ATLANTA — An Atlanta activist is calling attention to additional cases of police officers accused of crimes, and pointing to additional possible victims of police crimes. These are not just the current cases in the headlines now, such as the case of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Civil rights activist and attorney Gerald Griggs insists the big picture in Atlanta alone is sobering, even as Atlanta’s police chief has been vowing to do better.
On Thursday, Griggs posted two videos online, in which he personally described an eye-opening meeting with Fulton County’s top prosecutor, District Attorney Paul Howard.
Griggs said he and Howard talked about what Griggs calls cases of “police brutality” in the county— cases that he said should help explain to everyone the increasing urgency of the protests and the demands for police reforms.
“We need to shine this light here in Atlanta, Georgia,” Griggs said. “This continues to be a reoccurring issue in the city and the county.
"We need answers," he added.
RELATED: 2 more Atlanta police officers fired after college student tasing incident caught on camera
According to the file Griggs said Howard gave him, there are currently 32 police officers facing criminal prosecution in Fulton County. At least 13 of those officers were involved in seven fatal shooting cases, going back four years.
“We’ve got a serious, police brutality problem in the City of Atlanta, we’ve got a serious, police brutality problem in the state of Georgia, and a serious, police brutality problem in Fulton County,” Griggs said.
According to the file Griggs has, there is a total of 17 possibly-criminal cases still pending.
The file shows that seven cases are ready for presentation to the Grand Jury, waiting for the courts to reopen from the pandemic. Investigations of nine more cases are expected to be complete later this year, or next year.
And the district attorney is now deciding whether to move ahead with prosecution of one of the cases, or dismiss it.
Griggs said he will now look at every single county in the state, to find out how many criminal cases involving police officers there are, and what is happening with them.
“My hope is this will be an era of transparency and accountability because of the awareness that has been raised by the George Floyd case," he said. "But there are so many other names, that we have to say their names.”
11Alive News is working to reach D.A. Paul Howard to discuss, directly with him, his investigations of police officers.
OTHER HEADLINES