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Tag: ahmaud arbery

  • ‘I want to turn chaos into conversations’: Geoff Duncan wants to be Georgia’s Next Governor

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    “On day one as governor, I’ll sign an executive order that allows doctors to practice medicine with pregnant women without the fear of prosecution. Secondly, I’ll introduce legislation that repeals the six-week ban and returns us to Roe v Wade. That’s my promise and I’m sticking to it,” said Duncan (left) during his interview at The Atlanta Voice on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025.
    Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    Former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan came to The Atlanta Voice for the first time on Monday, Sept. 21, to discuss his campaign for governor. Duncan is one of nearly a dozen candidates who have launched campaigns this year. Last week, Duncan visited a Black-owned small business in what looked like a concerted effort to speak directly to Black voters. A former Republican, Duncan, is running as a Democrat and believes there’s a place for a governor who appeals to both sides.

    “I do have a track record of working across the aisle,” he said. “I want to turn chaos into conversations.” 

    The Atlanta Voice: Good morning, Mr. Duncan, and welcome to WAREHOUSE Studios on the campus of The Atlanta Voice. Let’s get right to it. Why did you decide to run for governor?

    Geoff Duncan: I really feel like Georgia’s best days are in front of us and I want to lead all Georgians to those better days. In my role as Lieutenant Governor I saw how important the job as governor can be. I really feel there’s an opportunity to prioritize folks in the state that need it the most.

    Duncan listed affordable child care, unemployment, and housing cost, and healthcare as issues he plans to tackle during his campaign.

    AV: Any other issues taking place in Georgia that you believe should be addressed on the campaign trail going forward?

    GD: Quite honestly, we have a Donald Trump crisis, too. This guy has leaned into our state in such a negative way. Not only trying to steal the 2020 [presidential election], but now he’s essentially putting rural hospitals in a crisis. We have a Donald Trump crisis, and I am willing to stand up and push back.

    Photo By Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    AV: Does your experience as Lt. Governor give you an advantage over your opponents in this race?

    GD: Absolutely. I learned a lot as Lt. Governor. In the four years that I was in office, we went through a pandemic, which was unbelievable for everybody ….I don’t even know what to refer to the pandemic as. We woke up one day, and there was 10 percent unemployment. We also had to navigate the difficult realities of civil unrest and the horrific murder of Ahmaud Arbery, amongst others. And we had to deal with the 2020 election trying to be stolen by a sitting President. I learned a lot about leadership. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about Georgians, and that’s really what’s led me on this journey. I think most Georgians just want somebody to lead their state that stays focused on the issues that matter most.

    AV: What are some of those issues?  

    GD: Being able to allow folks to raise their kids in safe communities, being able to have access to quality education and quality healthcare, the ability to find a high-paying quality job. Those are the things we want to stay focused on. Too often in politics, folks are staying focused on the fringe issues because it’s a hyper-partisan environment.

    If Georgians want to elect somebody who’s going to be hyper-partisan and call names, then they are not going to vote for me. If they want a consistent leader who shows up to work every day focused on the issues that matter, I think we have a good shot to win this.

    Duncan was clear that he believes current Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has been good for the state.  “He is doing a good job of leading our state forward. Our economy continues to grow. I think he handled COVID extremely well, and I was glad to work alongside him and the Legislature on a number of the COVID relief actions. But there’s more work to be done in the state.” 

    AV: What do you believe you can bring to the governor’s office that the other candidates cannot? 

    GD: I have been behind the curtain, and I realize how important the job of governor is. You get to write the first draft of the budget. You get to prioritize what is going to be nearly $40 billion, understanding how those agencies work, and understanding what dollars are effective and what dollars don’t seem to be effective. You get to prioritize what’s going on in the Legislature as the chief negotiator between constituencies. 

    And it’s not just Democrats versus Republicans at the Legislature. There are a lot of constituencies, rural and urban, and others, where you have to broker deals. The governor has to play a significant role. You put all that together, and the job of governor is important, and I feel like I have got a really good head start on understanding how that operates. 

