Crime & Safety
Thousands March In Atlanta's Protest: Community, Students Respond
Thousands marched from Liberty Plaza to Centennial Olympic Park Sunday to protest police brutality.
ATLANTA, GA — Tatiana Tate and her sister Chantellee Bruce were among thousands in Atlanta Sunday evening protesting against police brutality. Bruce, 30, has a three-year-old son. The count of unarmed black bodies being killed is personal for her, she said.
“I'm just terrified," Bruce said. "And that's why I’m out here, because if I don't fight now, he becomes a threat. Once he turns around 12, he's a threat and I’m not for that at all.”
She was joined by her sister, 19, who is a student at CUNY York College in New York. Tate travels back and forth to Atlanta, where her sister lives. They’re both originally from New York City.
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Both sisters said Sunday wasn’t their first protest. They’ve been doing this since the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.
The recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in coastal Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., and George Floyd in Minnesota brought them out again.
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“My foot is callused from marching,” Tate said. “My tears have dried up from crying. I'm tired of it.”
“It's time for a revolution,” Bruce said, adding that there’s not just one solution.
“We got to hit it from every angle, whether it be political or economical,” she said. “White supremacy has been going for too long.
“War is war," Bruce said. "Right now we’re in wartime, so I'm ready for whatever.”
What started as a peaceful group of 200 quickly grew to thousands of protesters on Sunday afternoon who demonstrated well into the evening. A news conference organized by the Georgia NAACP and the JUSTGeorgia Coalition met at Liberty Plaza to list their demands and share their call to action. They are using the #WeAreDoneDying hashtag.
The day before, two students from Spelman College and Morehouse College were captured on camera being surrounded by Atlanta police right before they were tased and pulled out of their vehicle.
The students from Saturday night's incident have been identified as Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim. The Georgia NAACP was notified by family and others of what transpired and have worked to help. A GoFundMe account was established for their bail money and as of 3 p.m. Sunday had reached over $70,000.
“We immediately acted because our first priority is to protect our people,” said James Woodall, state president of the NAACP chapter.
Organizers of the news conference said it wasn’t clear why the students’ car was targeted, but that what happened next shouldn’t have happened.
The two Atlanta police officers who are seen in the video using force to arrest the students were fired. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the officers’ termination on Sunday.
“Sometime during the night, I saw a very disturbing video of two young college students who were in downtown Atlanta yesterday evening,” Bottoms said. “Our officers are working very long hours, [and] are under a very high amount of stress, but the use of force is never acceptable.”
She said a total of five officers were involved in the incident, but after reviewing the video, it was decided that two would be fired and the other three placed on desk duty. The officers who were fired have been identified as Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner, who were both members of APD’s fugitive unit, said Atlanta police.
'Being Ourselves Is Getting Us Killed'
Myles Holland is a 2020 Morehouse College graduate. He said he was speechless when he heard about his classmate.
“I didn’t think it was real and then how it was caught on video. It was so crazy," Holland said. "I still can't believe it. Like they weren't doing anything.”
He said as a black man in America, he has always been concerned about his safety, but lately he’s been aware of his surroundings “more than ever.”
Seeing what happened to George Floyd has made him do even more reflecting on what it means to be black in this country.
“He didn't resist, he complied, and they still did what they did, so what am I going to tell my son, what am I going to tell my daughter?" Holland said. "Just being ourselves is getting us killed.”
His friend, another spring Morehouse graduate, said community policing is needed because the police don’t know or understand the neighborhood.
“When we got these white cops coming in and out of these unfamiliar spaces, they see everything as a threat,” said Kari Griffin.
Both men said that they feel the black man is perceived as a threat “for doing the bare minimum, just walking, just breathing.”
Legal Reforms Are Needed
Tiffany Roberts, the Community Engagement & Movement Building Counsel for the Southern Center for Human Rights, is also a member of JUSTGeorgia. Roberts said JUSTGeorgia is seeking justice in the wake of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
Arbery was chased down and fatally shot while jogging through his Satilla Shores neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, on Feb. 23. Retired police detective Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, were arrested May 7 by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, two days after the agency took over the case from local authorities.
“We're asking for holistic reforms and social transformation that decriminalize black people in this country," Roberts said. "We're not stopping at a verdict.”
The change that African Americans want to see will come through legal reforms, she said.
“We understand that this is one case, but in order to ensure that there are no more Mr. Arberys, we're seeking policy reforms,” Roberts said. “We want to support movement infrastructure in Georgia cities all over, not just Atlanta, to ensure that they can advocate for the change that they're seeking.”
The organization seeks to repeal the state’s Citizen's Arrest Statute, which has allowed Georgians to arrest one another since the Civil War era in 1863. A prosecutor cited the law to justify the killing of Arbery.
“We don't need it,” Roberts said. “Black people don't get to use it. There are other laws that protect people from criminal activity. This instance, the arrest statute, is not necessary. It's archaic.”
They also want to block the governor’s proposed gang legislation, HB994.
Roberts encourages people to join the fight.
“If you fight in the legislature, fight that way,” she said. “If you fight at the ballot box, fight that way. If you fight in your local city council, your local commissions, fight that way.
“We're trying to provide many interest points for people to engage in this work," Roberts said, "with the understanding that any law that criminalizes black people makes it easier to make an Ahmaud Arbery tragedy.”
Protesters began at Liberty Plaza then marched to Atlantic Station and to Centennial Olympic Park. "Hands up! Don't shoot!" was shouted as thousands marched down major streets. "Black lives matter, we matter!" they chanted. "Say their name! George Floyd! Say their name! Breonna Taylor!"
People could be seen from their balconies waving, clapping and banging pots as protesters marched by.
"What do we want? Justice, now!"
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