'Our police officers are to be guardians and not warriors': Atlanta mayor orders police to deescalate following killing of Rayshard Brooks

'There is a shift of expectations across this country and that shift will be no different here in Atlanta'

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has issued a series of executive orders for her city's police department to "immediately adopt" deescalation procedures following the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black man shot by an officer in a Wendy's restaurant parking lot.

Officers have a "duty to intervene" against other officers' use of deadly force, according to her order.

"It's very clear our police officers are to be guardians and not warriors in our communities," she said during a Monday press conference.

She said the orders build a "framework for action" for the Atlanta Police Department "and possibly the nation" following several weeks of unrest after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the killings of black Americans by police.

The orders follow a police reform task force that convened for the first time last week, with plans to issue recommendations within 14 days of its meeting and implement those plans within 45 days.

But following Mr Brooks's killing on 12 June, the mayor — echoing a quote from Martin Luther King Jr — said "there is a fierce urgency of now".

"It is clear that we do not have another day, another minute, another hour to waste," the mayor said.

The task force is expected to issue a suite of policing policy recommendations later this month.

Mr Brooks was killed following a police stop at Wendy's, where police were alerted to a man sleeping in his car. An officer's body-mounted camera footage captured Mr Brooks asking whether he can walk home before he is given a breathalyzer test then placed in handcuffs. He attempts to run, then wrestles an officer's Taser away before he is shot twice in the back as he runs from the scene.

A medical examiner determined his death ws a homicide.

Stunning aerial shots show global Black Lives Matter crowds on 6 June

•  
•  
•  
• 21 show all

Stunning aerial shots show global Black Lives Matter crowds on 6 June

•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  

• 1/21

  An aerial photo made with a drone shows a large group gathered in Union Park to protest the arrest of George Floyd, who later died in police custody, in Chicago, Illinois

  EPA

• 2/21

  A large group marching and chanting in Chicago, Illinois

  EPA/Tannen Maury

• 3/21

  Protesters gather along the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum and Eakins Oval during a protest

  AP

• 4/21

  Demonstrators try to block a freeway during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York

  REUTERS

• 5/21

  Thousands of demonstrators march across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California

  REUTERS

• 6/21

  Demonstrators gather at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington

  REUTERS

• 7/21

  Demonstrators march down Flatbush Avenue toward the Manhattan Bridge chanting slogans

  REUTERS

• 8/21

  Protesters take part in a demonstration to protest in support of the George Floyd protests in the United States, and also to commemorate a similar circumstance in France when Adama Traore, a 24-year-old Frenchman was killed in 2016 by police, during an rally in Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris

  EPA

• 9/21

  Demonstrators attend a protest in Berlin, Germany

  FABRIZIO BENSCH/REUTERS

• 10/21

  Demonstrators protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Sydney

  RON SHAMGAR via REUTERS

• 11/21

  Demonstrators attend a Black Lives Matter protest to express solidarity with US protestors in Sydney 

  AFP via Getty Images

• 12/21

  People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens, UK

  PA

• 13/21

  People wearing masks hold placards during a protest march over the alleged police abuse of a Turkish man, in echoes of a Black Lives Matter protest, following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, in Tokyo

  REUTERS/Issei Kato

• 14/21

  Demonstrators attend a protest against police brutality in Frankfurt

  REUTERS

• 15/21

  Demonstrators attend a protest against police brutality at Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany

  REUTERS

• 16/21

  People stand in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds in tribute to George Floyd during a protest against racism and police brutality in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

  Getty Images

• 17/21

  Thousands of people demonstrate in Cologne, Germany

  AP

• 18/21

  Demonstrators hold placards as they attend a protest march to the US Embassy in London

  AFP via Getty Images

• 19/21

  Demonstrators cross the River Thames via Vauxhall Bridge as they march to protest outside the US Embassy in London

  AFP via Getty Images

• 20/21

  Demonstrators gather for a protest against racism and police violence in Lisbon

  AP

• 21/21

  Boxer Anthony Joshua is seen on crutches with demonstrators in Watford, Britain

  REUTERS

 

 

"We saw the worst happen Friday night," the mayor said. "It angered me and saddened me beyond words ... It is my responsibility as mayor of this great city to continue to put that anger and sadness into action."

The officer who shot Mr Brooks has been fired; the city's police chief has also resigned.

Though Atlanta's police does have a set of deescalation policies, there is not explicit direction for officers to intervene when another officer is using deadly force, officials said.

The mayor said "morale is bad" in her city's police department and across the US "because of the scrutiny, anger and frustration directed at our police departments".

"I don't think Atlanta is any different," she said. "There is a shift of expectations across this country and that shift will be no different here in Atlanta."

Policing reform will make clear "what the expectations are" among police officers, she said.

Addressing protests and demonstrations in the city, which have continued nightly following Mr Floyd's death, she said: "My anger and my frustration matches theirs. The difference is I am using the bully pulpit I have as mayor to effectuate longlasting change in this city ... I am equally mad, I am sad, the entire range of emotions, to watch Mr Brooks on Friday night, talk about wanting to go home, for his daughter's birthday."

"It breaks my heart," she said. ""And there is nothing I can say or I can do as mayor that can bring him up or that will change what happened on Friday."

But "burning down buildings will not get us change in this city," said the mayor, pointing to Saturday's fire that engulfed the Wendy's where Mr Brooks was killed.

"If anything it will erase the message and eclipse what this is all about," she said.