    AV: Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, State Rep. Jason Esteves, and former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond are also running to represent the Democratic Party in this race. All have high levels of name recognition with Democratic voters in two of Georgia’s largest counties, Fulton and DeKalb counties, respectively. Do you believe your level of name recognition will help you as well?

    GD: I think more important than name recognition is my platform. I think my platform meets the needs, meets those individuals, meets those counties where they are. 

    AV: Please explain.

    GD: I know I keep talking about affordability, but it’s a reality folks are facing. There are folks who are going to read this who are scared about just paying rent next month. They are worried about being able to afford groceries when they go to the store. My platform is laser-focused on meeting folks where they are at.  

    I think amongst Democrats, my name ID is high because I have been willing to stand up to Donald Trump, even when it wasn’t politically popular.  

    Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan (above, left, at The Black Coffee Co. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025) and current Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have joined the long list of Democrats and Republicans running for the state’s top spot. Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice

    AV: Was the visit to The Black Coffee Company an attempt to begin reaching out to the Black voter base in Atlanta?

    GD: One of my areas of focus has been on the Black community, for sure. Such an important part of the election, but more importantly, part of the state. The importance is to learn perspective, to understand what people need, where people’s hearts are at, and where their concerns are at.

    On Sunday, Duncan and his wife attended service at Allen Temple AME Church, one of the city’s oldest Black church communities.

    AV: Why do you believe Democratic voters should trust you? Why should they believe you have similar Democratic values now?

    GD: Those are great questions. Two parts: One is that I do have a track record of working across the aisle on an overwhelming majority of the issues. Two, some Republicans want to point fingers and call me names, saying ‘Geoff Duncan has lost his mind’. I haven’t lost my mind, I found my heart. I want to love my neighbor, that’s my mission each and every day. I want to look for ways to use the state of Georgia as that vehicle for us to love our neighbors.

    Duncan, 50, married and a father of three, admitted that he “got guns and abortion wrong” as a “young Republican legislator.”

    “I fell into that trap of thinking the NRA and other groups had people’s best interests at heart. They don’t,” he said. 

    He added, “I was wrong to think a room full of legislators knew better than millions of women in this state. I have taken the time to talk to them, hear their horrific stories, and tough circumstances in situations. I believe they deserve the right to choose and day one as governor, “I’ll sign an executive order that allows doctors to practice medicine with pregnant women without the fear of prosecution. Secondly, I’ll introduce legislation that repeals the six-week ban and returns us to Roe v Wade.

    That’s my promise and I’m sticking to it.”

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    Donnell Suggs

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  • Ahmaud Arbery’s family is still waiting for ex-prosecutor’s misconduct trial after 3 years

    Ahmaud Arbery’s family is still waiting for ex-prosecutor’s misconduct trial after 3 years

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    SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Three years after a former Georgia district attorney was indicted on charges alleging she interfered with police investigating the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the case’s slow progression through the court system has sputtered to a halt, one the presiding judge insists is temporary.

    Jackie Johnson was the state’s top prosecutor for coastal Glynn County in February 2020, when Arbery was chased by three white men in pickup trucks who had spotted him running in their neighborhood. The 25-year-old Black man died in the street after one of his pursuers shot him with a shotgun.

    Johnson transferred the case to an outside prosecutor because the man who initiated the deadly chase, Greg McMichael, was her former employee. But Georgia’s attorney general says she illegally used her office to try to protect the retired investigator and his son, Travis McMichael, who fired the fatal shots.

    Both McMichaels already have been convicted and sentenced to prison in back-to-back trials for murder and federal hate crimes. So has a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, whose cellphone video of the shooting triggered a national outcry over Arbery’s death. A court heard their first appeals six months ago.

    The criminal misconduct case against Johnson has moved at a comparative crawl since a grand jury indicted her on Sept. 2, 2021, on a felony count of violating her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of hindering a police officer.

