The president of the Atlanta NAACP Gerald Griggs will lead a contingency of demonstrators to South Georgia this Saturday.
Demonstrators will caravan from courthouse to courthouse, starting at 10 a.m. at the Ware County Courthouse and ending at the Coffee County Courthouse at 5:30 p.m.
But there was barely time in-between Georgia protests over the shooting death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick before 46-year-old George Floyd was choked to death by a Minneapolis police officer.
Then there’s the March 13 fatal shooting of the 26-year-old EMT Breonna Taylor, after Louisville police officers forced their way into her home.
But hours after a Minneapolis police statement described George Floyd physically resisting officers, new bystander footage surfaced that showed a different story. The video pans to Floyd pleading for his life, screaming, “I can’t breathe,” and an officer’s knee pinned on the back of his neck.
Angered over the deaths of black Americans at the hands of white officers, protests in Minneapolis that started as peaceful soon turned violent. Nationwide demonstrations against police brutality have continued throughout the week. A Minneapolis police station was set on fire. A CNN crew – including Chicago-based correspondent Omar Jimenez – were arrested on live television. And a tweet by President Donald Trump that suggested protesters looting in Minneapolis should be shot was flagged by Twitter as “glorifying violence.” The tweet was blocked from view unless users clicked on a disclaimer. Users are also blocked from liking or responding to the tweet.
Atlanta attorney and NAACP leader Gerald Griggs spoke with “Morning Edition” host Lisa Rayam before this Saturday’s protest and reiterated a report by President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The report was shared with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2015. It surfaced in the heat of the Black Lives Matter movement that arose after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Griggs spoke about how the report offered nearly 100 recommendations on how law enforcement could effectively reduce crime while building community trust.
Saturday’s demonstration is scheduled to be at Brantley County Courthouse at 1 p.m., Pierce County Courthouse at 2:30 p.m. and Macon County Courthouse at 4 p.m.
Lily Oppenheimer contributed to this report.
For a deeper exploration of Ahmaud Arbery’s story, listen to WABE’s podcast, “Buried Truths.” Hosted by journalist, professor, and Pulitzer-prize-winning author Hank Klibanoff, season three of “Buried Truths” explores the Arbery murder and its direct ties to racially motivated murders of the past in Georgia.
