If you’ve driven around Atlanta in recent years, you might have been eased to the side of the road to make way for a speeding black GMC Tahoe with blue lights flashing. You might have thought it was a police team rushing to an emergency. You’d have been wrong.
It may have been Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on his way to a press conference. Or a ground breaking. Or even a party. I suppose it's all how you decide to categorize the term "emergency."
A news investigation this week by WSB-TV /Channel 2 Action News documented 10 times in recent weeks that the Mayormobile was rushing to various events — running red lights, speeding, even running up the shoulder of a crowded highway on-ramp — to make sure Reed did not have to suffer through traffic like the rest of us.
The mayor contends his police drivers are concerned with his security, hence the sirens and flashing lights. And he’s an important guy who has to be at several places at the same time.
But state law frowns on unnecessary use of emergency lights and sirens. It kind of waters down the sense of emergency.
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