27 June 202022 December 2022 4WardEverUK

After Ahmaud Arbery’s killing, Georgia Governor signs hate crimes legislation

source: NPR News
published: 26 June 2020

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday signed a hate crimes bill into law. The killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man shot dead while jogging in February, drew nationwide attention and energized efforts to pass this law.

Ahead of the signing on Friday, Kemp called House Bill 426 a “silver lining” amid difficult and stormy times.

“There are plenty of disagreements and division, but today we stand together as Republicans and Democrats, Black and white, male and female … to affirm a simple but powerful motto, Georgia is a state too great to hate,” Kemp said.

13 June 202022 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Race protests turn spotlight on rights of indigenous Australians

source: Guam Daily Post
published: 12 June 2020

“I can’t breathe, please don’t! Let me up, please! Help please! I can’t breathe!” The last words not of George Floyd, but of Aboriginal man David Dungay Jr. as he laying dying on the floor of his jail cell in Australia, a case strikingly similar to the one that has sparked mass protests against racial injustice.

The death of 26-year-old Dungay in 2015 garnered relatively little attention in Australia, where indigenous people account for a disproportionate number of prisoners and rank near the bottom on economic and social indicators.

But the reaction to Floyd’s death in Minneapolis has inspired protests in every major city in the country, prompting some indigenous Australians to question why it took an American incident to turn the spotlight on their plight.

11 June 202022 December 2022 4WardEverUK

US must take ‘serious action’ to halt police killings says UN chief

source: UN News
published: 28 May 2020

The UN human rights chief on Thursday condemned the killing of 46-year-old George Floyd while in police custody in the city of Minneapolis, calling it the latest in “a long line of killings of unarmed African Americans by US police officers and members of the public”.

“I am dismayed to have to add George Floyd’s name to that of Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and many other unarmed African Americans who have died over the years at the hands of the police – as well as people such as Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin who were killed by armed members of the public”, said High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, in statement.