(AJC) — Mayor Kasim Reed and his new police chief sought Thursday night to reassure members of Atlanta’s gay community that their safety matters to the city of Atlanta. “We are not going to tolerate people putting you in harm’s way,” said Reed. “We can’t send out a message that we will tolerate anybody putting a gun to your chest. We are smart enough to protect communities and keep them safe.”
On the stage Thursday night was Police Chief George Turner, the city’s only openly gay city councilman, and the APD’s liaison to the gay community. In the audience at Inman Middle School were dozens of members of the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered community, who are trying to come to grips with violence against them as well as their own delicate relationship with the police department.
