Footage from Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan shows the officers approaching Rayshard Brooks in his car, which was parked in a Wendy’s drive-in lane, and asking him to move it. They question him and make him take a breathalyser test. The officers then attempt to arrest and handcuff Brooks, leading to a scuffle, which culminates in his shooting. The interaction lasted about 45 minutes. The footage in this video has been edited for length
Continue reading...Category Archives: Georgia
Rayshard Brooks: protesters set fire to Wendy’s after black man shot dead by police – video report
Demonstrators set fire to a fast food restaurant in Atlanta on Saturday where Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot dead by a police officer the previous night. Police were called to the restaurant over reports that he had fallen asleep in the drive-through line.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, said Brooks failed a field sobriety test and then resisted officers' attempts to arrest him.
George Floyd: large procession of mourners expected to follow private Texas funeral – live
- Biden says ‘Now is the time for racial justice’ in remotely delivered message at memorial
- Trump accused of ‘trafficking in conspiracy theories’
- Trump says campaign rallies may resume ‘next week’
- US protesters attacked by cars driven into crowds and men with guns
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The Guardian’s Vivan Ho reports from Houston, Texas:
Supporters of George Floyd stood outside the church in the punishing Houston humidity, waiting for the procession to Floyd’s final resting place.
Joe Biden expressed support for the Buffalo protester who was shoved to the ground by police officers, after Trump suggested the 75-year-old man might be an Antifa plant.
My Dad used to say there's no greater sin than the abuse of power.
Whether it's an officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending him with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV.
I'm a Catholic – just like Martin. Our faith says that we can't accept either.
Related: Trump makes baseless claim about man, 75, shoved by police: ‘Could be a set-up?’
Continue reading...Georgia primary blighted by long lines and broken voting machines
Equipment malfunctions and long waits to vote despite the state having encouraged people to vote by mail
Georgia voters immediately encountered hours-long lines and equipment malfunctions as they showed up to vote in person in the state’s primary races on Tuesday. Today is the latest high-stakes test of whether a state can hold an election during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tuesday also marked the first time Georgia was using new voting equipment, and voters reported malfunctions on Tuesday morning. The Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, tweeted that at some precincts no machines were working.
Continue reading...Ahmaud Arbery attacker used racial slur after shooting jogger, court hears
- Georgia state investigator makes claim in murder case
- Travis and Greg McMichael and William ‘Roddie’ Bryan charged
A state investigator in Georgia on Thursday alleged that the white man accused of killing jogger Ahmaud Arbery was heard saying a racial slur as he stood over the mortally wounded man, moments after hitting him with three shots from a pump-action shotgun.
Related: FBI investigating Ahmaud Arbery shooting as possible hate crime, lawyer says
Continue reading...George Floyd: protesters and police clash in cities across US – live
- Protests rock US cities as anger over killing spreads
- Unrest comes to the White House
- Trump threatens protesters with ‘vicious dogs’
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The Guardian’s Ankita Rao, reporting from New York, on the mayor’s controversial late-night statements:
Mayor Bill de Blasio took to the podium on Saturday night to tell protestors across the city that they were “heard, loud and clear”.
I’m in Brooklyn to talk about tonight’s protests. https://t.co/oBVXGh7JWo
US prosecutors have filed federal charges against three people in New York, accusing them of using “molotov cocktails” on New York police vehicles during the Friday protests:
BREAKING: Three people charged with federal crimes in connection with Molotov cocktail attacks on the NYPD during #GeorgeFloyd protests in NYC Friday night. pic.twitter.com/dyaDJByMit
Continue reading...Police fail in attempt to tase Ahmaud Arbery during 2017 incident – video
Police attempted to use a Taser on Ahmaud Arbery, the slain Georgia jogger, after questioning why he was sitting alone in his car in a park one morning in November 2017, according to records and a police video obtained by the Guardian.
The video comes to light as law enforcement in the area faces scrutiny after Arbery was shot dead by two white men while out for a run in February. Police did not initially arrest Gregory and Travis McMichael, who chased down and killed the unarmed Arbery, and a prosecutor assigned to the case wrote a lengthy memo explaining why the killing was legally justified.
In a joint statement to the Guardian, lawyers working for the Arbery family described the video as a clear depiction of 'a situation where Ahmaud was harassed by Glynn county police officers'.
Continue reading...Police tried to tase Ahmaud Arbery in 2017 incident, video shows
- Officers questioned why Arbery was sitting alone in his car in a park one morning in November 2017
- Family lawyers say video shows Ahmaud ‘harassed by police’
Police attempted to use a Taser on Ahmaud Arbery, the slain Georgia jogger, after questioning why he was sitting alone in his car in a park one morning in November 2017, according to records and a police video obtained by the Guardian.
Related: Ahmaud Arbery: new focus on district attorney’s flawed prosecutions of black women
Continue reading...Ahmaud Arbery: new focus on district attorney’s flawed prosecutions of black women
- George Barnhill eventually recused himself from Arbery case
- Prosecutions include woman wrongfully imprisoned for murder
The local prosecutor who argued two white men were legally justified in chasing down and killing Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man, has been at the center of aggressive and flawed prosecutions of at least two black women in recent years.
