Protesters gather outside the Governor’s Mansion in Atlanta on May 30, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has released information on some out-of-state protesters with histories of prior civil unrest who were arrested during recent demonstrations in Atlanta over police brutality and racial injustice.
But the agency has declined so far to identify specific groups believed to be participating in the protests, despite recent public comments from top officials including Gov. Brian Kemp and GBI Director Vic Reynolds that groups with violent intent have infiltrated protesting crowds.
Most of the roughly 370 people arrested in Atlanta in protests last Friday through Monday were Georgia residents, with 57 people from out of state, according to a GBI analysis released Thursday.
Of those out-of-state arrestees, around 30 had previous arrests and charges potentially linked to past protests, and at least 10 were bonded out of jail by one person who lives in a different state, the analysis says.
The analysis did not disclose whether those arrested persons had ties to any organized extremist groups or information on which groups have attended protests in the state from Atlanta to Savannah since Friday.
“At this point, we’re not ready to release [information] on groups as much is still being verified and analyzed,” said Nelly Miles, GBI’s public affairs director.
Reynolds told WSB-TV the GBI plans to “do a deeper analysis” with federal authorities to pinpoint the presence of groups in the protests before releasing details.
“Anecdotally, we’re confident that there were groups present here that we expected to be here,” Reynolds said.
Largely peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week have been marred at times by bouts of property destruction and clashes with police that many top officials have traced to the influence of organized extremist groups and out-of-state agitators.
Officials including President Donald Trump have partly attributed the spurts of violence to “Antifa” supporters, signifying the far-left, anarchist element of the “anti-fascist” movement seen often at protests on police violence and at the removal of Confederate monuments in recent years.
But in Georgia, the only group to be officially identified as protesting in the state is the extremist “Boogaloo” movement, which has been tied to some far-right militia and white supremacist groups.
The term “Boogaloo” is associated largely with some far-right militia groups in favor of armed opposition to government-led attempts at constraining gun ownership, as well as some white supremacists who view the phrase as code for a future race war, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Meanwhile, many influential public figures have condemned the response by local, state and federal authorities to use tear gas, rubber bullets and other crowd deterrents on protesters across the country. Kemp has defended the practice in Georgia, arguing illegal acts seen in protests “put us in a bad spot” as law enforcement seeks to preserve public order.
Georgia House lawmakers took up several environmental bills Friday, marking the first foray back into bill-wrangling since the General Assembly suspended the 2020 legislative session in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Members of the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee held a “preliminary meeting” online Friday that offered a preview of the speed with which proceedings could move once lawmakers reconvene the remaining 11 days of the 40-day session on June 15.
In a roughly half-hour meeting, lawmakers on the committee heard rundowns of seven bills dealing with environmental matters like raising the landfill fee for storing toxic coal ash and new reporting requirements for the release of cancer-causing ethylene dioxide.
No votes were taken. The committee plans to hold another meeting next week in which authors of the bills and state agency staff will address questions submitted ahead of time about the bills, said Rep. Lynn Smith, who chairs the committee.
“My hope is by having these preliminary meetings, we’re able to both be more efficient and safer when the session resumes,” said Smith, R-Newnan.
Ahead of resuming the session later this month, lawmakers have been focusing on drafting a state budget starting July 1 that is poised for deep cuts due to the virus-prompted economic slowdown.
Budget-writing committees in the Georgia Senate have held meetings since last week over agency proposals to cut roughly $3.5 billion in spending for the 2021 fiscal year.
Bills on coal ash and ethylene oxide are among dozens that have cleared one chamber in the legislature only to stall in the other as lawmakers hit pause on the session amid mounting concerns over coronavirus.
Senate Bill 123, by Sen. William Ligon, would increase the landfill fee for storing coal ash from $1 per ton to $2.50 per ton, which matches the fee charged for other waste items. The move aims to discourage an influx of coal ash transported to Georgia from power plants in surrounding states like North Carolina and Florida.
“You could say we were subsidizing coal ash in our state,” said Ligon, R-Brunswick. “More and more people are becoming concerned about that.”
Coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal at power plants, was a major subject of environmental legislation filed in the session prior to its suspension in mid-March.
Also tops on the environmental agenda this year are regulations providing public disclosure of harmful ethylene oxide releases, following controversy over unreported releases at the Sterigenics plant in Cobb County.
Senate Bill 426, by Sen. Brian Strickland, would require companies to report waste spills and gas releases to the state Environmental Protection Division (EPD) within 24 hours of their occurring. The EPD would then be required to report those spills and releases on a public website.
“Hopefully it restores some trust for the citizens in these communities,” said Strickland, R-McDonough.
The Capitol building in Atlanta looms on “crossover” eve on March 12, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Democratic lawmakers in the Georgia House plan to push a series of bills later this month aimed at undoing the state’s stand-your-ground and citizen’s arrest laws following the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery.
Bills to repeal those aspects of the state’s self-defense laws will come in a package of reform measures House Democrats intend to introduce once the General Assembly reconvenes on June 15, Democratic Minority Leader Bob Trammell said Thursday.
Trammell, D-Luthersville, said the 10-bill package seeks to prevent Georgians from adopting “the notion that they can take the law into their own hands with deadly and tragic consequences.”
More details on the bills will be unveiled next week, Trammell said.
“It is necessary and imperative that all of us do everything we can to rush toward justice and make sure that this is a state and a nation with justice for all,” he said.
The latest push by Georgia Democratic leaders for criminal justice overhaul stems from the killing of Arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was shot dead as a white father and son pursued him in a neighborhood near Brunswick on Feb. 23.
