By Yasmeen Akbar
The Atlanta Civil Service Board reinstated two officers who were fired this past summer after using their tasers on two unarmed college students.
Officers Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter were let go last June after video footage of them pulling Spelman College junior, Taniyah Pilgrim out of the car, and tasing both her and Morehouse College senior, Messiah Young went viral.
“Streeter and Gardner filed a lawsuit against the city saying the city violated various procedures,” according to Fox 5 Atlanta. The Civil Service Board agreed that the two officers were not properly let go per their termination policy and deserved a chance to go through a proper investigation.
“The officers were not given the usual five days to respond to the allegations against them,” the officers’ lawyer, Lance LoRusso stated according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Former Atlanta Police Department Chief Erika Shields stated, before the board, that this was an “exceptional circumstance” and that the rush to fire the two officers came from the department wanting to prevent an uproar from the community, especially since protests in Atlanta had already been becoming violent due to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms released a statement in which she argued that the firing of the two officers was the right decision. “Given the unrest across our city and our nation at the time, and the disturbing video footage before us, I still believe that the right decision was made,” Bottoms said.
Young and Pilgrim chose not to make a statement about the officers being reinstated, however, Pilgrim’s attorney, Chris Stewart stated that the officers returning back to work was “disappointing.”
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Sources
Fox 5 Atlanta
Atlanta-Journal Constitution