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Kemp to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops after violent weekend
POLITICS 1 hour ago
By Greg Bluestein, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Brian Kemp will deploy as many as 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops to protect state buildings in Atlanta on Monday following a burst of violence across the city that left four dead, including an 8-year-old girl, and saw the ransacking of the headquarters of the Georgia State Patrol.
Kemp, a Republican, issued the emergency order after threatening late Sunday to “take action” to curb the unrest in Atlanta if Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms failed to do so, a move that highlighted the complicated, and increasingly tense, relationship between two of the state’s most prominent politicians.The National Guard troops will be dispatched to three locations in the city: The state Capitol, which has been the focus of protests over statues of segregationists and Civil War leaders; the Governor’s Mansion in Buckhead; and the recently-vandalized Department of Public Safety building in southeast Atlanta.
.“Peaceful protests were hijacked by criminals with a dangerous, destructive agenda. Now, innocent Georgians are being targeted, shot, and left for dead,” said Kemp. “This lawlessness must be stopped and order restored in our capital city.”
The governor’s aides earlier Monday said his emergency powers grant him the authority to deploy Georgia National Guard troops to Atlanta’s streets. He took that step in late May, after widespread looting and violence, at Bottoms' request.The mayor did not immediately address Kemp’s decision but issued her own plea to residents to end the violence. At least 93 people were shot in Atlanta between May 31 – roughly when the George Floyd protests began – and June 27. That’s roughly double the number from the same span a year ago.
"This random wild, Wild West shoot-‘em-up because you can, has gotta stop. It has to stop,” she said after the violent weekend.
