George Chidi Profile Banner
George Chidi Profile
George Chidi

@neonflag

20,387
Followers
1,323
Following
466
Media
17,802
Statuses

I cover politics, business and crime in Atlanta -- often all at once.

Atlanta, GA
Joined September 2010
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
Pinned Tweet
@neonflag
George Chidi
5 months
Fuck Twitter. Seriously. I've had it.
14
4
32
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@EngrStudent @EndWokeness 93 percent of active duty service members are under 40. Gray beards? What?
62
33
6K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
The Memphis video reminds me of the way people used to describe how Atlanta's REDDOG anti-drug unit worked. Memphis' police chief, Cerelyn Davis, oversaw REDDOG before it was disbanded for its murderous abuses. Atlanta tried - and failed - to fire Davis for an act of corruption.
103
2K
5K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@JohnDavisJDLLM Goddamn, son, but aren't you a terrible, sexually-frustrated man. I fear for any woman who knows you.
3
10
3K
@neonflag
George Chidi
8 months
@JaredEMoskowitz Where the fuck are they going to go? Serious question. Gaza is an open-air prison. Travel out of Gaza is broadly prohibited both by Israel and by Egypt. I know this because I was an international peacekeeper in Sinai and saw it first hand. The 2 million people there are trapped.
111
167
3K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@baseballcrank Bad take. There is no political majority who wants to see an increase in child labor in this country, and hungry children make poor students. The return on investment in academic performance by feeding kids should be the start and end of that argument.
21
60
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
I'm being very general about what's going on because it's important to preserve the privacy of those who haven't identified themselves publicly as witnesses. But I am not alone as I continue to wait. The coffee is good. We're talking about movies.
63
319
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@JimTheSpaceman @kendallybrown It happens ALL THE TIME. White people only care when it's this blatant, because it makes it harder to lie about all the times it's not.
24
68
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
I'm sitting with Geoff Duncan, waiting to go. He is as calm as a cucumber, soft spoken and wry. We are talking about everything EXCEPT the case. I like him.
70
279
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
People are praising Davis for immediately firing the cops and for soberly describing the horrors of the video ahead of time. (The criminal charges are a function of the DA's office.) But she created the SCORPION unit as one of her first acts as chief when appointed in 2021.
17
512
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@EndWokeness Yes. And it will still kick everyone else's ass. Who the fuck roots against American troops like that's some kind of flex?
37
27
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
Music Midtown is about to be cancelled. My understanding is that it is because Georgia's gun laws make it impossible to bar firearms from Piedmont Park, a condition required by many artists' concert riders. An announcement is coming, I am told by a reliable source. #gapol
106
564
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@civilizedhuman @kendallybrown Oh, you think? The question is about how often it happens when the dipshit at HR remembers to take the notes off.
6
5
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
I've just received a call from District Attoney Fani Willis' office. I have been asked to come to court Tuesday for testimony before the grand jury.
98
310
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Just got word: the jury is chewing on what they have. They may not need the last of us before making a call. We will see shortly.
81
404
2K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@JamesGunn I bet it's a great movie. I won't watch it. I will not contribute a penny to the abusive maniac starring in it. Warner should have pulled this film.
80
41
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Change of plans. I'm going to court today. They're moving faster than they thought.
60
249
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
When he tried to toss his phone to another attorney so they wouldn't be able to search it, he missed and hit a deputy, so they're also charging him with assaulting an officer.
34
559
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@beefyman6 @EngrStudent @EndWokeness You couldn't pass the entrance requirements to join the Army.
18
6
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@flyguyOX @lexbyanyname You have a bag over your head so we don't see that it is actually made of shit.
5
14
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
The SCORPION unit, right now, looks an awful lot like Davis re-creating REDDOG in Memphis. REDDOG was a failure. It did not reduce drug crime, which actually fell after it was disbanded. But it was a visible response to an increase in violence that political leaders could cite.
4
335
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@baseballcrank We aren't talking about perpetual childhood here as an ideological question. We are talking about actual childhood as a practical one.
