OAN’s Taylor Tinsley
5:00 PM – Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Several protesters are demanding that Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz steps down amid fear over public safety following the recent murder of Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley.
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Girtz (D-Ga.) held a press conference over community safety initiatives on Wednesday.
The presser came a week after 22-year-old Laken Riley was allegedly attacked and killed by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, identified as Jose Antonio Ibarra, on the University of Georgia campus.
The mayor was quickly met by shouts from protesters after trying to dismiss the idea of Athens being a sanctuary city.
“That term means different things to different people depending on the context of the discussion,” Girtz said.
“LIAR,” a protester shouted.
Aside from calling for Girtz’s resignation, protesters also want him and the city council to reverse policies that protect immigrants, saying Riley’s “blood is on their hands.”
Girtz said that Georgia law doesn’t allow sanctuary cities.
Reporters brought up how Girtz signed a resolution passed in 2019, in “Support of Athens Immigrant, Undocumented, and Latin-X community.”
It stated that the “local government is welcoming people from all lands and backgrounds and strives to foster a community where individuals of all statuses feel safe.”
“We center our work here in Athens-Clarke County on people’s humanity and part of everybody’s humanity is the expectation of human dignity,” Girtz said. “While 2019 was not that long ago, you might remember the dynamic we were living in, in the late teens in this country where you had the president of the United States speaking in the most vile terms about people who were foreign born,” he said. “And you had that notion metastasizing in places like Charlottesville –“
“This is an invasion – oh please,” protesters interrupted.
Reporters later asked if Girtz thinks he or community officials owe Riley’s family an apology for allowing her alleged killer and multiple other illegal immigrants to live in an apartment near the campus.
In response, Girtz said “the responsibility for this crime rests solely upon the perpetrator.”
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