A local police union is upset with Mayor Kasim Reed over a photo that they say perpetuates fear of law enforcement.
At issue is a photo of Reed and celebrities including actor Chris Tucker, as well as rappers Young Jeezy and Ludacris, with their arms raised in a gesture that is commonly known as “hands up, don’t shoot.” The gesture has come to symbolize tension between law enforcement and minority communities following the death of Ferguson, Mo. teenager Michael Brown, who was killed last year in a police-involved shooting.
Ken Allen, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 623, said he heard from many officers who believe the photo sends a troubling message. Allen leads a union of roughly 1,200 lawmen.
“It’s sending a message to the community that contradicts what I think we do in Atlanta,” he said. “I think the message tells the public that there is an issue (here).”
Reed, who is traveling in Washington this week, could not be reached for comment. But spokeswoman Anne Torres said his participation in the photo, which was taken at an event last month, was a reaction to a grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer over Brown’s death.
The mayor spoke publicly about his disappointment in the Ferguson decision last fall and called for peaceful protests.
Torres also defended the mayor’s support of the Atlanta Police Department, which has grown to 2,000 officers, has received pay raises under Reed and has received new high-tech policing equipment.
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“Since Michael Brown’s shooting in August, Mayor Reed has been asked to comment on community policing on multiple occasions both nationally and locally,” she said in a statement. “In every instance, he has consistently expressed his appreciation of the fine work of the men and women of the Atlanta Police Department.”
Allen acknowledged that the mayor has publicly supported APD’s handling of protests, which at times turned raucous last fall. But he thinks that support would be lost on those who see the photo with no context.
He worries demonstrators who have a "radical approach" could believe Atlanta has the same issues raised in other communities, including New York City.
Just months after the Ferguson decision, a New York grand jury deciding against charging an officer involved in the death of Eric Garner, who died after police put him in a choke-hold. Weeks later, two NYPD officers were gunned down by a man who reportedly claimed that he planned to attack cops in retaliation for the deaths of Brown and Garner.
The controversy has led to highly publicized tension between the NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio, with some criticizing the mayor for what they say is a lack of support for the force.
Noting demonstrations in Atlanta earlier this week, in which protesters interrupted and blocked the annual Martin Luther King Jr. march, Allen said: “Why would they not think the mayor supports that, because of the message that photo sends?”
Emory political scientist Michael Leo Owens thinks the mayor’s participation in the photo is politically less damaging in Atlanta, which has a majority black police force and is led by an African-American chief.
“If we had these sort of cases in Atlanta that we see elsewhere, it would be a very different story,” he said. “And if we had those sorts of cases, the mayor might not have used what we assume is this symbol.”
Local photographer Aric Thompson, of Dream Photography Group, said he snapped the picture during the mayor’s December ball for a series of “hands up, don’t shoot” celebrity photos. The project is not yet complete.
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