All this year we heard about “defund the police,” “police reform,” and “rethinking policing” from Democrat big city mayors. Atlanta fell for it and believed their own press releases. This is the result.

FNC: “Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is facing sharp criticism as her city faces its deadliest year in decades.

 

“Three killings in less than 24 hours over the Christmas weekend boosted the number of homicides this year to 154, the highest since 1998, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Bottoms’ administration was already facing public criticism for an overall rise in violent crime.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The fatal shooting of a 7-year-old girl outside an Atlanta mall Monday evening led to a public tiff between some of the city’s top elected officials, previewing the contentious debate that could be front and center during next year’s elections for mayor and city council. Councilman Howard Shook’s statement following the shooting of Kennedy Maxie at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead marked what may be the most direct and biting public criticism Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has received from a member of the City Council since she took office.”

That city councilman has had enough. “It is obvious that the civilian authorities do not control the streets and cannot provide even a token feeling of safety beyond our front doors,” City Councilman Howard Shook said in a statement on Dec. 22, before the latest murders.

“To the administration, I don’t want to hear the word ‘uptick,'” Shook said. “Stop minimizing our concerns by telling us that ‘crime is up everywhere.’ Spare us from the lie that the steady outflow of our officers isn’t as bad as it is. And please, not another throw-away press conference utterly devoid of game-changing action steps. It will take a lot to turn this around. But here, in descending order, are the three things we need to begin: 1). Leadership; 2). Some leadership; 3). Any leadership.” Other city officials piled on.

“We would like to see more focus from the administration, and really from the mayor, on taking a leadership role,” Councilman J.P. Matzigkeit, who also represents Buckhead, said Wednesday. “She hasn’t focused as much attention on crime as she has on other issues.”

City Council President Felicia Moore said about Councilman Shook, “He’s had some issues with the crime previously, and it’s just kind of built up, I believe, to a young, innocent child getting shot in the back of the head just driving down the street…I think everyone wants something to happen, they want to see action … And I believe that his statement was just his way of expressing his frustration,” she said.

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The mayor gave a weak treacly bureaucratic response. “If there are solutions that we have not explored and enacted, I welcome the suggestions, as I am always open to making the city that I am raising my children in a safer place for us all.” And Atlanta will continue to burn.