Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Says Violent Protesters Are ‘Disgracing The Life Of George Floyd’
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms spoke out against violent protesters in the city on Friday, telling them to “go home” and saying that their actions are “disgracing the life of George Floyd.”
Widespread unrest broke out in the city this week as part of nationwide protests against the death of Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tensions in Atlanta were especially high on Friday evening, as video footage showed that many of the protesters turned violent, damaging Atlanta Police Department Cars and looting at CNN Center in the city. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, the city’s mayor made a plea for calm on Friday after the incidents.
In her message to protesters, Bottoms invoked the memory of the city’s most famous Civil Rights leader in calling for peace.
“This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos,” she said. “A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated, we didn’t do this to our city.”
“If you care about this city, then go home.”
Bottoms added that the protesters were not honoring the memory of Floyd.
She was joined by other activists, including rapper Killer Mike, who said that while he wanted to “see the world burn down” because he is tired of seeing black men killed, the violent protests were not doing anything to bring about real change.
Both he and Bottoms called for people to channel their energy into more productive means of community organizing and political activism.
“Now is the time to plot, plan, strategize and organize,” Killer Mike said. “It is time to beat up prosecutors you don’t like at the voting booth.”
Bottoms was one of many calling for calm in the wake of ever-growing tensions. Demonstrators in Minneapolis had expressed outrage throughout the week that none of the officers involved in Floyd’s arrest, especially the officer seen pressing a knee to the detained man’s neck and holding it there as Floyd pleaded that he could not breathe, had been arrested. Protests there turned violent, with protesters late on Thursday setting fire to the police precinct where the arresting officers had been stationed.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, like Bottoms, made an emotional plea for peace in his city, while also calling for the officers involved in the incident to be arrested. As CBS News noted, Frey also acknowledged the issues of structural racism that led to the unrest, saying that much of the anger being expressed had been “ingrained in our black community not just because of five minutes of horror, but 400 years.”