The two men, Travis and Gregory McMichael, suspected Arbery of burglarizing a nearby construction site and used a truck to confront him. Widely shared video footage captured the moment Travis McMichael shot Arbery with a 12-gauge shotgun after a brief tussle between the two in the street.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers also announced Thursday they intend to introduce legislation repealing the ability for citizens to make arrests if a crime is committed in their presence or with their knowledge.
Rep. Carl Gilliard, who is sponsoring the bill, called citizen’s arrest protections in Georgia “outdated” and “formed in the fashion of the Wild West.”
“When individuals lose their lives at the hands of civilians that become judge and jury, we must use the power of the pen to move Georgia forward,” said Gilliard, D-Garden City.
Like other states, Georgia’s stand-your-ground law allows persons to defend themselves and not retreat in the event of a threat to themselves by an attacker.
Trammell said lawmakers should not “sit back and allow people to chase down and kill someone” with intent to invoke stand-your-ground protections.
Trammel also reiterated a call by lawmakers from both parties for the Georgia Senate to pass hate-crimes legislation that would set additional penalties for those who commit crimes based on a victim’s gender, race or other identifier. The hate-crimes bill passed the House last year but has stalled in the Senate.
Gregory McMichael (left) and Travis McMichael (right) were arrested on May 8, 2020, in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. (Glynn County Sheriff’s Office)
The white gunman who shot dead Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick in February called the 25-year-old black man a racial slur as he lay dying on the street, according to court testimony Thursday from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s lead investigator in the case.
Travis McMichael, a 34-year-old white man, allegedly called Arbery a “(expletive) N-word” shortly after shooting him three times with a 12-gauge Remington shotgun during a pursuit on Feb. 23, according to GBI Special Agent Richard Dial.
Dial, whose testimony Thursday opened probable-cause court proceedings in the case, said the slur from McMichael was heard by one of three defendants who have been charged, William “Roddie” Bryan Jr.
Bryan, who did not testify directly Thursday, told a GBI investigator that he heard McMichael make the remark shortly after shooting Arbery, according to Dial. Dial said Bryan made the claim in a mid-May interview.
Bryan, who recorded cell-phone video footage of the fatal encounter, also allegedly hit Arbery with his truck during a pursuit after Arbery was seen entering a construction site in the neighborhood, Dial said.
The courtroom revelations from Dial are sure to inflame public passions over the death of Arbery, whose killing was caught on cell-phone video footage taken by Bryan and circulated widely on social media last month.
Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, have been charged with murder and aggravated assault in the killing. Bryan is also facing a murder charge as well as a charge of attempted false imprisonment.
Dial’s testimony came in a preliminary hearing held in Glynn County Magistrate Court Thursday. Aside from noting Bryan’s description of the racial slur, Dial also laid out the timeline events that led to Arbery’s death.
Dial, who led the investigation once the GBI took over last month, said the two McMichael men were alerted to Arbery’s presence at a nearby house under construction.
Gregory McMichael, 64, told police he had a “gut feeling” that Arbery was responsible for previous burglaries in the neighborhood, and decided to give chase, Dial said. However, Dial noted there is no evidence Arbery took anything from the construction site on the day he was shot.
Dial then described a series of events in which the two McMichael men in one truck and Bryan in another pursued Arbery in the neighborhood to stop and question him. Several people including members of Arbery’s family told police that Arbery is an avid runner and was jogging that day, Dial said.
After blocking Arbery’s path, Travis McMichael exited the truck and ordered him to halt while taking aim with his shotgun. Arbery resisted, tussling with Travis McMichael briefly before he was shot three times, including once to the center of his chest.
The two McMichael men were arrested about 36 hours after GBI agents formally launched an investigation into the shooting on May 6. Bryan, 50, was arrested about two weeks later.
Beyond the criminal case, federal investigators are probing how coastal Georgia officials handled the case, given several conflicting interests between persons involved in the shooting and two district attorneys who oversaw the case prior to the GBI’s involvement.
In particular, federal authorities are expected to examine the impact of Gregory McMichael’s past employment in Brunswick Judicial Circuit Attorney General Jackie Johnson’s office and as a Glynn County police officer.
On Thursday, Dial testified that Gregory McMichael was armed with the same Smith and Wesson revolver that he carried as a police officer when he and his son pursued Arbery.
ATLANTA – Initial unemployment claims in Georgia are continuing to trend lower, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Jobless Georgians filed 149,163 unemployment claims last week, down more than 16,000 from the week before and the fourth decline during the last five weeks.
The labor department paid out $160.8 million in benefits last week, up $1.3 million from the previous week. Since March 21, when Georgia businesses began shutting down to discourage the spread of COVID-19, the state has distributed more an $1.3 billion in regular unemployment benefits.
The agency issued more than $51 million in benefits last week to self-employed Georgians, gig workers, independent contractors and laid off employees of churches and other nonprofits through the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
During the last 11 weeks, the job sector accounting for the most initial unemployment claims by far has been accommodation and food services, with 595,036 claims.
The health care and social assistance job sector is next with 275,476 claims, followed by retail trade with 268,879 claims.
The wave of approximately 2 million claims that have deluged the labor department during the last two months have forced the agency to divert some of its roughly 1,000 employees from their regular duties to process those claims, Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Wednesday. About 650 to 700 employees are working on those claims, he said.
Butler is citing the department’s unprecedented workload in asking the General Assembly to spare the agency from across-the-board budget cuts Gov. Brian Kemp has ordered to help the state government weather the loss of tax revenues brought on by the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.
