Last night, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms – the 60th mayor of Atlanta and the 2nd Black woman to serve as mayor of Atlanta – informed the public that she will not be seeking re-election. The news stunned the entire nation, as Keisha was seen as one of the biggest young political stars in the country.
Keisha has decided to leave politics altogether, and take a private sector job at Walgreens.
What happened – to cause Keisha to end her political career so abruptly? Well, MTO News asked around Atlanta – and what we found was disturbing.
According to an extremely well placed source in Atlanta politics, Keisha is stepping down over a growing political scandal – where she’s being accused of firing an allegedly innocent cop – just to stop riots in the Atlanta streets.
Last June Atlanta Police Officer Garrett Rolfe shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in a Wendy’s parking lot.
The Atlanta mayor quickly fired Officer Rolfe to – in her own words “prevent riots in Atlanta,” in the wake of other high-profile police shootings last summer.
Chris Brown BANS BLACK WOMEN FROM HIS PARTY
But Keisha’s decision may have been the wrong one. First of all – it didn’t stop riots. The city faced some of the worst riots anyway and during the uprising this summer – an innocent child was shot dead.
And new evidence is suggesting that Officer Rolfe may be innocent.
Yesterday, the Atlanta Civil Service Board reinstated Officer Rolfe and granted him back pay. The board cited the city’s failure to follow proper protocols in terminating Officer Rolfe without due process.
So what are the details of Rayshard Brooks death? Here’s how the NY Times describes the facts surrounding his killing:
After 40 minutes of calm questioning and guided sobriety tests, the encounter veered abruptly toward violence when the officers moved to arrest Mr. Brooks.
Mr. Brooks hit one of the officers, grabbed the other’s Taser, fired it and took off running. One of the officers, Garrett Rolfe, discharged his own Taser and reached for his 9-millimeter Glock handgun as Mr. Brooks turned and discharged the stolen Taser again.
Mr. Rolfe fired, striking Mr. Brooks twice in the back.