Asked if officers have been "hesitant" to respond to crime amid heightened tensions of the past year, Bottoms said "absolutely not." "Remember in Georgia we were opened up before the rest of the country, even before the CDC said that it was safe for us to open so our night clubs and our bars remained open so we had people traveling here from across the country and partying in our city," Bottoms told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Friday. Kemp began easing COVID-19 restrictions in late March, following states like Texas and Mississippi and drawing the ire of Democrats. The Centers for Disease Control didn't relax its guidelines for vaccinated people until mid-May.