Atlanta Councilman Antonio Brown, Who Voted to Defund Police, Has Car Stolen

An Atlanta mayoral candidate who voted to sequester $73 million from the city’s police department budget reportedly had his car stolen by a group of young thieves this week — and wound up thanking the cops for their help.

City Council Member Antonio Brown had just gotten out of his white Mercedes coupe to speak to fellow community leader Ben Norman in northwest Atlanta’s Dixie Hills community Wednesday when he spotted four or five kids — the youngest only 6 or 7, WAGA-TV reported.

The children were walking around a store — and within seconds were inside Brown’s car, he said.

{snip}

Brown said he filed a report with the Atlanta Police Department.

{snip}

“Thanks to @Atlanta_Police for taking swift action to address the situation. It’s time we Reimagine Atlanta Together.”

Authorities confirmed they later found his car, but did not say if they made any arrests. Brown said he doesn’t want to press charges, according to WAGA-TV.

It appeared that the kids acted out of desperation, Brown told WSB-TV.

“This is a generational poverty issue,” Brown said. {snip}

Brown — who is under indictment on several federal fraud charges related to alleged incidents that occurred years before he took city council office in 2019 — launched his mayoral run on the platform of “reimagining” public safety and policing in Atlanta {snip}

He was one of seven councilmembers last year who voted in support of an ordinance to withhold $73 million from the $218 million budget of Atlanta’s police department budget until Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ administration drafted a plan to reinvent the city’s culture of policing, the outlet reported at the time.

{snip}