Coalition Wants Justice Department To Investigate Ahmaud Arbery’s Death As A Hate Crime
A national coalition that consists of civil and human rights organizations is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to open a full and thorough hate crimes investigation into the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, along with the NAACP and hundreds of other national and local organizations, recently submitted a letter to the DOJ outlining several reasons as to why they believe Gregory and Travis McMichael should face federal hate crime charges.
On Wednesday’s episode of “Closer Look,” Becky Monroe, the director for the Fighting Hate and Bias Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, told the show’s host, Rose Scott, that Arbery was targeted, stalked and killed because of his skin color.
“We think that the plain facts of this case that we’ve seen so far, you know, that the entire world has seen so far support opening an investigation,” said Monroe.
During the conversation, Monroe shared that the collective is also requesting an investigation into the three previous district attorney’s offices that were handling the case as well as the Glynn County Police Department, for what the collective calls systemic constitutional abuses.
“When someone is targeted for a hate crime, they are not targeting just one person,” explained Monroe. “They are trying to terrorize and target an entire community.”
Monroe also discussed a recent video that shows Arbery being chased for four minutes and her thoughts on systemic racism.
Guest:
Becky Monroe, the director for the Fighting Hate and Bias Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
To listen to the full conversion, please click the audio player above.
For a deeper exploration of Ahmaud Arbery’s story, listen to WABE’s podcast, “Buried Truths.” Hosted by journalist, professor, and Pulitzer-prize-winning author Hank Klibanoff, season three of “Buried Truths” explores the Arbery murder and its direct ties to racially motivated murders of the past in Georgia.