2
29
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@Smlygrl87 @nathaliejacoby1 "Critical race theory" is defined by the right as anything suggesting racism is real, historically important and a present social problem that needs to be solved. Invariably, the people who bring it up want schools to ensure their children grow up to be as racist as themselves.
113
33
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Still waiting. They're not saying when, and I'm not asking, because this is awkward enough as it is without being whiny.
46
102
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
What REDDOG did was eviscerate relationships between the public and the police. People would literally start running the moment REDDOG showed up. It didn't matter if they were engaging in crime or not, because everyone knew REDDOG would thrash anyone they could catch.
2
247
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
From such things, bad policy comes. Chief Davis understood this intimately and did it anyway. That may be exactly why she was hired: to terrorize Black Memphis into submission. She had the right experience. Yeah, she should resign. But so should the people who hired her.
16
229
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
Hey, @SHINee , you just picked up a random 49 year old Black guy in Atlanta as a fan because your music was playing in a restaurant on Buford Highway. Come visit.
32
357
1K
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@CerealForAdam @nathaliejacoby1 He is talking about "feeling guilty about it" because the natural consequence of understanding America's history of discrimination is to want to act to end modern discrimination in jobs, housing and the law. Racists are terrified that white children will become antiracist adults.
80
19
994
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
People are asking how Memphis' policing culture could produce this kind of incompetent thuggery. It wasn't the policing culture that created it. It was the political culture. A year ago, Memphis mayor Jim Strickland was praising its arrest numbers in a state of the city address.
7
205
958
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
The lesson for this evening is for the police. Georgia State Patrol has body cameras. When there's a police-involved shooting, and we find out none of those cameras were recording, you lose the benefit of the doubt. It's 2023. This kind of reaction is terrible, but predictable.
13
140
912
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@CerealForAdam @nathaliejacoby1 It's becoming an axiom: people who use the term "woke" pejoratively defend racist shit regularly.
51
12
837
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@_BarringtonII Never wonder why you couldn't win an election as a dogcatcher, son. Just refer back to this post.
5
17
780
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
For everyone talking about how Young Thug is "standing strong" by not taking a plea agreement: the district attorney's office isn't offering Jeffery Williams any deal that doesn't leave him in prison forever. He's the target of this case. Everyone else is optional.
20
312
728
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
Anastassios Manettas, an attorney on the YSL trial, was just arrested for having his prescription drugs in his bag at a search at court.
26
490
726
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
They have fed us Jamaican jerk from Jamrock across the street. Great plantains. I am sustained.
27
52
748
@neonflag
George Chidi
3 years
@DavidHundeyin I honestly can't tell if she's threatening you, warning you or engaged in some weird wish-fulfillment strategy. She seems to be both a massacre denialist and a government critic. What the fuck is her deal?
10
55
658
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
When I began this reporting project in 2021, it was with a keen personal and professional understanding of the political pressure crime creates. I've been on a city council. I know how this works. People scream "do something now!" even though "something" may take years to work.
2
124
724
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
You may be wondering why the right has been pushing the anti-trans narrative so hard. It was a fringe issue four years ago and is rapidly beginning to live in the center of conservative policy discussions. I think it's simple. Abortion has screwed them.
19
170
707
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
Memphis had the highest homicide rate in the United States in 2021, at 48.7 per 100,000 residents. That rate fell by about 12% in 2022, depending on which calculation you use. Internally, I strongly suspect that the abuses of the SCORPION unit were being laid against those gains.
2
129
678
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
REDDOG formed under nearly the same political conditions of crime that Memphis faces. Atlanta's violent crime rates were spiking in 1988 when it was formed. But I note that violent crime in Atlanta continued to rise for years even after REDDOG started kicking in doors.
2
127
671
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
Homixide is connected to Playboi Carti and nominally to Future, a big name. They've had an ongoing rivalry with Henxhmen. That is, two Bloods sets shooting at one another. There's a trail of dead and jailed rappers all through this beef.
