(RightWing.org) – The country remains on edge in the wake of recent mass shootings and the failure of law enforcement officials to adequately protect children and staff members during the Robb Elementary School shooting in Texas that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers in May 2022. Despite those ongoing concerns, security at a Georgia public swimming pool allowed a child to swim after confirming he brought a gun to the municipal facility.
On June 13, Fox 5 Atlanta published a disturbing article detailing the incident. According to the report, an off-duty police officer acting as security discovered that a child attempting to enter the Pittman Park Pool facility had a gun stowed in his backpack.
The official stopped the boy, later confirmed to be 12 years old, and secured the firearm without incident. Stunningly, the security guard allowed the child to enter the facility and swim, despite the infraction. Instead, the child was “talked to,” according to the news report.
Reportedly, local officials responded to the incident by deploying law enforcement officials from the City of Atlanta and Fulton County police departments to provide security services at “all” of the municipality’s “major properties.”
An official familiar with the situation told Fox 5 that the Pittman Park Pool was likely the safest place for the child, an apparent reference to local crime rates. Although The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported that murder rates in the city were down 30% year-on-year, Atlanta continues to have a higher violent crime rate than average American cities.
The most recent Atlanta PD COBRA report for the week ending on June 3 listed 64 incidents of violent crime, including three homicides, three rapes, and 58 aggravated assaults. Likewise, the report documented 380 property crimes for a total of 444 criminal incidents citywide for that reporting period.
Ironically, Atlanta’s Democratic mayor, Andre Dickens, launched the municipality’s One Safe City program in July 2022, supposedly to address the “root causes of crime” and to “target” illegal guns. He also recently declared 2023 the “Year of the Youth” during his second annual State of the City address. Perhaps pool security didn’t receive the memo.
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