Georgia mayor faces scrutiny after ‘privilege’ Facebook post
Prosecutors brought murder charges Wednesday against the white Atlanta police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in the back, saying that Brooks was not a deadly threat and that the officer kicked the wounded black man and offered no medical treatment for over two minutes as he lay dying on the ground.
Brooks, 27, was holding a stun gun he had snatched from officers, and he fired it at them during the clash, but he was running away at the time and was 18 feet, 3 inches from Officer Garrett Rolfe when Rolfe started shooting, District Attorney Paul Howard said in announcing the charges. Stun guns have a range of around 15 feet.
“I got him!” the prosecutor quoted Rolfe as saying.
The felony murder charge against Rolfe, 27, carries life in prison or the death penalty, if prosecutors decide to seek it. He was also charged with 10 other offenses punishable by decades behind bars.
The decision to prosecute came less than five days after the killing outside a Wendy’s restaurant rocked a city — and a nation — already roiled by the death of George Floyd under a police officer’s knee in Minneapolis late last month.
“We’ve concluded at the time that Mr. Brooks was shot that he did not pose an immediate threat of death,” Howard said.
A second officer, Devin Brosnan, 26, stood on Brooks’ shoulder as he struggled for his life, Howard said. Brosnan was charged with aggravated assault and violating his oath.
The district attorney said Brosnan is cooperating with prosecutors and will testify, saying it was the first time in 40 such cases in which an officer
ATLANTA —
This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant, late Friday, June 12, in Atlanta. had come forward to do so. But an attorney turbulent protests over Floyd’s for Brosnan emphatically denied death had largely died down. Atlanta he had agreed to be a prosecution Police Chief Erika Shields resigned less witness and said he was not pleading than 24 hours after Brooks died, and guilty to anything. the Wendy’s restaurant was burned.
A lawyer for Brooks’ widow cautioned Rolfe was fired after the shooting, that the charges were no reason while Brosnan was placed on desk duty. to rejoice. Ahead of the district attorney’s announcement,
“We shouldn’t have to celebrate as Rolfe’s lawyers issued a African Americans when we get a piece statement saying the officer feared for of justice like today. We shouldn’t have his safety and that of others around to celebrate and parade when an officer him and was justified in shooting is held accountable,” attorney L. Brooks. Rolfe opened fire after hearing Chris Stewart said. a sound “like a gunshot and saw
Brooks’ widow, Tomika Miller, said a flash in front of him,” apparently it was painful to hear the new details from the stun gun. of what happened to her husband in “Mr. Brooks violently attacked two his final minutes. officers and disarmed one of them.
“I felt everything that he felt, just When Mr. Brooks turned and pointed by hearing what he went through, and an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer it hurt. It hurt really bad,” she said. would have reasonably believed that
The news came on a day of rapid developments he intended to disarm, disable or seriously involving race and equal injure him,” the lawyers said. justice. Republicans on Capitol Hill unveiled But the district attorney said the a package of police reform measures. stun gun that Brooks held had already And the movement to get rid of been fired twice and was thus empty Confederate monuments and other racially and no longer a threat. offensive symbols reached AmerBrosnan’s lawyer, Amanda Clark ica’s breakfast table, with the maker Palmer, said the charges against the of Aunt Jemima syrup and pancake officer were baseless. She said Brosnan mix dropping the 131-year-old brand. stood on the wounded man’s
Brooks’ killing Friday night sparked hand, not his shoulder, for a short new demonstrations in Georgia’s capital period of time — seconds — to make against police brutality after occasionally sure Brooks did not have a weapon.
Residents of a small city in Georgia expressed outrage Wednesday after a mayor posted what some say are disparaging and potentially racist message in a Facebook community group.
Bloomingdale Mayor Ben Rozier posted a message on the Gossip Bloomingdale GA Facebook group Tuesday alluding that being on government assistance was “privilege,” news outlets reported. Bloomingdale is Savannah suburb with a population of around 2,713 people.
Rozier wrote that privilege was having things such as sneakers, headphones and smartphones without paying for them.
He also wrote that privilege was “the ability to go march against, and protest against anything that triggers you, without worrying about calling out of work and consequences that accompany such behavior.”
Bloomingdale resident Hannah Minter said Rozier “used a bunch of racial stereotypes to completely deflect away from the matter at hand, which is white privilege,” WTOC-TV reported.
Minter said she was organizing a protest for the upcoming weekend.
The post never mentioned a specific race or skin color has since been deleted.
A Facebook post from the City of Bloomingdale’s page said they were aware of Rozier’s post.
“The City of Bloomingdale is a Municipal Corporation that is charged with the protection of the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens. This includes all citizens regardless of race, gender, color or creed.”
BLOOMINGDALE — US Marine killed in
parachute jump training at Ga. base
A U.S. Marine has died during a parachute training jump exercise at Fort Benning, the Army installation in Georgia, officials said Wednesday.
In a brief statement, U.S. Marine Forces Special Operations Command did not detail how the Marine died, saying the Tuesday incident is under investigation.
Four Defense Department officials told The Associated
Press that the service member was attending the Army’s Basic Airborne Course as a continuation of special operations training in the Marine Corps. The officials discussed the incident on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
“Our sincere thoughts are with the family during this difficult time,” the statement said, adding the military “is providing care and support to them as they grieve this tremendous loss.”
Megachurch pastor apologizes for ‘white blessing’ comments ATLANTA —
A white pastor for an Atlanta megachurch has tearfully apologized for referring to the “blessing of slavery” and for suggesting that the phrase “white privilege” could be better understood as a “white blessing.”
Louie Giglio, the founder of Passion City Church and related Christian conferences, made the comments in a recorded conversation with Christian hip-hop artist Lecrae Moore and Dan Cathy, the CEO of fastfood chain Chick-fil-a, who is also an evangelical Christian.
The three men sat down for a panel discussion on race in America that was streamed online Sunday amid nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, just two days after Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by Atlanta police during an altercation at a Wendy’s drive-thru.
At one point during the hour-long discussion, Giglio suggested that people who may be reluctant to accept the term “white privilege” might better understand the idea if it’s called a “white blessing.”
“We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do, and we say ‘that was bad,’ but we miss the blessing of slavery, that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people lived in and live in. And so a lot of people call this white privilege,” Giglio said to the panelists.
The pastor later added: “Maybe, a great thing for me, is to call it ‘white blessing.’”
The online backlash was swift, and Giglio apologized in a video message posted to Twitter on Tuesday, his voice audibly shaking as he called it a “horrible choice of words.”