    While the men responsible for Arbery’s death are serving life sentences, the slain man’s family has insisted that justice won’t be complete until Johnson stands trial.

    “It’s very, very important,” said Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother. “Jackie Johnson was really part of the problem early on.”

    Johnson has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. After losing reelection in 2020, she told The Associated Press that she immediately recused herself in the handling of Arbery’s killing because of Greg McMichael’s involvement.

    Dozens of Black Lives Matter and Black Panther protesters gather outside the Glynn County Courthouse where the trial of Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan is held, Nov. 22, 2021, in Brunswick, Ga. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File)

    Johnson’s case has stalled as one of her attorneys, Brian Steel, has spent most of the past two years in an Atlanta courtroom defending Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug against racketeering and gang charges. Jury selection in the case took 10 months, prosecutors began presenting evidence last November and they are still calling witnesses.

    Senior Judge John R. Turner, who was assigned to Johnson’s case, insists there is nothing he can do but wait.

    “If anyone’s concerned that the case is being shuffled under the rug, I can guarantee you it’s not,” Turner told the AP in a phone interview. “It’s moving at a snail’s pace, but it will move forward eventually.”

    After Arbery was killed, Greg McMichael told police that he and his son had armed themselves and chased the Black man, suspecting he was a fleeing criminal. Bryan, who didn’t know any of the men, made a similar assumption after seeing them pass his home and joined in his own truck.

    The indictment against Johnson alleges she told police they shouldn’t arrest Travis McMichael. It also accuses her of “showing favor and affection” to Greg McMichael by calling on George Barnhill, a district attorney in a neighboring judicial circuit, to advise police about how to handle the shooting.

    Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr appointed Barnhill four days later to take over as outside prosecutor. Carr has said he picked Barnhill without knowing he already had advised police that he saw no grounds for arrests in Arbery’s death.

    Barnhill stepped aside after a few weeks, but not before he sent a letter to police captain arguing the McMichaels acted legally and Arbery was killed in self-defense.

    After Johnson was charged, she reported to jail for booking and was released without having to post bond. Her attorneys waived a formal reading of the charges before a judge and she has yet to appear in court. The judge denied legal motions by Johnson’s lawyers to dismiss the case last November. Court records show no further developments over the past 10 months.

    “Securing an indictment is just one step in our ongoing pursuit of justice for Ahmaud Arbery and his family,” Carr said in a statement. “We have never stopped fighting for them, and we look forward to the opportunity to present our case in court.”

    Johnson’s attorneys, Steel and John Ossick, did not respond to emails and a phone message seeking comment. They have argued in court filings there is “not a scintilla of evidence” that she hindered police.

    Prosecutors responded with a court filing that listed 16 calls between phones belonging to Johnson and Greg McMichael in the weeks following the shooting.

    Two legal experts who aren’t involved in the case said there is no deadline for Johnson to stand trial. She hasn’t been jailed, so there is little pressure to expedite her case.

    Steel’s prolonged absence because of the Atlanta gang trial likely isn’t the only factor slowing the case, Atlanta defense attorney Don Samuel said.

    Courts remain saddled with a backlog of cases since the COVID-19 lockdowns, he said. And the attorney general’s office has a limited staff of criminal prosecutors with their own busy caseloads.

    Samuel also questioned whether prosecutors have a strong case against Johnson. Even if she opposed charging the McMichaels in Arbery’s death, he said, prosecutors haven’t accused her of taking bribes or similar blatant corruption.

    District attorneys “have a huge amount of discretion to make decisions about what cases to pursue,” Samuel said. “The notion that we’re going to start prosecuting DAs for prosecuting or not prosecuting strikes me as really being on the edge of propriety.”

    Danny Porter, the former district attorney for Gwinnett County in metro Atlanta, said prosecutors like Johnson have a legitimate role in advising police on whether or not to arrest suspects before an investigation is complete.

    As for Johnson’s recommendation in 2020 that the attorney general replace her with another prosecutor who concluded Arbery’s killing was justified, Porter said: “I don’t think that’s a violation of the law, though it might have made them mad.”

