“This will change Atlanta forever. This will change Atlanta policing forever.”
Those were the dire words spoken to this writer by an outraged retired Atlanta police officer after Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard yesterday brought 11 criminal charges, including felony murder, against fired Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe. The officer shot and killed an allegedly drunken man on probation at a Wendy’s restaurant who had resisted arrest and assaulted him.
Howard, at a press conference, claimed Rayshard Brooks posed no threat to the safety of the officers— a contention hotly disputed by Rolfe’s attorney. In fact, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation hadn’t even completed its probe of the shooting when Howard made his announcement.
“He followed every instruction,” said Howard, describing Brooks’ demeanor as “almost jovial. He answered every question.” That’s basically true, but a video later recorded that a violent reaction against Rolfe and another officer was triggered when Brooks was told he was to be arrested. Said the retired ex-cop to me: “He obviously didn’t want to get arrested and go back behind bars, so he fought the officers to escape and tried to tase one of them.”
Howard’s charging of the officer for murder immediately caused pushback. The head of Atlanta’s police union confirmed yesterday that an undetermined number of officers from the APD’s Zones 3 and 6 had stopped answering calls in mid-shift in protest of the DA’s action. Some others simply called in “sick.”
The retired ex-cop also visited a precinct last evening and reported: “The officers there were clearly demoralized. They felt the mayor and DA didn’t have their backs.”
Then there is the issue of due process for APD officers. During recent riots and looting, two veteran APD officers were immediately fired by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms without any due process. And then Howard charged them with assault with “a lethal weapon” (a taser, which is not deemed to be ‘lethal” under Georgia law).” In response their attorney, Lance LoRusso, wrote for InsiderAdvantage the following reminder:
“Amid demands for immediate termination, cooler heads must prevail. The law requires any use of force to be judged from the perspective of the officer using the force. The standard is a reasonable belief. Therefore, the immediate termination of an officer robs the public of a view into the mind of the officer.
“This is well known in police and governmental leadership. This is why anyone who advocates and promotes the rapid termination of an officer should be the subject of scrutiny. The primary focus and question in that analysis is simple: why are you afraid to let the truth come out?”
