Atlanta mayor goes from star to scapegoat as violence surges

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has gone from rising star to scapegoat amid a crime wave that’s left a little girl dead and prompted sharp criticism of her public safety policies from other city officials.

Bottoms, who was reportedly on Joe Biden’s short list of running mates, was on the defensive after a bloody Christmas weekend capped a deadly year. Much of the violence began during a summer of unrest and local and national calls to defund the police department. But the death of 7-year-old Kennedy Maxie outside Phipps Plaza in Atlanta on Dec. 21 has prompted mounting, and pointed, criticism.