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  • Keri Hilson, Ahmaud Arbery’s parents among honorees at Georgia Legislative Black Caucus 42nd Annual Heritage Dinner

    Keri Hilson, Ahmaud Arbery’s parents among honorees at Georgia Legislative Black Caucus 42nd Annual Heritage Dinner

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    During the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus’s (GLBC) 42nd Annual Heritage Dinner, Marcus Arbery explained his passion for justice has not wavered. Friday was the fourth anniversary the death of Marcus’s son, Ahmaud Arbery. Held at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Marcus Arbery told the crowd he still believes in his children and wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes.

    “Let’s join together and fight this war because racism isn’t going anywhere,” says Arbery.

    During his remarks he singled out former district attorney Jackie Johnson. In November 2023, Senior Judge John R. Turner refused to dismiss charges levied against Johnson. Johnson was indicted on September 2021. She was charged with a felony count of violating her oath of office and with hindering a law enforcement investigation, a misdemeanor. 

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    Itoro N. Umontuen

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  • The 3 White men who killed Ahmaud Arbery are appealing their federal hate crime convictions. 2 of them say race didn’t play a role in their actions | CNN

    The 3 White men who killed Ahmaud Arbery are appealing their federal hate crime convictions. 2 of them say race didn’t play a role in their actions | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The three White men who killed Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black jogger, are appealing their federal hate crime convictions, with two of the three arguing the government did not prove they chased the young man because of his race.

    The men’s attorneys, who filed the appeals earlier this month, all asked for an opportunity to present their case in court.

    Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were found guilty of murder in a Georgia court in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison.

    In their federal trial that followed, all three were found guilty of interference of rights, a federal hate crime, and attempted kidnapping, while the McMichaels were also each convicted on a weapons charge. The father and son were sentenced to life in prison and Bryan was sentenced to 35 years, to be served at the same time as his state sentence.

    In their appeals, the elder McMichael and Bryan both challenge whether prosecutors proved the men acted the way they did “because of” Arbery’s race and color. Travis McMichael’s appeal instead focused on more technical matters to do his convictions of attempted kidnapping and weapons use charges.

    “The evidence against Bryan did not present a man who saw the world through a prism of racism. He was not obsessed with African Americans such as his codefendant Travis McMichael,” Defense attorney J. Pete Theodocion, who filed an appeal on behalf of Bryan, wrote in the filing.

    “There is simply not sufficient evidence in the record to suggest Bryan would have acted any differently on the day in question had Arbery been white, Hispanic, Asian or other,” the attorney wrote. “Every crime committed against an African American is not a hate crime. Every crime committed against an African American by a man who has used racist language in the past is not a hate crime.”

    See the moment judge holds moment of silence for Ahmaud Arbury

    Arbery was shot dead on February 23, 2020, while he was out on a jog – something he was known to do, according to his loved ones – in the Satilla Shores neighborhood, outside the city of Brunswick in south Georgia.

    Video of the fatal shooting sparked nationwide outrage after it was released in May 2020, weeks before the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that set off a summer of widespread protests against racial injustice.

    The federal trial of the three men featured testimony from witnesses who spoke about racist messages the men used.

    The remarks witnesses shared in court, which had been made privately and publicly, revealed the men talked about Black people in derogatory terms and used racial slurs in conversations with others – key evidence prosecutors used to prove they acted out of racial animus.

    Defense attorneys during the trial acknowledged their clients used racist language but denied that’s what motivated their actions.

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  • Today in History: November 24, Ruby shoots Oswald

    Today in History: November 24, Ruby shoots Oswald

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    Today in History

    Today is Thursday, Nov. 24, the 328th day of 2022. There are 37 days left in the year. Today is Thanksgiving.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene captured on live television.

    On this date:

    In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

    In 1865, Mississippi became the first Southern state to enact laws which came to be known as “Black Codes” aimed at limiting the rights of newly freed Blacks; other states of the former Confederacy soon followed.