50
144
582
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
You ever had a moment when you were sitting around somewhere and heard a song and was like 'what WAS that?' I get it now. K-Pop is where American pop went on vacation 20 years ago.
7
194
595
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@KirbyHonest @MarxistRealism I'm going to chew on that thought for a while.
1
7
570
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
There's a quote painted in white on the dark blue wall in front of me in the waiting area. "I'm for truth no matter who tells it. I'm for justice no matter who it is for or against." -- Malcolm X.
10
131
576
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
We are done. Didn't need me.
69
115
571
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
A man was found shot to death in a car at the I-20 underpass. Two days ago, the parent of one of Young Thug's children was murdered outside of a bowling alley. These things are directly connected and part of the larger gang violence problem in Atlanta. #gapol
14
365
529
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
GBI is leveling money laundering and charity fraud charges - and it looks like there may be a RICO case - against three people running support for the Cop City protesters. I need time to dig into this, but on the face of it it looks like a massive abuse of power.
@GBI_GA
GA Bureau of Investigation
1 year
🧵The GBI, along w/ the Atlanta Police Department, have arrested three people on charges stemming from the ongoing investigation of individuals responsible for numerous criminal acts at the future site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center & other metro Atlanta locations.
458
161
805
9
160
525
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@MattGertz I'm in Atlanta. I can smell the burning trees and putrefying bodies from my house. Seriously. I walked the 900 feet between the Ritz Carlton and Portman on Peachtree on the night of the protest. Three sets of smashed windows and a burned car. The Hooters survived unscathed.
15
11
527
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@Phil_Lewis_ This is an unserious proposal. If I were trying to kill the idea of reparations, this is what I would present. I suspect supervisors appointed this committee knowing that would be the result.
9
9
511
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
If I am not required to testify, it's a victory for journalism, because none of the bigger problems of confidentiality or government influence come into play. Perhaps the jury understands that as well. I've said all along that they may not need my testimony. But I am present.
24
82
488
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Fani Willis just walked by with her shoes off. I'm wearing a jacket and tie. We are not the same.
47
87
472
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Seriously, I have no business commenting on the sartorial choices of Fani Willis, who dresses better on a random Monday than I might at a wedding. But I sense I may be here a while.
17
31
470
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@DavidSacks Perhaps if VCs weren't amoral shitbags most of the time, without the first interest in serving a society they profit massively from through their access to its markets, then they might get the benefit of the doubt.
14
11
459
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@nhannahjones Neither condition suggests that white people are inherently better pilots. Realistically, it means that some people of color who would be excellent pilots aren't flying professionally because they weren't born rich, and that inferior white pilots are filling their place.
6
17
461
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
Rappers who think APD and the attorney general's office don't listen to Clubhouse are talking in a public forum on recorded audio about committing murders. Gentlemen. Stop living in a Key & Peele sketch.
22
115
415
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Lots of bow ties in this building. I only try that in a tux. I have a ticket to see Oppenheimer tonight. I thought I'd be safe at a 11 p.m. showing. Fingers crossed.
36
38
417
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Still waiting. Geoff Duncan just walked in.
24
80
409
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@fxwildbill @GRDecter If Republicans won't vote for it, or something similar to it, then they should look bad.
4
0
378
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
As an aside, I've got some former APD cops questioning my statement about the Memphis chief having had authority over REDDOG. If I'm wrong, it's because I believed her 2016 resume. I didn't pull that assertion out of my ass, but I'm going to double check.
12
48
387
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Still sitting. We have not been released. I'm zen about it. Wife is at a Tucker City Council meeting, raising a little hell as a reporter for Decaturish. Every time someone comes through the door, I think this is it. But nothing from our perspective has changed.
22
68
380
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@nhannahjones The pipeline for pilots is almost exclusively white for two reasons. People who become pilots tend to have access to general aviation aircraft in their youth, which is a class barrier. And commercial pilots license training costs $80,000+ which isn't eligible for student loans.
