Moving away from the coronavirus for a moment, the Democratic mayor of Atlanta has called the death of Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed by two white men in February, a “lynching”.
Keisha Lance Bottoms also accused Donald Trump of inciting overt acts of racism.
Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union, the rising star within the Democratic party said the killing of Arbery, 25, was “heartbreaking”.
Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael were charged with murder and aggravated assault on Thursday after video of a confrontation with an unarmed Arbery, who was African American, was made public.
Asked if the former county police officer and his son would have been charged had the video not been posted online, Bottoms said: “Had we not seen that video I don’t think they would have been charged.”
She added: “It’s 2020 and this was a lynching of an African American man.”
The Guardian has disclosed that police in Glynn county, Georgia, where Arbery was killed while jogging in a quiet suburban street, failed to conduct a thorough investigation.
The idea that the incident was a lynching has also been expressed by the dead man’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr, in an interview with the Guardian.
Bottoms is an increasingly prominent voice in Georgia. As the black mayor of the state’s largest city, she has been talked about as a possible vice-presidential candidate for Joe Biden.
On Sunday she was sharply critical of Trump and the US justice department.
“With the rhetoric we hearing coming out of the White House in so many ways, I think that many who are prone to being racist are given permission to do it in an overt way we otherwise would not see in 2020,” she said.
Where local police forced fail to take action against alleged racial killings, she said, there used to be the justice department as a “backstop”, ensuring appropriate prosecutions.
“We don’t have that leadership at the top right now. It’s disheartening.”
Trump has commented on Arbery’s death, telling Fox News: “My heart goes out to the parents and the family and friends.”
“Justice getting done is the thing that solves that problem,” the president added.
On Sunday, Bottoms talked about her four children, three of whom are boys.
“They are angry and afraid,” she said. “It speaks to the need to have leadership at the top that cares about all our communities, not just in words but in deeds as well.”
