Rayshard Brooks and Garrett Rolfe. Atlanta Journal Constitution.
After officer Garrett Rolfe had been charged with felony murder for the death of Rayshard Brooks, many Atlanta Police officers have refused to work in protest. Atlanta Journal Constitution. Brooks was shot and killed after an attempt to arrest him over an OWI failed. Brooks stole an officers taser and shot it at Rolfe before getting shot and killed. The Atlanta Police Department claimed that they are having an unusual amount of callouts but their ability to respond to crime has not been effected. However, a union representative said that entire police zones will not have officers responding to anything besides helping other officers. Other police departments have received requests to assist Atalanta but most appear to be refusing, citing the charges against Rolfe as the reason why.
My Comment:
Black Lives Matter had requested the dismantling of the police and it looks like it is going to be the case in Atlanta. From what I have seen from other sources, including some second hand information from an anonymous source who has contacts in Atlanta, out of the six zones only zones 2 and 4 have any officers. Everyone else has walked off the job. Things are so desperate that it sounds like jail officers are being put out onto the streets.
The charges in this case are insane. Brooks tried to shoot a taser at an officer, which he stole from another police officer. Rolfe was almost hit by the taser and if he had been he would have been incapacitated and left at the mercy of Brooks, who may have killed him. Tasers are lethal force in Georgia, so lethal force was more than justified. Furthermore, the other officer, suffered a concussion in the case so he might not have been able to defend himself or Rolfe.
But Officer Rolfe and Devin Brosnan have been charged, and Rolfe faces the death penalty. The prosecutor in this case, Paul Howard Jr. seems to be out of control. These charges aren't warranted, and he didn't notify the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) that he was filing these charges even though the investigation is ongoing. He also lied about Brosnan becoming a state's witness. Plus he's up for reelection and has sexual harassment allegations against him.
So does Paul Howard Jr. just want to punish these officers or is he just surrendering to the mob. My guess is both. I don't think he believes that the police use of force was improper, he just wants to punish them, maybe because they are cops or maybe because they are white. And he wants to get reelected so he's pandering to the Black Lives Matter crowd.
Under these kinds of circumstances, is it any wonder why cops are walking off the job? The prosecution of Rolfe and Brosnan means that it's open season on Atlanta police officers. Even if you try and kill them, if they fight back they are the ones that are going to prison or even executed for doing their jobs. You can't both ask people to risk their lives to keep the peace while at the same time execute them for a lawful shooting.
How this will play out is a mystery for me. It sounds like we have some initial reports of looting and chaos but police are not going to put a stop to it tonight. I fear that there might be some violence as well. With no police the people of Atlanta are on their own, let's hope they were smart and bought guns. Of course, given who is in charge in Atalanta, I wouldn't be surprised if they get charges as well. Better a jury than a pallbearer though.
It's sad that the police were put into this position. Ever since George Floyd died, they have been demonized to the point where they had to use the only leverage they had. Not doing their jobs. I think some people might be angry about that but you can't expect them to work under these conditions. Either they have protection when they have to use lethal force or they don't and if they don't they have no reason to work. If people don't like that then they should probably start telling Black Lives Matter that they are wrong about the police.
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