Democratic Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms seemed to suggest Wednesday that it was the right decision to bypass Officer Garrett Rolfe’s right to due process to avoid more rioting.
The City of Atlanta’s Civil Service Board on Tuesday decided to reinstate Rolfe, who was fired days after the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks, citing the violation of Rolfe’s right to due process.
Reacting to the decision, Lance Bottoms referenced the “volatile” state of the city of Atlanta at the time Rolfe was fired. Notably, Black Lives Matter demonstrators and other left-wing activists destroyed liberal cities across the nation while protesting and rioting over the deaths of George Floyd and Brooks.
“Given the volatile state of our city and nation last summer, the decision to terminate this officer, after he fatally shot Mr. Brooks in the back, was the right thing to do,” Lance Bottoms said in a statement issued Wednesday.
“Had immediate action not been taken, I firmly believe that the public safety crisis we experienced during that time would have been significantly worse,” she added.
The mayor’s statement seems to suggest that the improper firing of Rolfe, who had his due process rights violated, was the “right” move so that rioters would be appeased, or at least not upset further.
Notably, Rolfe already filed a lawsuit against Bottoms and interim police Chief Rodney Bryant in August, claiming, in part, that his right to due process was violated.
In the suit, Rolfe said he was fired “without an investigation, without proper notice, without a pre-disciplinary hearing, and in direct violation of the municipal code of the city of Atlanta,” NBC News reported at the time.
As highlighted by The Daily Wire, Rolfe attorney Lance LoRusso said in a statement Wednesday, “We are very excited that the Civil Board says that due process matters.”
LoRusso added that his client’s “reinstatement will likely take some time, but he intended to get his client back to work,” according to CNN.
Rolfe was hit with felony charges in the death of Brooks a week after the fatal shooting took place in a Wendy’s parking lot. The reinstated officer is currently facing 11 counts, including felony murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
The Daily Wire reported on the incident back in June:
Rolfe killed Brooks late on Friday night after responding to a call from a Wendy’s employee that a man had fallen asleep behind the wheel in his car in the drive-through and was obstructing traffic. The officers ran Brooks through a field sobriety test and a breathalyzer that pegged Brooks’ blood alcohol concentration at .108%, according to body cam footage released by the Atlanta police department. The legal limit to drive is .08%.
After cooperating for nearly half an hour, Brooks fought with the officers as they tried to place him in handcuffs. All three struggled and fell to the ground where Brooks managed to take Brosnan’s taser and escape the officers. Rolfe shot after Brooks fired the stolen taser at him.