Kemp to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops after violent weekend
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Brian Kemp will deploy as many as 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops to protect state buildings in Atlanta on Monday following a burst of violence across the city that left four dead, including an 8-year-old girl, and saw the ransacking of the headquarters of the Georgia State Patrol.
Kemp, a Republican, issued the emergency order after threatening late Sunday to take action to curb the unrest in Atlanta if Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms failed to do so, a move that highlighted the complicated, and increasingly tense, relationship between two of the states most prominent politicians.
The National Guard troops will be dispatched to three locations in the city: The state Capitol, which has been the focus of protests over statues of segregationists and Civil War leaders; the Governors Mansion in Buckhead; and the recently vandalized Department of Public Safety building in southeast Atlanta.
Peaceful protests were hijacked by criminals with a dangerous, destructive agenda. Now, innocent Georgians are being targeted, shot, and left for dead, said Kemp. This lawlessness must be stopped and order restored in our capital city.
Read more: https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/kemp-deploy-000-national-guard-troops-after-violent-weekend/nuGXOOMNsj0zkkoO9GLNPL/
TomCADem
(17,390 posts)You know how armed counter-protesters have been showing up to BLM protests?
Well, that was apparently okay because they were white. However, when black protesters bring their own guns, then Governor Kemp declares a state of emergency.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-race-usa-stone-mountain/predominantly-black-armed-protesters-march-through-confederate-memorial-park-in-georgia-idUSKBN24605G
Video footage of the Independence Day rally posted on social media showed scores of demonstrators dressed in black - many in paramilitary-style clothing and all wearing face scarves - quietly parading several abreast down a sidewalk at the park.
Many of the protesters carried rifles, including military-type weapons, and some wore ammunition belts slung over their shoulders. Although African Americans appeared to account for the vast majority of the marchers, protesters of various races, men and women alike, were among the group.
One video clip showed a leader of the demonstrators, who was not identified, shouting into a loudspeaker in a challenge to white supremacists who historically have used Stone Mountain as a rallying spot of their own.