Horowitz: Atlanta DA leading rushed prosecution against six cops gets just 36% in first round of election

It’s pretty unprecedented for an incumbent district attorney in a major urban area to get just 36% in a primary. When Fulton County, Georgia, DA Paul Howard wound up with just that for his share of the vote, six points behind challenger Fani Willis, we now have our answer as to why he was so eager to prosecute cops without due diligence.

Howard is already under investigation for two sexual harassment lawsuits as well as a corruption scandal. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations recently launched an investigation into allegations that Howard pocketed funds meant for fighting gang violence in order to supplement his salary by $170,000 after his request for a salary increase was initially rebuffed by the city government. He is being accused by a former administrator and paralegal in his office of sexual harassment and misconduct, as well as 12 public disclosure violations. No wonder he is such a proponent of going soft on crime!

Well, facing these allegations, despite his six terms in office, Howard was taking no chances of losing his bid for re-election. He launched an unprecedented prosecution against six Atlanta cops, alleging they criminally assaulted two black students near a protest by dragging them out of their car for no reason and tasing them during rioting on the night of May 30. All the officers were fired and are now facing criminal charges. Howard issued arrest warrants for all six and charged four of them with aggravated assault. Five of the six are African-American.

Except, according to the lawyer for two of the cops, the video was edited, as is often the case in the war on cops. Appearing on Laura Ingraham’s show Tuesday night, Lance LoRusso, the lawyer for Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner, two of the African-American officers fired and prosecuted, claimed the video was “edited multiple times.”

"What has been edited out is the probable cause for the arrest," Lance LoRusso said. "The officers told the driver to move his vehicle ... he refused," the lawyer added. "They open the door and he drives away violently, almost pulling one of the officers off their feet."

He noted that the two officers weren’t even interviewed for their side of the story. No investigation was conducted – just the one done by the media. That is how swift the war on cops has become in recent days.

These two cops are now suing the mayor and police chief for wrongful termination.

Getting back to the election results, it appears that Howard’s ploy did not work. Challenger Fani Willis is now leading the six-term incumbent 42-36, with a third candidate garnering 21 percent of the vote. They now head to a runoff on August 11. Fliers appeared insinuating that Howard is being “lynched.” Voters will have an opportunity to vote out a corrupt criminal sympathizer who has dressed up as a prosecutor for over 20 years.

Another law-and-order candidate did well in Georgia on Tuesday night. In the race for district attorney of the Macon Judicial Circuit, challenger Anita Reynolds Howard knocked off two-term incumbent David Cooke by close to a 3-1 super-majority of the vote in the Democrat primary. “What everyone wants and what everyone deserves is to feel safe,” Howard said in her victory speech. “And with the continuing violent crime that Macon has, especially with the murders ... I just believe that people want to see priority placed on public safety.”

With looters and criminals being let off the hook by prosecutors across the nation and the jail space being filled with cops, prosecutor races across the country might be more important than the presidential race.