is expected to raise
approximately $945 million a year for
transportation. Georgia legislators also
passed a bill that will permanently elimi
nate the “50/50 split” in the disposition
of sales tax revenue that MARTA collects
from Atlanta and Fulton, DeKalb and
Clayton counties.
The restriction had limited MARTA
to spending no more than 50 percent of
that revenue on operations. The other
50 percent had to be put toward capital
improvements. Parker said lifting the re
strictions helps in two ways.
“Substantially, it helps because when
we go to meet with rating agencies about
MARTA’s credit rating, and when we have
just unforeseen circumstances emerge—
let’s say if we have a pit safety issue, and
the feds tell us we need to go out and buy
right away some new big safety product
and issue a safety protocol that costs a
significant amount of money that wasn’t
budgeted-the new flexibility allows us
to adjust to those things quickly,” Parker
said.
“Symbolically, it’s extremely impor
tant because for a generation now, MAR
TA has been, to my knowledge, the only
transit authority in the nation that has
had this type of limitation on spending its
funds,” Parker added. “The fact that the
state legislature has shown confidence in
the leadership of our board of directors
and the management of the agency to
remove that barrier I think means a lot to
the agency.”
Parker said MARTA will continue
to budget as if that 50/50 requirement is
there, and “only in times of emergencies
will we go beyond spending 50 percent of
our sales tax and operating money.”