One of the women was wrongfully imprisoned for over a decade on a murder conviction secured by later discredited forensic evidence, and another woman was unsuccessfully tried twice for helping people vote.
Continue reading...‘A great embarrassment’: records offer insight into Ahmaud Arbery suspect
Gregory McMichael lost his power of arrest in 2006 after failing to complete sufficient basic law enforcement training
Gregory McMichael, the white retired law enforcement officer who helped chase down and kill Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African American man, failed to complete sufficient basic law enforcement training for years, a deficiency that led to him losing his power of arrest.
McMichael, who worked as an investigator in the Brunswick judicial circuit district attorney’s office from 1995 to 2019, lost his power of arrest in January 2006 for failing to complete the required 20 hours of training the previous year, according to personnel records obtained by the Guardian.
Continue reading...‘They lynched him’: Ahmaud Arbery’s father on the killing of his son
Marcus Arbery Sr says Ahmaud’s death at the hands of two white men, while he was out for a run, was an act of racism
Marcus Arbery Sr says his son was just like him, fit and athletic.
Related: ‘Every stone will be uncovered’: how Georgia officials failed the Ahmaud Arbery case
Continue reading...Ahmaud Arbery: former police officer and son charged in shooting of black man
Gregory and Travis McMichael confronted Arbery with two firearms as the 25 year old was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia
A white father and son have been arrested over the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old black man who was shot while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood and whose case has sparked a national outcry.
In a statement released Thursday evening, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said that Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, had been arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault.
Continue reading...Georgia to consider charges in killing of unarmed black jogger as video emerges
Prosecutors were reluctant to charge former police officer and son in shooting of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery
A prosecutor in Georgia said on Tuesday he would ask a grand jury to decide if charges should be filed against a white former law enforcement officer and his son in the fatal shooting of an unarmed young black man as he ran through a small town.
The shooting of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery outside Brunswick, Georgia, in February was captured on videotape and posted on social media on Tuesday, stirring outrage over the reluctance of prosecutors to file charges against Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis.
Continue reading...Storms tear through US south, leaving at least 19 people dead
Storms caused flooding, mudslides and power outages, killing 11 people in Mississippi and six people in Georgia
Severe weather has swept across the southern US, killing at least 19 people and damaging hundreds of homes from Louisiana into the Appalachian mountains.
Many spent part of the night sheltering in basements, closets and bathtubs as sirens wailed to warn of possible tornadoes.
Continue reading...‘A perfect storm’: poverty and race add to Covid-19 toll in US deep south
Whole families are falling victim as African Americans are hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus pandemic
Last weekend, at two churches in New Orleans, two pastors read from separate passages of the Bible as they buried four members of the same family. Each had died within days of each other after contracting the novel coronavirus.
Related: 'A nightmare all over again': after surviving Katrina, New Orleans battles Covid-19
Continue reading...The underpaid Georgian workers who risk their lives for your Christmas tree
In Georgia’s northern mountains, workers scale daunting heights in search of the pine cones seeds that produce Europe’s favourite Christmas tree. But while foreign importers line their pockets, the climbers hazard all for a pittance
It takes Ramaz Chelishvili just a few seconds to reach the top. Soon, a pine cone falls to the ground. Then another. One by one, cones keep dropping, until none are left in the tree. Chelishvili, as fast as he climbed up, gets back down.
“I try to not think of anything up there, just focus. The problem is, if you lose concentration, then you might fall,” he says.
Continue reading...Man who slapped female reporter’s bottom on live TV arrested
- Incident was broadcast during Savannah running event
- Reporter Alex Bozarjian felt ‘violated, objectified’ by slap
A Georgia man who was videotaped slapping a female reporter’s bottom on live TV was arrested on Friday on a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery.
Related: Los Angeles police officer charged with groping dead woman's breast
Continue reading...Students fear for safety after swastika drawings found at two Georgia universities
Symbols at University of Georgia and Georgia College & State University fuel renewed calls for hate crimes law
Swastika symbols on two Georgia university campuses have students and parents on edge.
Swastikas were drawn on message boards recently in Creswell and Russell halls at the University of Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Continue reading...‘Trump relies on voter suppression’: Stacey Abrams on her fight for voting rights – video
After losing the race for Georgia governor in 2018, Stacey Abrams will lead a nationwide voting rights campaign. Her goal is to export lessons she learned fighting voter suppression in Georgia, and to mobilize a base of progressives and marginalized communities to help Democrats win the White House in 2020
Continue reading...‘Everything is destroyed’: devastation in Bahamas as Dorian rattles US
- Aid groups struggle to deliver basic supplies due to destruction
- Category 2 storm with winds of 110mph threatens US coastline
After hammering the Bahamas and leaving at least 30 dead, Hurricane Dorian began raking the south-east US seaboard, with the eye hitting the North Carolina coast on Thursday evening.
The threat to the US remains real but in the Bahamas the storm has left such terrible devastation that the authorities were still struggling to get aid to stricken areas and the death toll is expected to rise, perhaps steeply.
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