Cops rehired, charges dropped: How efforts to punish police for Rayshard Brooks’ death failed
USA TodayAug 24, 2022
On Tues., Pete Skandalakis, the Georgia special prosecutor assigned to the Rayshard Brooks death case, announced that the two white police officers involved in his fatal shooting won't face charges.
This comes more than two years after the 27-year-old black man was shot after fighting Atlanta Police Dept. (APD) officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan who attempted to arrest him for a DUI.
At the time of Brooks death, charges against officers involved in his homicide were supposed to reflect a policing overhaul across the US intended to limit the use of force. However, little has changed in practice and these two officers not facing charges and being still employed with the APD indicates it.
Rolfe and Brosnan acted accordingly to the Georgia law without any criminal intent as proved by the facts. Rayshard Brooks violently resisted arrest, seizing one of their Tasers and firing at the officers multiple times while trying to escape until being deadly shot. The right thing to do was to clear them of all charges.
There's a 3% chance that a large American city will fully abolish its police department before 2035, according to the Metaculus prediction community.