Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp
Brian KempPerdue files the paperwork to explore 2022 in the Senate Georgia’s GOP seeks to tighten voting rules after a wave of losses Georgian officials open inquiry into Trump’s efforts to overturn election results (R) announced legislation to revoke the Civil War-era citizen prison status almost a year after the law drew immense scrutiny after the assassination of Ahmaud Arbery.
Kemp’s office said the bill, which will be passed by state deputy Bert Reeves (R), will revise the current state prison law for citizens to help eliminate “any potential legal loopholes that could be used to justify the vigilantism “.
Currently, a “private person can arrest an offender if the crime is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge,” says the law.
“If the crime is a crime and the offender is on the run or trying to escape, a private individual can arrest him based on reasonable and likely grounds for suspicion,” he continues.
According to Kemp’s proposal, similar rights would extend only to security officers, private investigators, business owners and their employees, as well as weight inspectors in specific cases.
A section of the bill would allow business owners and their employees to arrest offenders who the owner or employee is likely to have reason to believe is stealing company property.
This same section also includes provisions that allow restaurant owners and their employees to arrest offenders who they have a probable cause to believe they are trying to “eat and run”, another allowing weight inspectors to detain individuals when necessary “in the performance of their duties. “and one that allows licensed private security officers and private investigators to detain someone” when carrying out their duties in the conduct of their business “.
Kemp’s office said the bill would allow law enforcement officers the right to make arrests outside their respective jurisdictions in the event that an offense is committed in the presence of the officer or of immediate knowledge, the officer is in “pursuit” of a criminal or when the police officer is assisting police officers in another jurisdiction.
The bill also includes a clause that prohibits “the use of force that could cause death or serious bodily harm to detain someone under this Section of the Code, unless the arrest is to protect yourself, others, the someone’s home or to prevent forced crime “the office declared.
The announcement came about a year after prosecutors originally cited the current state prison law as a reason not to accuse two white men, father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, for the murder of Arbery, a black man, of according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Arbery was 25 when he was shot dead in February in Brunswick after a confrontation with the McMichaels. The father and son were following Arbery, whose family said he was running and unarmed at the time, in his truck after claiming he was a suspect in theft.
The McMichael’s were arrested in May, almost three months after the fatal shooting, after the footage of the incident went viral online. Since then, the two have been charged with murder and aggravated assault.
Kemp called the murder “horrible” in a statement obtained by local media on Tuesday, saying that Arbery “was the victim of [a] vigilant style of violence that has no place in Georgia. “
He said that his proposal to revise the state’s arrest law would help “prevent the dire consequences of a vague and outdated law” and added that the legislation has “broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly, our law enforcement community and between civil rights advocacy groups. “
“As leaders of state, we owe it to our children to eradicate injustice wherever it is found and to leave this state better than we find it. I believe that Republicans and Democrats can face the challenge again, put aside party politics and support a balanced approach to reforming Georgia’s prison law for citizens, ”he added.