North Fulton Today

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp criticized Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for blaming the city's crime surge on GOP led re-openings during COVID.

Bottoms said that the crime wave in Atlanta was due to lack of gun laws, school being out due to summer vacation and the governor’s choice to make Georgia one of the first states to begin reopening, Fox News reported.

"People are tired of leaders blaming somebody else for problems they have in their own jurisdiction," Kemp told Fox News.

"I'll continue to back our law enforcement and give them the resources and support they need to keep Georgians safe," Kemp Tweeted.

He said that plenty of other states were open as well, including Oklahoma, Colorado and South Dakota, Fox News reported.

He told Fox News that he was "fed up" with politicians blaming others for crime. 

"While Democrats and local leaders shift blame and refuse to take action against rising crime, we are using state resources to back law enforcement and put criminals behind bars," Kemp Tweeted

Kemp told Fox News that he is using a crime suppression unit for the past two months as well as emergency state funding to battle the crime problem, which he said he hears about every day.

Atlanta has reported homicides up 58% so far this year compared to the same time in 2020, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said. Last year, the newspaper reported 157 homicide cases.

"And in just two months by putting boots on the ground and officers on the street and in the air and working with state and local partnerships we've done almost 3,100 arrests, we've apprehended 71 people who had outstanding warrants and we've impounded almost 300 vehicles going after street crimes," Kemp told Fox News.