Peach Tree Times

Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr says communities that are most often terrorized by gangs and violent crime in the Peach State are the lower-income, racially diverse, and immigrant population neighborhoods. 

“I don’t care about your race, your gender, sexual orientation, where you're from or where you live,” said Carr who was elected last year. “Everybody deserves to be safe. That's not a conservative principle. It's not a liberal principle. That's a human issue and it’s the fundamental role of government.”

Carr expressed his views while serving on a panel of attorneys general at the 2023 Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) policy conference May 12. Topics ranged from COVID-19 overreach and border enforcement to the rule of law and criminal justice reform.

“In 2018 I created for the first time ever the Georgia anti-gang authority,” Carr said. “Why? Because 90% of all violent crimes are gang-related.”

There are more than 17,000 verified gang members in Georgia’s prison system, according to Carr's data.

He told the audience that he brought together federal, state and local law enforcement to discuss the gang issue and improve communication, intelligence sharing and prosecutions.

“We identified programs where we can divert and prevent kids from ever joining gangs, to begin with,” he said. “Now we've got a gang authority and a human trafficking authority. Last year we rescued and assisted 116 victims. That’s 116 lives that are forever changed.”

Georgia is among the states that have joined the Protecting Americans Action Fund (PAAF). Launched by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, the mission of PAAF is to fight crime.

"It is our paramount duty to protect persons and their property, and we have also got to defend men and women in law," Carr said. "We've got to give police officers the training, the resources and the technology they need."

Carr touched on the Atlanta Police Foundation raising millions of dollars to build a state-of-the-art public safety training center that is opposed by activists concerned about environmental impacts.

As previously reported, climate change advocates are living in the forest to protect trees that will be razed in construction, while neighbors fear noise from the training center will interrupt their quiet lives.

“If you're going to use your First Amendment right to disagree with me, I'll defend your right and I’ll use my First Amendment right to tell you why you're wrong,” Carr added. “But if you come to our state and throw rocks through building windows, light police cars on fire and shoot police officers, you're going to jail. In Georgia we call that domestic terrorism.”