6
18
365
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
I am struck by the stupidity of this thread and of this shitposting account. A little context. This is an Air Force logistics unit in South Korea. Everyone is young and many are nonwhite ... because that's the military. The average age is 23 and half of millennials are nonwhite.
@EndWokeness
End Wokeness
1 year
Is this actually what our military looks like?
Tweet media one
15K
2K
28K
14
56
360
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
She has her shoes on now. I am mortified at the possibility that she saw that Tweet and had to put pumps on. I suck.
30
17
361
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
15
0
353
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
There's a 17-year-old foster kid who has been sitting in Cobb County jail on credit card fraud charges for 12 days without a lawyer because the public defense bar can't get to her. I'm not sure what to tell her.
17
129
347
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
Man, when @DavidHundeyin retweets you, you get all the smoke. 2100 hits and counting. People do NOT like their magical African unicorn startup -- Flutterwave -- being compared to Theranos. And I confess it: there are probably better cases of corporate fraud to use in comparison.
5
123
316
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
If you are an Atlanta rap artist signed to a recording contract with a major label (or a subsidiary), I'd like to look at your contract. I won't publish your name. I want to look at the life insurance coverage terms. #trapbeat #drill #atlanta
16
92
334
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
The DA's office confirmed to me on Friday that Homixide is one of several street gangs on a road to a racketeering charge. I'll be writing about that soon. But the state of the jail is at least as important.
30
78
304
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
Another inmate died last night in the custody of the Fulton County Sheriff's Office. The @FultonSheriff has said nothing about it, or really anything of substance related to the other 14 people who have died on his watch this year - roughly 5x of the 2019 numbers.
4
142
322
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@DailyLoud This is untrue.
9
36
312
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
I mean this. This is Mikel Gunn, the rapper ProblemChild5, IN FULTON COUNTY JAIL. P5 is an East Atlanta gangster affiliated with DTE and Homixide. He's made music with Future. Gunn is accused of killing 5 people.
20
65
304
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
@byuwbb When one person screams "Nig**r" at a woman from the stands and 20 people do not immediately react to make that impossible to repeat, you have 21 racists. Every game at BYU should be cancelled until you fix yourselves.
15
17
320
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
Damekion Garlington Quantavious Grier (Unfoonk) Deamonte Kendrick Sergio G Kitchens (Gunna) Wunnie Lee Demise Bernard Mcmullen Tenquarius Mender Walter Murphy Jayden "Jayman" Myrick, Quamarvious Nichols Rodalius Eugene Ryan, Jr. Antonio Sledge Trontavious Stephens
36
222
293
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
A lot of talk about how Yak Gotti snitched. It's not quite that simple. He plead guilty when he and YSL Duke were caught with rifles a few years ago as they were on the way to a retaliation hit after a fight at Magic City. If pleading guilty is snitching, that's a high standard.
15
159
293
@neonflag
George Chidi
6 months
@CaseyPhillips1 @JohnAnzo HA! Haahahaahaha. No. They will not and are not, plainly, "in demand." They're being rejected by ever-increasing swaths of female demography. I would say you're fucked, son ... but probably not.
2
3
293
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@SKMorefield @Cernovich When you wonder why your political ideology can't muster a majority, remember this statement.
8
5
295
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@JimTheSpaceman @kendallybrown Researchers at the Fed have been tracking Jumal and Shaniqua" type ethnic name discrimination for about 30 years. A white person with a recent felony is more likely to get a call for a job interview than a Black person with a clean criminal record and the same resume. Today.
3
22
292
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
Holy shit. They cleared the signature count threshold by the original count date. If the city tries to keep this referendum off the ballot with this result, it will throw away any pretense of respect for the democratic process. This is the best grassroots politics I've ever seen.