    In 1941, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Edwards v. California, unanimously struck down a California law prohibiting people from bringing impoverished non-residents into the state.

    In 1947, a group of writers, producers and directors that became known as the “Hollywood Ten” was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry. John Steinbeck’s novel “The Pearl” was first published.

    In 1971, a hijacker calling himself “Dan Cooper” (but who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper”) parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom; his fate remains unknown.

    In 1974, the bone fragments of a 3.2 million-year-old hominid were discovered by scientists in Ethiopia; the skeletal remains were nicknamed “Lucy.”

    In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on terms to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles. (The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev the following month.)

    In 1989, Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu (chow-SHES’-koo) was unanimously re-elected Communist Party chief. (Within a month, he was overthrown in a popular uprising and executed along with his wife, Elena, on Christmas Day.)

    In 1991, rock singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.

    In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the bitter, overtime struggle for the White House, agreeing to consider George W. Bush’s appeal against the hand recounting of ballots in Florida.

    In 2014, it was announced that a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, had decided against indicting Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown; the decision enraged protesters who set fire to buildings and cars and looted businesses in the area where Brown had been fatally shot.

    In 2020, Pennsylvania officials certified Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential vote in the state; the Trump campaign had gone to court trying to prevent the certification. The Nevada Supreme Court made Biden’s win in the state official. County election workers across Georgia began an official machine recount of the roughly 5 million votes cast in the presidential race in the state; certified results had shown Biden winning in Georgia by 12,670 votes.

    Ten years ago: Fire raced through a garment factory in Bangladesh that supplied major retailers in the West, killing 112 people; an official said many of the victims were trapped because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits. Former championship boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho died at a hospital in Puerto Rico after doctors disconnected life support; he’d been shot in his hometown of Bayamon earlier in the week.

    Five years ago: Militants attacked a crowded mosque in Egypt with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest-ever attack by Islamic extremists in the country. Zimbabwe swore in its new leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, after the resignation of President Robert Mugabe, who had fired his longtime deputy just two and a half weeks earlier. South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal increased the prison sentence of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius to 13 years and five months in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, more than doubling the original six-year sentence.

    One year ago: Three men were convicted of murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the Black man who was running through a Georgia subdivision in February 2020 when the white strangers chased him, trapped him on a quiet street and blasted him with a shotgun. At least 27 people died when a boat carrying migrants across the English Channel to Britain sank a few miles from the French coast.

    Today’s Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson is 84. Country singer Johnny Carver is 82. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue (TAG’-lee-uh-boo) is 82. Rock drummer Pete Best is 81. Actor-comedian Billy Connolly is 80. Former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater is 80. Former congressman and Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman is 78. Singer Lee Michaels is 77. Actor Dwight Schultz is 75. Actor Stanley Livingston is 72. Rock musician Clem Burke (Blondie; The Romantics) is 68. Actor/director Ruben Santiago-Hudson is 66. Actor Denise Crosby is 65. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is 63. Actor Shae D’Lyn is 60. Rock musician John Squire (The Stone Roses) is 60. Rock musician Gary Stonadge (Big Audio) is 60. Actor Conleth Hill is 58. Actor-comedian Brad Sherwood is 58. Actor Garret Dillahunt is 58. Actor-comedian Scott Krinsky is 54. Rock musician Chad Taylor (Live) is 52. Actor Lola Glaudini is 51. Actor Danielle Nicolet is 49. Actor-writer-director-producer Stephen Merchant is 48. Actor Colin Hanks is 45. Actor Katherine Heigl (HY’-guhl) is 44. Actor Sarah Hyland is 32.

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  • Men indicted for shooting at Mississippi delivery driver

    Men indicted for shooting at Mississippi delivery driver

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    BROOKHAVEN, Miss. — A father and son have been indicted by a grand jury after allegedly chasing and shooting at a FedEx driver in January after he dropped off a package in a Mississippi city.

