Kemp backs bid to alter Ga. citizen’s arrest law
ATLANTA — Georgia’s governor is backing a plan to overhaul the state’s citizen’s arrest law, taking aim at a statute scrutinized last year after white men fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man they claimed had committed a crime.
Since 1863, Georgia’s written law has allowed a private citizen to make an arrest if a crime is committed in the person’s presence “or within their immediate knowledge.”
Advocates say the law is steeped in racism and slavery.
Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday that he wants to end the citizen’s arrest practice. Kemp’s plan would let security guards, store employees and restaurant employees hold alleged wrongdoers for up to an hour until law enforcement arrives.
Kemp, a Republican, said the February 2020 killing of Arbery near Brunswick shows that the law needs to change.
One prosecutor who examined the case ruled that there wasn’t probable cause to arrest Travis McMichael and Greg McMichael, later charged with murder in Arbery’s shooting death, because the McMichaels believed Arbery had committed a crime and were attempting a citizen’s arrest. Prosecutors say Arbery was jogging when the McMichaels pursued him.
“Some tried to justify the actions of the killers by claiming they had protection under an antiquated law that is ripe for abuse,” Kemp said. “That is why today my administration is introducing significant reforms to our state citizen’s arrest statute to close dangerous loopholes that could be used to justify future acts of vigilantism.”
A number of Democrats, the Georgia NAACP and Southern Center for Human Rights support the plan.