@CopCityVote
Vote to Stop Cop City
10 months
We will be submitting our signatures to the City of Atlanta Clerk on MONDAY, August 21st. Thanks to the tireless work of EVERYONE who has pounded the pavement, we have already collected nearly 80,000 signatures! #stopcopcity
Tweet media one
16
328
754
4
93
289
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
Right here: this is why I'm opposed to #copcity . When I ask APF to explain what's going on, they direct me to the police department. When I ask APD, they direct me to the foundation. Given Atlanta's florid history of corruption, this arrangement should be opposed in principle.
@mwgarbett
Unplanned Atlanta
1 year
I mean, I agree that it's the duty of elected officials to engage the public but somehow I think this just makes me want to say the @atlpolicefdn pretty much must suck. I mean, police engage the public all the time. Right? This is just terrible.
Tweet media one
4
8
51
6
98
284
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
Here's a list of the people on the Young Thug gang and murder indictment, so far. Martinez Antwan Arnold (YSL Lil Duke) Derontae Bebee Damone Blalock Javoris Bradford Justin Cobb Cordarius Dorsey Christian Eppinger (Bad Bhris) Miles Farley Jevon Demario Fleetwood
5
247
265
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
@100jules Indifferent.
22
3
268
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
WALKER JUST FLASHED A FAKE POLICE BADGE?!
22
25
268
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@OfficialKonSite @DailyLoud It's like you Tariq Nashidiot fuckboys insist on being shitty people in public.
0
1
252
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
The rapper @youngthug , Jeffery Lamar Williams, was arrested a few hours ago at a rented mansion in Buckhead.
7
181
252
@neonflag
George Chidi
4 years
@lucymcbath Goddamned Paul Maner, semi-sentient potato, again. Once upon a time he was excommunicated from Republican circles in DeKalb for being a raging lunatic white supremacist. Now he's the base.
0
32
233
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
Something very serious is happening in the medical clinic of the Fulton County Jail right now. Sorry to vaguebook; I'm gathering details from multiple sources.
20
65
246
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
The Fulton County District Attorney is holding a press conference at noon to discuss major gang indictments. More to follow.
20
151
250
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
Tex McIver, a wealthy white Trumpist Republican who killed his wife and then claimed it was an accident because he had his gun out in the car when scary Black men were around downtown, has won a new trial. Justice in Georgia is what you can buy.
14
129
246
@neonflag
George Chidi
10 months
A day.
Tweet media one
19
4
245
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@tajudine2013gm2 @GazetteNGR @business It is his distance from corrupt local leaders that makes him attractive to voters.
3
5
228
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@CharlesASumpter @Phil_Lewis_ By all means. Quantify it, then. Show the math that adds up to that number.
7
0
237
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
A short conversation about Young Thug and attorney Justin Hill, and calling cap on the DA in court.
29
75
232
@neonflag
George Chidi
2 years
@youngthug Young Thug is being held at Fulton County Jail, ostensibly on narcotics and gang charges. I am working to confirm the exact charges. This appears to be the beginning of the state gang racketeering case alluded to by Fulton DA Willis last month.
9
200
227
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@JimTheSpaceman @kendallybrown Straight-up racial job discrimination explains most of the wealth and income gaps by race in America, and more. But most white people deny it exists. And when I say "most," I'm looking at survey data, thank you.
1
17
227
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@KLoeffler @HerschelWalker This is a goddamned, racist lie.
18
6
224
@neonflag
George Chidi
11 months
Sherry Boston, district attorney for DeKalb County, has just announced that her office is withdrawing entirely from Cop City prosecutions.
2
63
230
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@daveJay @Smlygrl87 @nathaliejacoby1 That you could use some 1940's style lynching callback term like "stir up resentment" in the same comment as one mangling MLKs intentions on race might just be the best possible way to show how important it is to teach history correctly.
11
9
220
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
@Keenanhotcoco @EndWokeness That's an air force detachment. It doesn't take testosterone to land a missile on your house, son.
6
2
217
@neonflag
George Chidi
1 year
The group working to get a referendum to stop Cop City on the Atlanta ballot just announced that it is suing the city for failing to approve the petition forms in a timely manner. #StopCopCity #gapol
4
68
220