Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Urges Protesters to ‘Go Home’

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms made a powerful plea to protesters who turned the streets of Atlanta into a war zone Friday night, urging them to go home if they love their city, telling them that “we are better than this” after buildings, including the CNN Center, were attacked. “What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta,” she said in a late night news conference, flanked by leaders of the black community. “This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. This is chaos.” Lance Bottoms, who has four children of her own, said that she urged her own 18-year-old son to stay home and avoid trouble. “Yesterday, when I heard there were rumors about violent protests in Atlanta, I did what a mother would do, I called my son and I said, ‘Where are you?’ I said, ‘I cannot protect you, and black boys shouldn't be out today.’” She cautioned that a protest must have purpose. “When Dr. King was assassinated, we didn’t do this to our city,” she said. “If you want change in America, go and register to vote. ... That is the change we need in this country.”