'It was a modern-day lynching,' said Garnell Whitfield Jr.
As they sat in the lobby of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington, D.C., last month, Garnell Whitfield Jr. and others who have lost relatives nationwide toGarland spoke of some of the victims on the new "Faces of Gun Violence Memorial" wall, including Whitfield's 86-year-old mother, Ruth, describing her as a "mother, grandmother and great grandmother whose door and pantry were always open to family and friends.
An ABC News analysis of the most recent FBI data shows that of the more than 8,500 hate crimes reported nationwide between 2020 and 2022, Black people were targeted in 52.3% of the offenses. Between 2021 and 2022, the numbers rose from 2,217 to 3,421, making Black people four times more likely to be targeted than the overall U.S. non-Hispanic Black population.
"Honestly, we shouldn't even have to look at the FBI statistics to know that Black people in America are still victims of subjugation, of discrimination, of racism, of hate," Whitfield told ABC News. "The fact that's still the case all these years later tells you a lot about this country and what its intent is for us.
Browne-Marshall said prosecutors in such high-profile cases as Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who was chased down and killed by three white vigilantes in 2020 near Brunswick, Georgia, initially balked at pursuing charges until widespread protests forced them to take action."Without protest, the prosecutors are sitting back and allowing these cases to be put under the rug," Browne-Marshall said.
"Racially-motivated acts of violence are abhorrent and unlawful, and have no place in our society today," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said earlier this month after a 52-year-old North Carolina man was sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release for an unprovoked attack on a Black motorist he shouted racial slurs at and physically assaulted.
Garnell Whitfield and Browne-Marshall argued that the Emmett Till Antilynching law should be expanded to include racially motivated mass shootings. "We take our responsibility to protect our community extremely seriously, and trust and safety is a major area of investment," Twitch said in its statement in response to the lawsuit, adding it was continuously examining the Buffalo shooting and "sharing those learnings with our peers in the industry to support a safer internet overall."
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