Activists demand end to death penalty

Activists, mostly identified with the Occupy Atlanta movement, responded to a call by the International Action Center and the Campaign to End the Death Penalty for a Dec. 9 evening march and rally at the State Capitol.

Entitled “We the People Honor Troy Davis! Free Mumia!” the protest began in the central park that has been renamed Troy Davis Park by activists and went to the streets, taking two lanes of Peachtree Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive without police interference. The marchers carried a casket with the words “Bury the Death Penalty” on it and illuminated their protest with glow sticks. Rally speakers heralded the recent decision by Pennsylvania authorities to end their attempt to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal but denounced his continued incarceration after being on death row for almost three decades for a police killing he did not commit.

The criminal lynching of Troy Davis by the state of Georgia on Sept. 21 motivated the crowd to vow to campaign to end the racist death penalty. The protest returned to the streets after the rally with chants of “We are Troy Davis!” and “Brick by Brick, Wall by Wall, Free Mumia, Free them All!” reverberating in the night air.

A short time later, a “noise demonstration” was held in front of the Atlanta Detention Center to show solidarity with the jailed members of the 99 percent and to mark the first anniversary of the historic Georgia prisoners work stoppage that encompassed multiple facilities across the state.

On Dec. 9, 2010, organized largely through cell phones, thousands of prisoners refused to leave their cells. Rather than meet the just demands for an end to guard brutality, decent food, medical care, and fair and equal treatment, the Georgia authorities beat and transferred the leaders to other prisons. In recent weeks, there have been reports of renewed prisoner organizing and unrest at several state institutions. The largely youthful crowd beat drums, played boomboxes, chanted and blew whistles in a cacophony of noisy solidarity.