Stacey Abrams’ comments during the debate that they are “good ole boys” who target African Americans infuriated Georgia sheriffs who are backing Gov. Brian Kemp, R. They believe the media’s demonization of law enforcement was a factor in her remarks.
I’m not a member of the good ole boys club,’ Abrams, the Democrat running against Kemp for governor, responded to Kemp’s Sunday night boasting of his sheriff endorsements. Therefore, I do not have 107 sheriffs who desire the opportunity to remove Black people from the streets and to escape accountability.
The second elected female sheriff in the history of northeastern Georgia, Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum, told Fox News Digital that she thought the remarks to be “disgusting” and evidence that Abrams didn’t care about law enforcement.
I don’t care what color your skin is because I’m a sheriff. We swear to protect and serve the people of Georgia and to uphold its laws, she said. We carry out that every day, you see. It was disrespectful to the Georgia sheriffs who are standing by him and to all members of law enforcement. I’ve worked in this field for 36 years, and throughout that time I have never done anything to bring my badge into disrepute. My fellow sheriffs are fine people, and they are standing by him. And when I heard it, I was just a little appalled. I don’t even know what to say; it’s just terrible. It’s just completely incorrect.
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Sheriff Jud Smith of nearby Barrow County concurred with Mangum, calling the statement a “slap in the face” to Georgia voters who supported the sheriffs in their localities as well as to every officer in his department, regardless of race.
He said, “Her remarks were abhorrent and revolting, and it just goes to show you that her camp, her staff are denigrating law enforcement.” It’s not simply a jab at sheriffs, either. Whether they back her or not, it’s a jab at every law enforcement official in the state. At this point, I believe she is simply reaching for anything to say.
Her remark about “good ole guys” particularly disturbed him since, in his opinion, it effectively portrayed police as White supremacists.
Mangum, who is in her 10th year as sheriff, claimed that the media climate had effectively “demoralized the law enforcement profession.” She described herself as humble and honored to be in the position and claimed that in her 36 years as a dispatcher, she had never witnessed such negativity in the media.
When those who want to defund the police cry for assistance, we will run to that danger. We’ll sprint over there. Mangum remarked, “We’re not going to hide from that. “I do feel that our sometimes the media gives us such a poor rap, and we come to work every day trying to perform our job to the best of our ability,” one of our people said. “Our employees go to work every day not knowing whether they’re going to go home in the afternoon.”
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She has tragically dealt with that potential on a personal level. When Lena Marshall, one of her Jackson County deputies, was slain in the line of duty a year ago, Kemp was the first person to call her.
She added, “That call from the governor of Georgia came at the most sad, devastating time for me as the sheriff and my sheriff’s office staff, and it meant a lot to me.” “Therefore, the reason I’m backing him and recommending him is due to the great work he does.”
Despite not endorsing candidates, the Georgia Sheriffs Association strongly objected to Abrams’ remarks.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, it was stated that “sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and other Georgia law enforcement personnel do not seek to detain or arrest persons solely upon race.” We do our best to track down and prosecute those who break the criminal and traffic laws of our state in an effort to safeguard Georgians and others. It would be blatantly false, polarizing, and dangerously misleading to the public to state or imply differently.
Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs Association, told Fox News Digital that he believed Abrams’ words were sincere. He continued by saying that in a volatile climate, comments like hers made it impossible to hire new police officers.
“I believe her true feelings were revealed.” He said, “Our people and the police officers are the ones that show up when the scene is not settled and is still dangerous, regardless of what has been said; that did not seem like someone who supports law enforcement to me. Therefore, remarks like that have a very negative impact on our ability to recruit people and draw them to our line of work.
Any fresh attempts at criminal justice reform should be put on hold, according to Norris, and local governments should be encouraged to increase police salaries.
Kemp boasted 107 sheriff endorsements during the debate with Abrams on Sunday night, but according to his campaign, he only has 111 as of Tuesday. Sheriff Charles Davis, a Black man from Quitman County in southwest Georgia, is one of them.
Kemp is attempting to secure a second term by defeating Abrams, who has gained media attention since Kemp narrowly defeated her in 2018. She has focused her ire on him due to his views on voting rights, abortion, and gun control. Kemp has consistently held a lead in the state, which President Biden just barely won in 2020, according to polls. Abrams received a lot of praise for helping him win the presidency, making him the first Democrat to do it since 1992.
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National news coverage of officer-involved shootings of African Americans has increased in recent years, and the media’s focus on dishonest police officers and the Black Lives Matter movement has led some far-left politicians to call for slashing or even eliminating police expenditures.
Smith believed that Abrams’ remarks were influenced by the media discourse about police.
‘Absolutely. Absolutely,” he affirmed. I am aware that the dominant media is trying to portray us as bad. Being questioned about what you’re doing because you’re a public official is perfectly acceptable. However, the issue is if the media is out there vilifying, demonizing, and condemning what you do, but only when it fits into a particular narrative.
In the past ten years, heartbreaking occurrences like the police death of George Floyd in Minnesota and the hate crime murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, where one of the killers was a former cop, have shed new media light on how the police behave.
However, Smith claimed that he disagreed with the fundamental notion that police often approached their work with racial animus. He advocated holding bad cops accountable, such as Floyd’s murderer Derek Chauvin, but he pleaded with people not to “taint the bushel with one rotten fruit.”
