In response to the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, NAACP Atlanta is calling for an investigation into the history of inequality in the criminal justice system in the Glynn and Waycross Georgia circuits that have demonstrated racial bias in the application of the law.

A variety of speakers supporting the investigations are calling for immediate action including:

 Atlanta 2nd VP Attorney Gerald Griggs

 Director Vic Reynolds, Georgia Bureau of Investigations

 District Attorney Joyette Holmes, Cobb County

 Rev. Timothy McDonald, Past President of Concerned Black Clergy

As the Coronavirus pandemic has focused national attention on income and health disparities among the races, so has the Ahmaud Arbery murder reignited the outcry over the long-standing pattern of unarmed black men being shot to death with impunity by law enforcement officials or rogue vigilantes.

Investigations of these judicial circuits will produce data that can guide lawmakers to take steps that will end this disparate treatment of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement officers and their copycats.

Ahmaud Arbery’s tragic death puts in him in a long line of recent high profile murders across the United States that include Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Walter Scott, executed by white policemen or vigilantes.

America has built a system of preferential treatment based on race and religion that infects the criminal justice system: Nationally, for every 100,000 African American more than 2,200 are incarcerated.