Atlanta mayor: ‘We know the frustration is still there’ despite calmer Saturday protests

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) said discontent over police brutality remained high both in her city and across the U.S, even after Atlanta saw a calmer Saturday night.

“We know the frustration is still there,” Bottoms said on “Meet the Press” in a joint interview with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), adding, “all the issues and all the concerns and anger that were there on Friday haven’t gone away.”

{mosads}“This is more of a systemic issue we are facing that will take time to address. Certainly, acknowledging the deaths of so many innocent people in America — there are no easy answers but as Mayor Bowser says: The solution is not to destroy our cities,” she added.

Protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last week continued in Atlanta Saturday night, though they appeared more peaceful than those the previous day.

Asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd whether she would want President Trump to address the nation, Bottoms said “My grandmother used to say, if you don’t have anything good to say sometimes you just shouldn’t say anything at all.”

If Trump were to give such an address, she added, “I’d like to hear a genuine concern for our communities and where we are with race relations in America.” However, she said,  “we know that when he spoke on Charlottesville he made the matter worse …I am concerned that this president has a history of making matters worse.”

Lance-Bottoms also addressed speculation, including by the president and Attorney General William Barr, that some rioting was instigated by people from out of state.

“We … noticed many of the protesters got lost even when there was a detour,” she said. “These were people from the outside.”

St. Paul, Minn., Mayor Melvin Carter (D) made a similar claim Saturday, saying everyone arrested in the city Friday night was a non-resident, before walking back the statement later in the day, saying he was given inaccurate information by police.