From Decaturish:
Atlanta Police walk out following murder charge against officer who shot Rayshard Brooks
The head of Atlanta’s police union confirmed Wednesday that officers from the Atlanta Police Department in Zones 3 and 6 walked off the job Wednesday afternoon.
Vince Champion, southeast regional director of the International Brotherhood of Police officers, said that police officers had stopped answering calls midshift, in response to charges against Officer Garrett Rolfe who is accused of murdering Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta.
“The union, we would never advocate this. We wouldn’t advocate a blue flu,” Champion said. “We don’t know the numbers. Apparently we’re learning that command staff are asking outlying counties for support and aren’t getting it.”
Atlanta INtown reports, “A drive around Zone 6 indicated there was not the usual APD presence. A Georgia State Patrol unit was handling a two-car accident at Boulevard and Edgewood Avenue around 9 p.m. The APD’s precinct at Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center appeared empty. Down in Grant Park, the Zone 3 precinct was populated by Fulton County Sheriff units.”
WRBL News 3 is reporting:
Blue Flu: A number of Atlanta Police Officers walk out in apparent protest
A blue flu appears to be sweeping across the Atlanta Police Department as many officers walked out or did not come to work allegedly protesting murder charges filed against one of their own on Wednesday.
The non-profit group Georgia Law Enforcement shared the following information late Wednesday night on their FB page.
“The head of Atlanta’s police union confirmed Wednesday that officers from the Atlanta Police Department in Zones 3 and 6 walked off the job Wednesday afternoon.
Media personalities on Twitter have posted similar:
Breaking: Sources confirm Atlanta Police officers in zone 6 have walked out. Sources say they drove back to their precinct, turned in their keys and went home. Officers in zone 3 are allegedly doing the same.
@CBS46 #ContinuingCoverage #Atlanta #BlueFlu pic.twitter.com/kgLuNwDalP— . (@shongables) June 18, 2020
My contacts in the Atlanta Police Department inform me that members from evening shift Zone 4 walked off the job shortly followed by Officers in Zone 3 and 6. The good members of the @Atlanta_Police will not stand for @FultonCountyDA’s activism in place of applying the law. https://t.co/PDWZNgFeXb
— Rob O'Donnell (@odonnell_r) June 17, 2020
Lawofficer.com reshared this post from Facebook:
Turning to Facebook, this is what I have seen posted:
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations released a statement that put it at odds with the Fulton County DA.
This is more evidence that the DA’s actions were entirely politically motivated.
Then there is this post I found from a few weeks back at the height of the civil unrest:
It seems like the Atlanta PD has been at odds with its management for some time and this might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
11 Alive is reporting the official Atlanta PD byline:
Atlanta Police is addressing rumors of walk outs of officers with the department Wednesday night.
Atlanta Police spokesperson Sgt. John Chafee told 11Alive that suggestions that multiple officers from each of the department’s zones had walked off the job were “inaccurate.”
“However,” Chafee said, “the department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift.”
He added that the department has “enough resources” to be able to respond to incidents throughout the city and maintain regular operations. 11Alive has asked for specifics about the number of officers who have called out, but APD only answered with the same statement.
That sounds a lot like:
Let’s see what the morning news cycle brings.
They keep using that word “protest”. I do not think that word means what [they] thing it means.
When you do the mental calculations and decide that completing your assigned duties within the scope of your training and to the best of your abilities could likely put you on a track to spend the rest of your life in prison, you might decide that the only way to keep yourself and your family safe is to walk away. That’s not a protest, that’s realizing that you’re one sideways call from being next under that bus.
The only way to win is not to play.
“…the DA’s actions were entirely politically motivated.”
Shocker, right? :-\
BTW, just saw a post @ TheGatewayPundit that the Blue-Flu is spreading to other big DemonKKKrat enclaves:
“It’s Spreading: Over 40 LAPD Transit Officers Call Out on Wednesday – After 43 Skipped Work on Monday”
(https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/spreading-40-lapd-transit-officers-call-wednesday-43-skipped-work-monday/)
Hope NYC is next to get the Blue-Flu, starting the LEO’s guarding Reichsführer Cuomo’s & Gauführer deBlasio’s mansions. 😀
Remember how bad it was during that “Day Without a Mexican” walk-off protest? Neither do I.
I bet Atlanta remembers this Night Without the PoPo though.
Back in the early 90s, my social circle included some part-time and retired cops. From the stories they told, I realized that it was a lot easier to get rid of a good cop than a bad one, even assuming that Management had any interest in getting rid of bad cops.
This kind of crap seems guaranteed to get rid of all the good cops for a long time. The bad ones, I guess, will get raises.
With this (any) political climate, being a cop has to be the worst job in the world.
On one hand, you are supposed to react, stop the criminals, protect the public. On the other hand, if the news media decides you stopped the wrong criminal, you are stabbed in the back by your management.
Exactly how is one to know who is the “wrong” criminal?
If he’s white, he’s the “right” criminal.