Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed Responds To Protester Demands
Demonstrators march through downtown Atlanta to protest the shootings of two black men by police officers, Friday, July 8, 2016. Thousands of people marched along the streets of downtown to protest the recent police shootings of African-Americans. Atlanta Police Chief George Turner and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said earlier in the day that people have … Continued
Mike Stewart / Associated Press
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has posted line-by-line responses to demands made by local protesters in the weeks of demonstrations following high-profile police shootings of black men in Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights.
In some cases, Reed’s statement said the city and Atlanta police are either already working on changes or that the specific demands were not applicable. In others, the administration pledged openness to policy reviews. Some demands met with full-throated rejections.
The Reed administration said it was open to conducting an updated review of the APD’s “no-knock” warrant policy, noting that the last comprehensive review was 10 years ago. In 2006, APD officers killed 92-year-old Atlanta resident Kathryn Johnston in a botched drug raid utilizing a “no-knock” search warrant. Officers were later convicted on charges related to covering up violations.
The city also said it was open to entertaining alternatives to the use of private probation firms, many of which have faced consistent legal challenges on human rights grounds across Georgia and nationally.
The city gave a rough date, the end of September, by which it expects the APD to finish investigating the fatal police shooting of Alexia Christian. She was shot and killed by APD officers in the back of a police car in downtown Atlanta last year. The Fulton County District Attorney’s office recommended no criminal charges for officers in the case. Family members and protesters have sought the release of video footage from the incident following Christian’s death.
In response to calls for more de-escalation training for police, Reed’s office said the APD goes above and beyond state requirements, and has been recognized nationally for its community policing initiatives. The mayor’s statement points out that APD has had a Crisis Intervention Team, aimed at responding to mental health, trauma and substance abuse-related calls, since 2004.
An APD spokesperson said 600 of its officers have undergone CIT training from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and that beginning recently, all academy recruits are graduating with the training.
Reed’s office said this month, some APD trainers will attend a U.S. Department of Justice anti-bias training program. The statement highlighted its current partnership with local advocacy organizations to design a pre-arrest diversion program for Atlantans who might otherwise face low level drugs or sex work charges.
As far as demands to disband and remake or rebuild the city’s citizen review board, or to end the APD’s involvement with an Israeli training program, the refusals from Reed’s office were absolute. A call to divert bond referendum funds to invest in “black, marginalized communities,” was dismissed as a violation of the approved referendum aims.
Organizers from a main protester group, #ATLisReady, had no comment on the mayor’s responses.
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