Civil Disobedience at the Georgia Capitol

Photo by Steve Eberhart

Last year Georgia lawmakers failed to expand Medicaid in our state, falsely claiming that Georgia couldn’t afford it. Over a year later the results have been disastrous. The four rural hospitals listed that Medicaid Expansion would have kept open have been forced to close their doors Charlton Memorial Hospital, Folkston Ga, Hancock Memorial Hospital, Sparta Ga, Lower Oconee Hospital, Glenwood Ga, Stewart Webster Hospital, Richland Ga. According to the Institute of Southern Studies almost 1,200 Georgians needlessly died in 2014 along because Medicaid was not expanded.

An estimated 650k regular everyday Georgians, like Athens resident Adam Lassila, could receive life saving preventative care with Medicaid Expansion. Adam, who will attend Monday's rally states, "I recently suffered a serious head injury. I was able to receive high quality health care without incurring thousands of dollars of debt only because I was lucky enough to hurt myself in Argentina, instead of my own state, whose stubborn and inhumane political ploys have thrust me into the horrible gap where the Medicaid expansion should be."

Photo by Jim Chambers

In an effort to curb the extreme forward motion toward a healthcare system that strongly resembles a third world nation, Moral Monday Georgia brought Georgians from around the state together Monday for a day of learning, lobbying, and bold direct action in the tradition of Kingian Nonviolence.

After a very spirited press conference inside the Georgia Capitol 12 Georgia residents, all part of the Moral Monday Georgia movement, went to their knees and blocked the south steps of the Capitol with a clear message, “Hospitals are closing, people are dying”. Sometimes we run out of words to say; we have made all the points there are to make; published all the reports about the healthcare crisis in Georgia.


Photo by Steve Eberhart

With Georgians who are loved and needed dying everyday and live saving hospitals shutting down we simply can’t afford to walk away from the fight to expand medicaid. Now is a time for bold drastic action. Monday’s arrestees ended up spending 17 hours in jail but in doing so forced the issue back into the spotlight in Georgia. We sincerely hope Georgians keep pushing; keep fighting; keep organizing for a state that puts real people before dogmatic politics.

We encourage those that can to contribute to the Georgia Civil Disobedience Fund to support bold actions like this.

Georgia Law Enforcement Reform Package Introduced

Yesterday American Friends Service Committee joined Senator Vincent Fort, The Moral Monday Georgia Movement, the Davis/Bozeman Law Firm, Georgia WAND, Georgia NAACP, and the Coalition for the Peoples Agenda to introduce the Georgia Law EnforcementReform Package.

 

We believe that all deserve to be treated equally in the eyes of the law. We are troubled that black and brown Georgians continue to experience police brutality, mass incarceration, racial profiling, and excessive police tactics at an alarmingly higher rate than white Georgians.

Just this past year in Habersham, Georgia law enforcement used a “No Knock” warrant to storm an innocent family’s dwelling and in the process tossed a concussion grenade into Baby Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh crib. This ended up almost claiming the baby’s life, blowing his face off.

In 2006 police used a “No Knock” warrant to break down the door of 92-yearold Atlanta resident Kathryn Jonhston and fired 39 shots at her, killing her. Later they planted drugs on her to justify the horrendous act.

Our communities don’t need urban tanks and other military equipment that are used to seeing in a war zone. We believe the mere presence and training that come with this unnecessary equipment makes our communities less safe and increases potential for human and civil rights violations. When we use military gear and vehicles in certain communities it makes those communities feel like they are under occupation, when we treat community members like war combatants we move farther away from the Beloved community Dr King spoke of and closer to the nightmare her preached about in 1967 when we articulated what he called the giant triplets of evil; Militarism, Racism, and Poverty.

 

This legislative session a broad Law Enforcement Reform Package is being introduced by a diverse group of Georgia law makers. We call on members of the Georgia House and Senate to pass all the bills. We believe this package will make Georgians safer, reduce the number of lawsuits for taxpayers, and reduce the amount of unnecessary equipment (like urban tanks) and the cost to taxpayers associated with them. Institutional racism and the troubling trend toward a militarized police state runs deep and will not be solved overnight; we believe these bills are a step in the right direction.