    Brandon and Gregory Case, who are both white, were re-arrested Friday and indicted for attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle of D’Monterrio Gibson, who is Black. The charges were upgraded from conspiracy and aggravated assault.

    Gibson, 24, was not injured. But the chase and gunfire have sparked social media complaints of racism in Brookhaven, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of the state capital, Jackson.

    Gibson and his attorney, Carlos Moore, said they pushed prosecutors to secure an indictment for nearly 10 months.

    “It was an extremely long process to get this far into the case,” Gibson told WLBT-TV. “I feel like most of the time, I was treated like a suspect rather than a victim.”

    Moore compared the incident to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was running empty-handed through a Georgia subdivision in 2020 when three white strangers chased him down and blasted him with a shotgun.

    Moore has called for a federal hate crime probe into the case. A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to The Associated Press in February that the department received a request to look into the case and was reviewing the request to determine any next steps. The department did not provide an update Tuesday.

    Gibson said he was wearing a FedEx uniform and was driving an unmarked van that FedEx had rented when he dropped off a package at a house in Brookhaven on Jan. 24. As he was leaving, he said he noticed a white pickup truck pulling away from another house on the same large lot.

    The pickup driver then tried to cut him off as he pulled out of the driveway, he said. Gibson swerved around him and then encountered a second man who had a gun pointed at the van and was motioning for him to stop. Gibson said the man fired as he drove away, damaging the van and packages inside. He said the white pickup chased him to the interstate highway near Brookhaven before ending the pursuit.

    Attorneys for Brandon and Gregory Case did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    The Cases were initially arrested in February and released after paying bonds on lesser charges. Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing said bond was set at $500,000 for the upgraded charges, according to the Brookhaven Daily Leader.

    Moore doesn’t expect the case to go to trial until May of 2023 at the earliest.

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  • Kanye West Slammed By Ahmaud Arbery’s Mother After Going Viral For ‘White Lives Matter’ Shirt

    Kanye West Slammed By Ahmaud Arbery’s Mother After Going Viral For ‘White Lives Matter’ Shirt

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    Kanye West sparked outrage after wearing a shirt with the phrase “White Lives Matter” during his YZY SZN 9 fashion show at Paris Fashion Week on Monday.

    The phrase is categorized by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate slogan. Per the Southern Poverty Law Center, White Lives Matter is a neo-Nazi group that was created as “a racist response to the civil rights movement Black Lives Matter.”

    Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of the late Ahmaud Arbery, called out the rapper and fashion designer for helping to “legitimize extremist behavior” with the viral incident.

    In February 2020, Arbery was murdered in a hate crime while jogging through the Satilla Shores neighborhood in Georgia after three white men chased him down and shot him.

    In a statement to Rolling Stone, Cooper-Jones expressed her “extreme disappointment” in West’s behavior, adding that the stunt made a mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement.

    “As a result of his display ‘White Lives Matter’ started trending in the U.S., which would direct support and legitimize extremist behavior, [much] like the behavior that took the life of her son,” Cooper-Jones communicated through her attorney Lee Merritt. “That is the thing that Wanda and families like hers continue to fight against.”

    The statement continued: “This mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement and his now denunciation of the movement as some sort of hoax flies directly in the face [of what he’s said]. It’s confusing for her, it’s confusing for the families to receive his support privately, but publicly to set us all back.”

    Amid the wave of backlash over the controversial shirt, West, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, posted and deleted a number of messages on Tuesday morning to his Instagram addressing the criticism — including one post calling the BLM movement a “scam.”

    “Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam. Now it’s over. You’re welcome,” he wrote.

    He further ignited the criticism by posing for a photo next to conservative commentator Candace Owens, who also wore the same shirt in white.

    Some of the models on the catwalk of Ye’s show also wore shirts with the same message, The Guardian reported.

    Ye previously had lent his support to Arbery’s family by covering their legal fees in the family’s quest for justice after the unarmed Black jogger was chased and killed by father and son Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan.

    In June 2020, Ye also donated $2 million to the families of Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

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