thejetman- I've lived in the great state of Georgia all my life (with the exception of college), and lived in Gwinnett County from 1981 to 2007. I agree with what you say, but it's not the native Georgians for the most part. 20 years ago you could walk through a lot of Atlanta and never have a problem. There were the few areas that every local knew to stay away from after dark, but it was generally safe. This was the case up until around the time of the Olympics. I guess that is when word got out up north about Atlanta. Now don't get me wrong, not all northerners are Yankees. But for every good northerner that moved to the Atlanta area, there is at least two damn Yankees that moved here.
And as far as the local gov'ts go, just look at who is running the gov't. You just can't let the foxes run the henhouse. The top three reasons I say this (I'm sure you probably have heard about),1-Mayor Shirley Franklin shutting down the FD, then getting in an argument with the protesters. 2-Clayton County BoE, loosing accreditation for their school district; they started out by hiring a new super that the accreditation commitee said they didn't want in there and that he would do absolutely no good in helping them. 3-City of Lithonia, the ordeal with all the fighting between the mayor and the Chief of Police.
I don't know when you moved to the area (you never stated how long you lived here), but if you want to see what the native people of Atlanta are like, you need to go a minimum of 40 miles outside of the perimeter. I was fed up with what you talked about, and finally got around to moving. I now live in Jasper County, where people are still civilized, decent, respectful and care about other people more than they do themselves.
Get away from the city and you'll discover what true Southern Hospitality is, and why it is talked about far and wide.
Wyman