An Atlanta city councilman and mayoral candidate who voted to cut police funding last summer isn’t pressing charges against the “little kids” who stole his car on Wednesday.
Councilman Antonio Brown called the thieves who stole his 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 “a reflection” of their “environment and conditions.”
“These are little kids … making poor decisions in their lives right now that I think are a reflection of the environment and conditions in which they live,” Brown told reporters the next day. “I’m not going to press charges on kids to impact them for the rest of their lives.”
Brown added that the suspected criminals should be placed in a program “to help rehabilitate them so they don’t think crimes like this are OK.”
ATLANTA MAYORAL CANDIDATE WHO VOTED TO WITHHOLD POLICE FUNDING GETS CAR STOLEN
His car has not been recovered, and the thieves remain on the loose.
Brown’s vehicle was stolen after four people jumped in and took off on Wednesday as the local leader was participating in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Brown, who is running for mayor on a pledge to “reimagine” law enforcement, told the police he had gotten out of his car to speak with someone when “several males entered his unlocked car and drove away with it,” dragging him for about a block while he tried to hold on.
The four suspects were described by Brown to be between the ages of 8 and 11 years old, and one “acted as though he had a gun,” according to an incident report.
Last June, Brown was one of seven City Council members to vote in favor of an ordinance that would have withheld $73 million of the Atlanta Police Department’s budget until Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s administration drafted a plan to reinvent policing in the city, but it failed.
Had the bill passed, it would have withheld about a third of the operational budget until the end of last year.
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The vote followed the death of Rayshard Brooks on June 12. Brooks, who was black, was shot by Officer Garrett Rolfe after taking Rolfe’s partner’s taser and shooting at Rolfe as he tried to flee. Brooks, who had fallen asleep in his car in a Wendy’s drive-thru lane and was allegedly intoxicated, took the taser and scuffled with both officers before running in a scene caught on police body camera video.
Rolfe faces 11 charges, including felony murder, and could face the death penalty if convicted. He has been reinstated to the force pending his trial.