Below are the bills that make up the Georgia Law Enforcement Reform Package:

 

SB 45 (Fort, 39th) – “Bou Bou’s Law ”

This legislation would restrict no-knock warrants to situations where the affidavit or testimony supporting the warrant establishes by probable cause that if an officer were to knock and announce identity and purpose before entry, such act of knocking and announcing would likely pose a significant and imminent danger to human life or imminent danger of evidence being destroyed.

 

SB 46 (Fort, 39th) – Police Body Cameras

This legislation would require all police departments’ officers with wearable cameras by 2017.  It would also instruct the Department of Public Safety to create procedures for grants to small or underfunded police departments, subject to funding. 

 

SB 47 (Fort, 39th) – Hate Crimes

This legislation would increase criminal penalties for crimes committed against an individual intentionally selected because of such individual's race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or national origin.  Increased penalties would mimic the increased penalties for crimes against senior citizens. 

 

SB 48 (Fort, 39th) – No Guns for Violent Felons

Prohibit restoration of gun rights to convicted felons who had been convicted of violent crimes, sexual offenses, or crimes involving firearms

 

SB 49 (Fort, 39th) – Stand Your Ground Repeal

Repeal Georgia’s Stand Your Ground law

 

SB 50 (Fort, 39th) – Special Prosecutor for Police Cases

This legislation would require the appointment of a special prosecutor for cases when a police officer is the suspect

 

Pending Bills

*Police demilitarization

*Require police to report civilian deaths to GBI

 

 

The Moral Monday Georgia Movement will be mobilizing people from around the state to come together at the Capitol to support the Package, click here for details.

 

Please sign and share the online petition by clicking here.

Moral Monday Georgia Week of Action

Over the last month Moral Monday GA has traveled to 16 Georgia cities in an effort to build the movement Georgia needs to turn the tide against the extremist agenda that continues to negatively impact most Georgians.

While on the tour the shooting of unarmed Ferguson, MO youth Mike Brown took place and has forced the national to take a deep look in the mirror. Now more than ever our young black youth feel unsafe anywhere. The inequities in the criminal justice system have been front and center on Moral Monday Ga’s political platform. So we decided, along with an amazing group of young people who have organically self-organized Ferguson solidarity marches in Atlanta, to merge on these two movements together.

On Saturday August 23rd regular everyday people from all over the state joined us for a Moral March on the Capital. We came together for a massive Moral March on Georgia from Woodruff Park to our state Capitol. The Moral March on Georgia is part of a southern wide strategy to build power against the extreme, economically insane policies that have seen our wages decreased, taken our jobs, seen our homes foreclosed and rent skyrocketed, our children’s education defunded, young black males criminalized and targeted, and our communities less safe. Actions had been planned in 22 states.

Once at the capitol we presented our issue priorities and asked those in attendance to ratify a Moral platform by signing the huge document.

Forward Together means that all of our destinies are linked, that we can't afford to work in issue and organizational silos. Gay straight, black, white, brown, male, female, old, young and everyone in between. We can no longer afford to allow a small group of extremists benefit from separating our communities.

Moral Monday Georgia ended it's week of action today, which marks the 51st anniversary of the march on Washington. Like many other Moral Monday movements our them today was, "Vote your dreams not your fears". Fear mongering seems to be a pretty consistent strategy to separate communities that have a clear vested interest in learning to work together.

We can't afforded to allow the same small group of folks feed off our unfounded fears, we can't afford a political landscape that pressures folks into voting against their own interests, we can't afford a system that continues to benefit those that already have an over abundance of resources while the rest of the state falls behind.

Our Priorities

*Secure pro-labor, anti-poverty policies that ensure economic sustainability

*Provide a well-funded, quality public education for all

*Promote healthcare access and environmental sustainability

*Address continued inequalities in the criminal justice system

*Protect and expand voting rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights and the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law.