The NAACP president, DeKalb County’s police chief, and a civil rights attorney in such major cases as the killings of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin will join an April 18 panel discussion on policing in communities of color.
The virtual “Operation Protection: PEACE (Police Engagement and Community Education)” discussion is organized by the Buckhead/Cascade City chapter of The Links, Incorporated, a national volunteer service organization, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE). The event aims “to promote understanding and reduce police violence impacting marginalized communities,” according to a press release.
Panelists will include: Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump; Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP; DeKalb Police Chief Mirtha V. Ramos; NOBLE president Lynda Williams; and Kimberly Jeffries Leonard, national president of The Links. The event will be moderated by Judge Kenya Johnson of Fulton County Probate Court.
Crump is a nationally prominent attorney who has represented the families of people killed in several cases that launched the Black Lives Matter protest movement, including Floyd, Martin and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Crump’s prominent clients also have included the family of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police in Kentucky last year, and of Ahmaud Arbery, whose killing in a vigilante-style confrontation near Brunswick, Georgia, last year led to a statewide hate crimes statute and reform of the state citizen’s arrest law.
The discussion is scheduled for 3-5 p.m. and will be held via Zoom. The discussion is free, but attendance will be limited. To register, click here.