Major American City Went Up In Flame Because Of One Video
The nation continues to teeter on the brink of chaos.
Civil unrest is the highest it’s been in decades.
And one major American city went up in flames because of one video.
Protests over the murder of Minneapolis citizen George Floyd regrettably turned violent and roiled the nation.
The rage that sparked rioting and looting has mostly simmered, but one city has been reignited because of one video.
A 27-year-old black man named Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by a police officer last Saturday night in Atlanta.
Brooks had fallen asleep in his car at a Wendy’s drive-thru and an employee eventually called the police.
Things had remained calm when officers arrived and Brook’s agreed to take a breathalyzer test.
Brooks’s BAC registered above the legal limit, so officers tried to arrest him for a DUI – and that’s when he flipped out and resisted.
Brooks rolled around on the ground with both officers before stealing a taser off one of the officers.
As Brooks was running away, he turned back and fired the taser at the officers. At that point, one of the officers shot Brooks twice in the back. Brooks later died at the hospital.
Activists have tried to liken Brooks’s death to George Floyd’s murder, but the facts of each incident are not similar in any way.
According to Atlanta Police Department procedures, officers are allowed to use deadly force if a taser is being deployed against them.
However, the pressure on Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was immense.
In light of the Floyd protests and rioting and looting, Bottoms encouraged people to go home and not destroy local businesses.
But this time she gave in to the outrage mob and fired the officer in question immediately. The Atlanta police commissioner also promptly resigned over the incident.
None of this bodes well for the city of Atlanta – or the nation.
All available data shows that neighborhoods experience an uptick in violent crimes when the police withdraw from an area.
This is often dubbed the “Ferguson Effect.”
The attorney for Brooks’s family argued that the police officer was not justified in using deadly force – which will rekindle debates about police reform – but Brooks’s behavior has to bear some blame for the incident.
Driving under the influence, fighting two police officers, and stealing a taser is just about the worst thing a person can do when confronted by police.
With the police chief resigning and the mayor not siding with rank-and-file cops, Atlanta might unfortunately experience a “Ferguson Effect” of its own.
