Harper: Atlanta, Georgia’s brand, is hurting Charlie Harper
This is a column by Charlie Harper, publisher of GeorgiaPol.com and executive director of PolicyBEST.
Earlier this month, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced she will not run for re-election. Note that elections within the City of Atlanta are held this year. In six months, new city leaders will be selected at the ballot box.
It’s important to note that the hyper-partisanship that will again draw national attention and dollars to Georgia’s 2022 statewide November elections are not the same factor in the race Mayor Bottoms has side-stepped. Despite the contest being officially non-partisan, it is a virtual certainty that whomever is elected to replace her will be a highly progressive Democrat.
As the case of a white Minnesota police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd begins, it raises parallels to a similar case upcoming in Atlanta.
This week, the judge overseeing former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial reinstated a third-degree murder charge in the case. Chauvin, who is white, is accused of killing George Floyd, a Black man, last May. The move was a win for prosecutors seeking another pathway to conviction.
Atlanta police officers put on riot gear outside the burning Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe on Saturday, June 13, 2020. (Lily Oppenheimer/WABE)