Atlanta’s mayor reacted to the news that two officers who tased students during last summer’s protests were unjustly terminated.
On Monday, the city’s Civil Service Board ruled the dismissals of officers Ivory Streeter (pictured right) and Mark Gardner (not pictured) violated both Atlanta Police Department and city policies, according to 11 Alive News.
“Based upon the serious concerns of insufficient adherence to City code and procedures which culminated into a lack of due process, the Board upholds the Appeal of Ivory Streeter and revokes the City’s dismissal of him from APD employment,” the review from the board said. It reached the same decision in Gardner’s appeal case.
Gardner and Streeter were fired following public uproar after they tased two students, Taniya Pilgrim and Messiah Young, who said they were simply driving away from the protests, when they asked police why one of their friends was arrested.
Police body cam video showed the officers tasing the students after dragging them from their car in May.
In a statement Tuesday, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms defended the firing of the officers.
“While the Civil Service Board (CSB) has reversed the termination of the officers, given the unrest across our city and nation at the time, and the disturbing video footage before us, I still believe that the right decision was made,” she said. “It is also important to note that the CSB did not say that the officers’ conduct was lawful.”
Meanwhile, attorney Mawuli Davis, who represents Messiah Young, said the family learned through the media that the officers’ criminal case was sent from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.
In a statement Tuesday, Davis said:
“The family… was stunned and saddened to learn through the media that two of the officers involved in the attack have been reinstated to the Atlanta Police Department. In two consecutive weeks, they have experienced the pain of the justice system continuing to fail them as victims of police brutality.”
