Half of Atlanta Police Department’s officers in zones 3, 4 and 6 walked off the job or called out sick last night, hours after Fulton County DA Paul Howard Jr. announced criminal charges against two officers involved in 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks’ death.
Garrett Rolfe (left) faces 11 criminal charges, including felony murder and aggravated assault for shooting into an occupied vehicle while gunning down Brooks in a Wendy’s parking lot on June 12.
For the first time in decades, the APD police scanner went silent Wednesday night, as many officers walked off the job and sat in their personal cars, refusing to respond to 911 calls.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was disappointed. She said police morale “is down ten-fold.”
In an interview with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night, Mayor Bottoms said, “This has been a very tough few weeks in Atlanta and with the tragedy of Mr. Brooks, and then on top of that the excessive force charges that were brought against the officers involved with the college students, there’s a lot happening in our city, and the police officers are receiving the brunt of it quite frankly.”
Atlantans were saddened to hear that many of the cops who abandoned their posts on Wednesday were Black.
Michael Harriot, sr. writer for The Root tweeted:
“ATL officers are walking out in support of a cop who killed a black man.
Because police unions have so much power they probably won’t be fired but..
ATLiens should demand a list of these cops’ names because someone on that list will DEFINITELY be the next to kill a black man.”
ATL officers are walking out in support of a cop who killed a black man.
Because police unions have so much power they probably won’t be fired but..
ATLiens should demand a list of these cops’ names because someone on that list will DEFINITELY be the next to kill a black man
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) June 18, 2020
