Police Departments across the country, feeling unsupported and wrongly vilified plan 'Blue Outs'

Atlanta police officers are calling out sick and refusing to answer calls, unless they are for back-up, as a way of protesting the murder charges brought against fellow officer Garrett Rolfe, who last week shot Rayshard Brooks, a young black man who has grabbed the cop's Taser and fired it at him.

The interim chief of police and mayor of Atlanta have reassured the city that the department has enough staff to continue protecting its residents, despite the officer call outs. 

Less than a day after Brooks' shooting June 12, police Chief Erika Shields resigned, and Rodney Bryant took over as the interim chief. On Thursday, Bryant donned a navy-blue shirt instead of the white shirt that is standard for command staff. He said the wardrobe decision was a gesture of solidarity to the officers in his department. 

"This is the uniform that the men and women of the police department wear, and I felt that it was important they they have an understanding that we are one organization, and we will dress as one organization," Bryant told press on Thursday. 

Bryant also said he was surprised at the speed with which the Fulton County district attorney had made the decision to charge the officers, noting that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation hadn't yet completed its investigation into the Friday night shooting. 

Rolfe's scheduled first court appearance Friday was cancelled in the morning.

Tensions have run increasingly hot between officers and demonstrators who have been coming out en masse since May 28 to protest racial injustice and police brutality following a string of deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police officers. Some of the protests have led to violence and significant damage. 

Vince Champion, a spokesperson for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, spoke about the actions of the cops in Atlanta, saying "This is not an organized thing. It's not a blue flu. It's not a strike. It's nothing like that. What it actually is is officers protesting that they've had enough and they don't want to deal with it any longer."

Champion offered that many Atlanta officers felt prosecutors had not publicly provided sufficient evidence to match the charges brought against Rolfe. 

The president weighed in on the incident during an interview on Sean Hannity's primetime show. 

"I thought it was a terrible situation, but you can't resist a police officer," Trump said. He continued to say that he hopes Rolfe "gets a fair shake, because police have not been treated fairly in our country." 

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms voiced concern about the low morale levels in the city's police departments following weeks of scrutiny and criticism.

"The thing that I'm most concerned about it how we repair the morale in our police department, and how do we ensure our communities are safe as they interact with our police officers," Bottoms said on CNN.

Frustrations have continued to mount in police departments across the nation between police officers and the leaders of their localities. Two weeks ago, dozens of Louisville Metro Police officers walked out on Mayor Greg Fischer prior to his address. 

"They feel completely unsupported and disrespected by this administration," Ryan Nichols, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the Courier Journal. "They feel whatever he was going to say would have been nothing more than lip service, and he does not care about them at all." 

Demonstrations in Louisville began in late May, following the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, but were exacerbated significantly by the mid-March shooting of Breonna Taylor, an unarmed black woman, who was shot in her apartment by the Louisville Metro PD. 

In New York City, rumors are circulating of a plan for officers to go on strike on July 4. Reportedly, text messages have been making the rounds through law enforcement circles, instructing officers to not show up for duty so that the city can "have their independence without cops."

Officers in New York reportedly feel disrespected by the residents of the city, and especially, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has demanded sweeping measures to make the NYPD more transparent, as officers have spent the past several weeks clashing with sometimes violent protestors and looters. 

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch recently said that NYC officers "have reached their breaking point. Over the past few weeks, we have been attacked in the streets, demonized in the media and denigrated by practically every politician in this city."