The former commissioner of the New York Police Department pointed to the local government in Atlanta’s handling of police-involved deaths of citizens and other instances of force to highlight what he says is an increasingly difficult position police are being put in around the country.
“I hear the attorney said that using the Taser against the officer is not deadly force. Yet, the city of Atlanta, the mayor of Atlanta, had six cops fired last week, a week-and-a-half ago for using a Taser on a couple in a car, and the district attorney charged them with using deadly physical force,” Bernie Kerik said Saturday on Fox News.
Earlier in the day, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields announced she was resigning after news broke of the death of black man Rayshard Brooks, who was killed by police after he fell asleep in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant and failed a sobriety test. Police said Brooks resisted arrest, was involved with a struggle over a Taser, and was shot.
One of the officers who responded, Garrett Rolfe, was fired and Devin Bronsan, another officer, was placed on administrative leave.
Police treatment of minorities has been a major point of debate in the United States since the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis who died after a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Deaths such as Brooks’s and Floyd’s have sparked demands from criminal justice activists that local governments do more to curb systemic racism in police departments and reassess taxpayer dollars allocated to law enforcement.
Kerik, who in recent weeks warned a growing anti-police sentiment could lead to a mass exodus of people from the profession, suggested citizens who do not comply with an officer’s commands are putting themselves in danger.
“I think some of the reforms need to be talked about. And I think the mayors, these radical, left-wing, you know, progressive mayors and governors, they could start with reforms,” Kerik said. “Like, tell the thugs in your community don’t attack our police, don’t assault our police, don’t resist arrest, don’t obstruct or interfere with that arrest, don’t run from the police.”
He continued: “Don’t run cops over with your car. Don’t take their tasers. Don’t take their weapons. Don’t take their guns. Because if you do, we’re gonna use force, and we’re not gonna lose if we use force.”
