When Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed was presented with a list of demands by a group associated with the "Black Lives Matter" (BLM) campaign, which included a demand to end joint training exercises with the Israeli police, he was none too impressed.
The BLM faction in question, ALTisREADY, had issued a list of demands to the Atlanta Police Dept., which led with the following:
We demand a termination to APD’s involvement in the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program, that trains our officers in Apartheid Israel (sic).
Responding at a press conference to a journalist who asked why he rejected the list of demands, Reed said bluntly:
"There was a demand that I stop allowing the Atlanta Police Department to train with the Israeli police department.
"I'm not going to do that; I happen to believe that the Israeli police department has some of the best counterterrorism techniques in the world, and it benefits our police department from that longstanding relationship."
Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement met with Mayor Reed for two hours on Sunday.
The city has seen a number of protests over the killings of black Americans by police in the US, though the Atlanta rallies have been largely peaceful.