Rayshard Brooks’ Death Sparks Atlanta Mayor To Announce New Rules For Police
Rayshard Brooks’ death at the hands of Atlanta police on Friday night (June 12) further ignited the city’s protests against racism and police brutality over the weekend. On Monday, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms reacted to calls for accountability and announced new rules in an attempt to reform the Atlanta Police Department.
Bottoms, in speaking to reporters, relayed a series of administrative orders that would require officers to use de-escalation tactics before resorting to physical force and report all instances of deadly force to the city’s citizens review board.
Officers must also intervene if they see another officer using force that is “beyond reasonable” and report that use of force to a supervisor.
“We understand that this is the beginning of a great deal of work that lies ahead of us to make sure that we do all we can do to protect our communities,” Bottoms said, according to CBS News. “It is very clear our police officers should be guardians and not warriors within our communities.”
Bottoms also spoke about Brooks’ death, which was ruled a homicide by the Fulton County medical examiner.
“We saw the worst happen on Friday night with Mr. Brooks. It angered me and it saddened me beyond words,” she said. “This is the third time in two weeks that I spent the better part of the day looking at body cam footage related to the excessive use of force.”
Watch Bottoms’ full remarks about the new APD reforms below.
