Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order late Saturday that expands the state of emergency across Georgia and allows up to 3,000 National Guard troops to deploy to reinforce local and state law enforcement.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms also has extended the nighttime curfew in Atlanta from 9 p.m. Sunday through sunrise Monday.
Their actions are in response to the looting and destruction that broke out this weekend in Georgia’s capital during demonstrations sparked by George Floyd’s death. Floyd, who was black, died May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis police. Several videos have surfaced since his death showing officers kneeling on him. One officer in particular, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes even as Floyd lay face down in the street pleading for help, crying “I can’t breathe.”
Floyd’s death appears to have intensified the already simmering anger and frustration in Georgia over the February shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. The 25-year-old Arbery, who was black, was shot to death by a white man while jogging through a South Georgia neighborhood on February 23. No one was arrested in the case for over two months until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation got involved. Now three men are charged with his murder.
Capital response
During a video address Saturday, Kemp said authorities would “do what’s necessary to keep the peace.” He called on Georgians to unite peacefully. Bottoms urged residents to steer clear of large gatherings.
There is a heavy police presence in Atlanta that began building Friday as protesters gathered in Centennial Park. On Saturday, large groups of protesters gathered outside the governor’s mansion and other parts of the city.
Protests spread beyond metro-Atlanta and reached into North Georgia late Saturday. Hundreds of people swarmed the streets of Gainesville in Hall County late Saturday, carrying signs calling for an end to police brutality and proclaiming Black Lives Matter.
Georgia chiefs of police call for accountability
In a statement issued on May 29, the head of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police says his organization was “shocked” by the video from Minneapolis showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
Chief Wesley Walker, president of GACP, says the video “documents a death that should not have occurred.”
“The investigation and subsequent findings should be driven not by political pressures, but rather the evidence and facts,” Walker says. “We want, and expect, the officer(s) to be held accountable for their actions.”
Walker says it’s a very small percentage of law enforcement officers who act outside of the law and fail to uphold their oaths, but when they do, “it is a negative reflection upon all of us.”
“Law enforcement officers hold a unique position within our society. They have the power, with or without due process, to deprive a person of their liberty, property, and sometimes, their life. Because of this power, they must be held accountable for their actions. The citizens would not accept anything less, and neither should we.”
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