Amy Barnes provided the Courier with video footage and still photos of the peaceful demonstration in Marietta Sunday afternoon to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police (watch the video below).
Barnes wrote to the Courier:
Cobb County almost never has protests – today, hundreds of people showed up to protest in honor of George Floyd and to seek redress regarding racial disparities in treatment of citizens of color by the police and courts.
I participated in the march and rally to film and to protest charging and sentencing disparities between defendants of color and white defendants. Through my work as a criminal defense paralegal, it is shocking, saddening, and gut-wrenching what is happening to families across Cobb County and other Metro-area counties.
It is time for change, and today’s protest was part of the continuing effort to seek redress and lobby for changes to laws, policies, and judicial processes, and to demand changes to the roster of who fills the ranks in our police departments.
Several protesters reported to me that they felt fearful of police brutality, and the organizer afterwards announced that she had coordinated with the county police department to ensure that no violence would come upon the protesters, so long as the protest remained peaceful. There was no looting, no damage, no litter, and plenty of free expression.
Cobb County and Marietta police cordoned off roadways to accommodate the hundreds of people marching from the Cobb County Police Department headquarters to Marietta Square for a rally and then marching back to Cobb County Police Headquarters for a second rally before the protest ended.
Who is the group who organized this? Do they have a website? I’d like to join or do something to help move this forward in my community.
As an African American living in Georgia for a few years, I didn’t expect to meet white people who were still bold face racists. My white and black folks back home were stunned how here in the south many have that old southern racists thinking. My experiences with racism have been in the workplace in a school that here in Cobb county. I have seen black men harassed and fired like it ain’t nothing. Simply because they were highly educated men. In addition, the black staff wasn’t even greeted with a hello from the Head Educator who calls himself a Reverend at that. I believe in light of the protest between both black and white it’s turning on the light of a discussion to talk about race and aim for change. It was wonderful to see a police officer in Houston take lead of the protest and support it. Racism is a systematic issue being rooted out and exposed now, starting with bad police,good cops don’t deserve this deal that’s why they too need to expose it and or their partners who are, but we have to root it out also in the workplace, everyone should be accountable to become mandated reporters in the workplace when we see it and hear it. I worked at another school in doraville and listened to a video recording someone privately shared of the principal yelling at an African American employee in a tone as if she was a slave master.When I heard it, I said wow this is bad out here, these white people hide behind school facilities, courthouses, business firms and at-will laws to push their racist agenda. Thank God all white people are not racist, because many are outraged as well. When I was at the doraville school I personally did a great job changing the severe behavior of a 16 year okd white student no one could do anything with. But the principals white favorites became jealousy that I was able to turn the student around and they did not renew my contract. So we need to screen and address racism in the work place. Lastly, I will be addressing the At-will laws where an employer can terminate you for no reason here in Georgia. I work hard for what I get, and the thought a racist boss can justify firing me if he or she wants, it’s humiliating a law can contribute and allow what is really a discrimation racist process. Know one knows how far back the At-Will law is, but it is a racists tool we need to look at because it is a weapon to end people of color their jobs. One main besutuful thing I would like point out, this protest represents what America is supposed to be, both black, white,Hispanic, biracial. Asian, multiracial diverse group of people wanting justice. And that’s what is deserving toevery human being.
Are you marching tomorrow?
I would like to participate in the next protest rally for racial injustice. Please send me the date and time of the next march! Thank you.