Five public safety officers received special recognition at the Buckhead Business Association’s quarterly luncheon on Oct. 27, but one of them, an Atlanta Police Officer, missed the event because of the ongoing Occupy Atlanta protests.
The awards, sponsored by The Wright Attorneys legal practice, went to Zone 2 Atlanta Police Officer Craig Heflin; Fulton County Detention Officer Coretta Floyd with the Sheriff’s Office; Firefighter Robert Cotrell and Sergeants Rodney Deese and Mike Palmeri with the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department.
Heather Wright with the Wright Attorney’s firm made an oblique reference to the movement when she explained Heflin’s absence.
“They’re out securing some of our parks,” Wright said. “Apparently the public sight seeing that’s taking place downtown has spread.”
The Occupy Atlanta protests are part of the larger Occupy Wall Street movement.
The protests also put a temporary halt on Buckhead’s traffic control program on Piedmont and Roswell/Habersham roads in the evenings, because officers are being pulled away from their jobs to work 12 hour shifts as the Occupy Atlanta protests continue.
Mark Shaver, the BBA’s vice president of public safety, said Heflin pulled two unconscious men from a burning truck moments before it exploded. It turned out those two men were in the 3rd Ranger Battalion at Fort Benning, Ga.
Floyd was working at a jail visitation booth when a someone flagged her down because a toddler was turning blue. Floyd saved the baby, causing the baby to cough up a piece of peppermint.
Cotrell, Deese and Palmeri rode their bikes for 16 days to New York to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, stopping along the way in Washington D.C. To visit with 9/11 first responders there.
