Atlanta police officers vote with their feet on indictments

As I discussed here, the Fulton County DA has filed a dubious murder charge against Garrett Rolfe, the officer who killed Rayshard Brooks. The DA also filed three lesser counts against Devin Brosnan, the other officer involved.

In response, a “higher than usual” number of Atlanta police officers failed to show up for work Wednesday night, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The phrase “higher than usual” may understate the situation.

The Journal-Constitution’s own reporting includes the following:

“There are officers walking off,” [Vince] Champion [Southeast regional director for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers] said Wednesday evening. “There are officers saying they are not going to leave the precinct unless to help another officer. Some are walking off and sitting in their personal vehicles.”

Champion said he has been told APD was attempting to get back-up support from adjacent law enforcement agencies. But he said some agencies declined to help.

“Why would you put your officer in Fulton County and take the chance of this happening?” Champion said. “You have an officer who just heard what Paul Howard said, saying he’s going to be in prison for the rest of his life or put to death, and now he’s got to surrender.”

Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, told CNN tonight that “across the country, morale is down with police departments, and I think ours is down tenfold.” It should be.

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