ATLANTA — Eliana Kovitch knows danger.
Growing up in Israel, she saw a suicide bomber blow himself up outside her family’s pizzeria. Her mother taught her at an early age to duck below the car windows whenever they passed a particular patch of road known for terrorist shootings. She’s had stones thrown at her and spent much of her early childhood looking over her shoulder. Kovitch thought those days were behind her when she moved to the upscale community of Buckhead in Atlanta, but she was wrong.
Kovitch and her boyfriend Jason Eades were dropping off their car one rainy summer night last year at a Mercedes Benz dealership in the tony part of town.
As they waited for their Uber, a man came over to the couple and started harassing them. He asked for money, and when they said no, things got violent.
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The suspect, identified as felon Fakhraddivin Moore, reportedly pulled out a knife, called the couple racist, told them they were in the “real Atlanta now,” and threatened to kill them.
“He pointed the knife at me and told me over and over, ‘White b****, get on your knees and beg for your life,'” Kovitch told the Washington Examiner.
When she wouldn’t, the man reportedly punched Eades in the left temple and then turned his anger toward Kovitch. She tried to block his fists, but after the second hit, she was on the ground and unconscious. The incident was caught on camera. Moore was arrested and charged with seven felonies. He was released on bond five months later. A dive into Moore’s criminal history by Kovitch found that he had been arrested multiple times, including once in New York and another in Clayton County, Georgia, just a few weeks prior to the incident.
In the year that’s passed, the district attorney’s office has done very little to prosecute the crime, Kovitch said. At times, the DA’s office has even tried to dissuade the couple from going forward with the case or calling it a hate crime.
Kovitch, a pediatric neurology nurse practitioner, said she’s gone to local and state lawmakers but keeps getting the runaround. She said the man who terrorized her is free on the streets while she and Eades have been caged in their own personal hell for months.
When contacted, the district attorney’s office told the Washington Examiner it does not comment on active investigations.
Unfortunately, Kovitch’s story isn’t a one-off. Instead, it’s just one of many violent crimes that have been reported in Buckhead, an area once defined by its perfectly manicured lawns, ritzy restaurants, and high-end retailers that has seen a spike in robberies, aggravated assault, and larceny over the past year, which has terrified residents, threatened property values, and prompted a push to form its own city. Over the weekend, there were carjackings, and a string of home invasions, as well as a shooting that left one victim injured and another with his legs severed.
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Supporters say a move to form its own city would finally give Buckhead control over issues such as infrastructure and allow police officers to go after criminals without the fear of retribution.
“It’s just getting crazy,” Bill White, the CEO of the Buckhead City Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “We need attention now. Every day, it’s getting worse.”
White, who moved to Buckhead three years ago with his husband, said he’s seen the area change dramatically.
“People are afraid to fill up their gas tanks in the middle of the day,” he said.
White has managed in a short amount of time to rake in big bucks for the cause, and what started out as a far-fetched plan for Buckhead to divorce Atlanta has gained traction. The committee’s coffers have ballooned to more than $600,000 and are on target to meet the $1.5 million-$1.6 million mark. On Wednesday, the committee launched a new summer fundraising goal of $250,000.
As it continues to raise money, White has also gotten the attention of state lawmakers who are ready to take up the cause.
“We are pushing state legislators to hold emergency hearings to discuss advancing our cityhood bill in a more expeditious way as soon as possible because of the rampant crime,” White told the Washington Examiner exclusively.
The bill to create Buckhead City was sponsored by state Sen. Brandon Beach, an Alpharetta Republican, and state Rep. Todd Jones, a Cumming Republican, on the last day of the 2021 legislative session, making it one of the first agenda items when the General Assembly meets in January. It should be noted, though, that neither Beach nor Jones represents Buckhead. Still, the duo remains focused on the mission.
Beach told the Washington Examiner he has spoken to colleagues about holding emergency hearings before the start of the session.
“If we can get a couple of hearings done … We get into session the first week in January, then we can have a final hearing on it and get it out of committee, then get it to [the] rules [committee], and then we can get it to the Senate floor pretty quickly,” Beach said.
The bill would have to be approved by both the House and the Senate before it is sent to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. If he signs it, the question of cityhood then would be put on the November ballot for Buckhead voters.
Buckhead isn’t the first district to want out of Atlanta. Several other cityhood efforts in metro Atlanta, including the proposed cities of Greenhaven and Vista Grove, have been stalled in the legislature for years, unable to win approval from a majority of lawmakers.
If the Buckhead City Committee is able to overcome the legal and logistical challenges in their way, the new city would be made up of nearly 90,000 residents, take nearly 20% of Atlanta’s population, and become the 10th largest city in the state, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis using 2019 demographics from the U.S. Census Bureau. About 74% of the new city’s residents would be white, 11% black, 8% Asian, and 5% Latino.
Some critics point to the lack of diversity and say the push for cityhood is racist.
White rejects the claim.
“The people who are pushing back and saying race [is the reason] are literally using that as a go-to narrative because they absolutely cannot believe that this is happening, and they are going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars of our taxpayer dollars, and for decades, this was their piggy bank,” White said. “That is the reason why they immediately jump to race because they think that is going to stick. It’s not going to stick. It has nothing to do with race. Crime is colorblind.”
Outgoing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has seen crime balloon during her term, has voiced her opposition to Buckhead cityhood.
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Multiple calls and emails made by the Washington Examiner to speak to Bottoms or anyone on her staff about the recent spike in crimes were not returned.
Another organization against the formation of Buckhead City is the Committee for a United Atlanta, which said it hopes to “educate” Buckhead residents about why cutting themselves off from Atlanta would be a bad idea.
Co-chairs Linda Klein, former president of the American Bar Association, and Edward Lindsey, a former state representative whose district included a chunk of Buckhead, agreed that rising crime is a concern but believe the cityhood proposal is a “distraction” before state and local elections.
“It takes our eye off the ball electing a new government,” Klein said. “This is a great time for Buckhead to come together and interview candidates and get candidates to make commitments to Buckhead.”
