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WASHINGTON – Georgia State Representative Park Cannon, who was arrested last week as he knocked on the door of Gov. Brian Kemp’s office as he signed a bill placing new restrictions on voting , said on Thursday that what the governor had done was “a lot more serious crime” than his actions.
Her comments came as one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the new law announced an upcoming boycott of Georgia-based companies that did not speak out against the measure until it was passed by the US legislature. State and promulgated by GOP Governor Brian Kemp. .
At a brief press conference in Atlanta, flanked by her lawyers and supporters, Cannon said her arrest last week as she protested the signing of the law was painful “both physically and emotionally.” .
“As horrible as this experience was and as difficult as it is to admit that I face eight years in prison for unfounded charges, I believe that the governor’s signing of the most comprehensive voter suppression bill in the country is a much more serious crime, ”said Cannon, who wore a black scarf around his left arm.
Kemp defended the law, arguing that the measure is designed to “make voting easy and difficult to cheat.”
Cannon said when she saw the photo of Kemp signing the measure, surrounded by a group of white lawmakers and sitting in front of a painting from a South Georgia slave plantation, she said she was recalled how important it was to stay focused on the issue of voting rights.
“The problem to be solved: The repression of voters in Georgia is alive today, the first day of April. He erased decades of sacrifice, countless hours of work, marches, prayers, even tears, and minimizing the deaths of thousands of people who had paid the ultimate price for the right to vote, ”he said. she declared.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to support Cannon’s legal defense, one of his attorneys said at the press conference, and any remaining funds will be used to protect voting rights. His lawyers said they are currently conducting a full investigation into the incident.
Cannon has been charged with two felonies, including preventing or disrupting the General Assembly or other member meetings as well as obstructing a law enforcement officer.
Meanwhile, leaders of Georgia’s 6th African Methodist Episcopal District, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking to overturn the electoral law, were joined in a separate press conference Thursday by members of other faith-based organizations. and civil rights groups to call for a boycott. of several large companies.
The presiding prelate of the church, Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, said they would launch a boycott from April 7 against Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines and Home Depot because their leaders did not voice their opposition to the electoral law. Jackson said they could expand the boycott to include UPS, Aflak, Georgia Power and UBS.
The CEOs of Delta and Coca-Cola voiced opposition to the voting law on Wednesday, but Jackson said it was too late.
“Brown and black people across this country and around the world pay billions of dollars for their products and fill their coffers. Well, we cannot and will not support businesses that do not support us in our struggle to vote. and exercise our freedom, “Jackson said at the press conference outside Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta.
He said they planned to meet with some of these companies virtually early next week, to give them a chance to take a series of measures to avoid the boycott.
Jackson said companies must do four things to avoid it: publicly declare their opposition to the law and ask lawmakers to overturn it; state public opposition to similar legislation in another state; publicly support a federal voting rights law; and oppose the provision of financial support to candidates or parties that support voter suppression legislation.
“If these companies don’t do what we asked them to do, we will support this boycott,” Jackson said. “We won’t give them our money. We will learn to like other drinks. We will learn to go to another store. We will learn to fly on other airlines.”
President Joe Biden, when asked about the new law leading to the call for Major League Baseball to move its All-Star Game scheduled for July 13 to Atlanta, said, “I would support them strongly.
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