Atlanta-area police chief placed on leave after speaking out against Black Lives Matter on Facebook
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) — An Atlanta-area police chief who was criticized for saying on social media that he doesn’t support the Black Lives Matter movement has now been placed on leave while his city investigates him.
Johns Creek Police Chief Chris Byers wrote on his personal Facebook page that religious leaders have failed to give enough support to police and that Black Lives Matter as a movement “seems to glorify the killing of my brothers and sisters.”
Since then, Johns Creek City Manager Ed Densmore said he began gathering information from residents, police officers and city employees.
But the investigation now focuses on other issues related to the chief, Densmore said. Densmore opened an internal investigation into allegations against the chief “unrelated to his social media post,” he said Tuesday. He did not specify what those are.
In his Facebook post, Byers said he is supportive of demonstrations for justice and that he supports the lives of all people.
“But I do not support the Black Lives Matter as a movement as it seems to glorify the killing of my brothers and sisters,” he wrote. “It is not what you pastors and religious leaders think it is.”
Byers has been placed on leave while the investigation goes on, Densmore confirmed.
Johns Creek, a large Atlanta suburb just northeast of the city, is among Georgia’s largest cities with about 85,000 residents. Demonstrators in the Atlanta area are demanding justice for Rayshard Brooks, a local black man who was killed by police after being discovered sleeping in Wendy’s Drive-thru.
