Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 6, 2014

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution before the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia calling for American independence from Great Britain.

Lee’s resolution declared: “That these United Colonies are, and of right out to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a Confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely together.”

Four weeks later, Georgia’s members of the Continental Congress – Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton — voted for a version written by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia and called the Declaration of Independence.

The expulsion of the Cherokee from Georgia began on June 6, 1838 as 800 members left by riverboat.

The first successful ascent of Mt. McKinley, also called Denali, in Alaska, the highest mountain in North America, was completed on June 7, 1913.

On June 7, 1942, Japanese troops occupied American territory in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.

On June 6, 1944, seventy years ago, Allied forces under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower began the invasion of France, called D-Day.

On the morning of June 5, 1944, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe gave the go-ahead for Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious military operation in history. On his orders, 6,000 landing craft, ships and other vessels carrying 176,000 troops began to leave England for the trip to France. That night, 822 aircraft filled with parachutists headed for drop zones in Normandy. An additional 13,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover and support for the invasion.

By dawn on June 6, 18,000 parachutists were already on the ground; the land invasions began at 6:30 a.m. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture Gold, Juno and Sword beaches; so did the Americans at Utah. The task was much tougher at Omaha beach, however, where 2,000 troops were lost and it was only through the tenacity and quick-wittedness of troops on the ground that the objective was achieved. By day’s end, 155,000 Allied troops–Americans, British and Canadians–had successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches.

The first Porsche automobile was completed on June 8, 1948.

On June 6, 1949, George Orwell published 1984. On July 10, 2014, Veronica Roth, author of young adult dystopian fiction Divergent will be at Agnes Scott College in Decatur.

Ronald Reagan became the Republican nominee for Governor of California on June 7, 1966.

On June 8, 2004, Georgia hosted the G-8 summit meeting of the world’s major industrial democracies, which included representatives from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom, plus a representative from the European Union. The 30th meeting of the G-8 was held at Sea Island at the Cloister.

Dennis O’Hayer of WABE has an extended interview with the AJC’s Jim Galloway about the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Chester Nez, the last surviving Navajo Codetalker from World War 2 has died.

Nez, among the first recruited, helped to develop code based on the Navajo’s unwritten language. The code thwarted the Japanese trying to intercept American communications in the Pacific during World War II.

“The passing of Chester Nez, one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers, sadly marks the end of an era in our country’s and Marine Corps’ history,” Col. David Lapan, director of the Office of U.S. Marine Corps Communication, said in a statement. “We mourn his passing but honor and celebrate the indomitable spirit and dedication of those Marines who became known as the Navajo Code Talkers.”

In his memoirs, Nez said he knew he made the right decision to join the fight.

“I reminded myself that my Navajo people had always been warriors, protectors,” he said. “In that there was honor. I would concentrate on being a warrior, on protecting my homeland. Within hours, whether in harmony or not, I knew I would join my fellow Marines in the fight.”

The Marietta Daily Journal profiles a local D-Day survivor:

The 70th anniversary of D-Day today reminds the world of World War II, but Boykin Dunaway, a 99-year-old veteran, said he doesn’t need a special day to remember.
Today, Boykin Dunaway shares his war stories with his well-known Marietta family.

Boykin Dunaway, who has lived in Marietta since 1953 and was a medic during World War II, remembers landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day. He dodged bullets and bomb shells as he carried wounded men off the shore toward hospital ships.
“Thank God they missed me,” Boykin Dunaway said.
What he saw on the beach that day was frightening: Germans hiding in deep trenches, bombs falling from the sky and men fighting on the shore.
“I have a lot of memories of saving people’s lives one way or another — taking the wounded to a safe place where they could be evacuated, to a ship or someplace where they could take care of them better than we could on the beach,” Boykin Dunaway said.

2014 Election of Georgia Governor

Martha Dalton with WABE asks whether groups like “Republicans for Jason Carter” have any effect on elections.

Paul Bridges is the former mayor of Uvalda, south of Vidalia. He started Republicans for Jason Carter. He voted for Deal in 2010, but is unhappy with some of his decisions. That includes House Bill 87, the state’s tough immigration law Deal signed in 2011.

However, Deal campaign spokesperson Jen Talaber says the governor has bi-partisan support from a statewide coalition of elected officials.

“He’s got endorsements from more than 125 mayors representing 65 counties, 160+ county commissioners, law enforcement, community and business leaders,” she says. “So, I think while Mr. Bridges works on his Facebook group, we’ll continue to build these bi-partisan coalitions statewide.”

But if the candidates are still neck-and-neck in November, will either be able to take enough votes from the other to tip the scale in his favor?

InsiderAdvantage CEO and pollster Matt Towery says probably not.

“The ‘Republicans for Carter,’ just like any Democrats for Deal, they’re going to be relatively negligible in terms of having a real effect in the vote,” Towery says. “They’re there more for perception.”

“I still stay, right now, advantage Deal, but it’s a slim one,” he says. “And that runoff potential could really cause a big mess.”

No knock warrants knocked

The tragic injury of 19-month old “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh by a flash-bang grenade used in the serving of a no-knock warrant in Habersham County has galvanized a movement to rein-in the use of no-knock warrants in Georgia.

The debate over “no-knock” warrants is not new. There was a bipartisan effort by lawmakers in 2007 to tighten rules for such warrants, which are intended to protect officers from dangerous suspects while preventing evidence tampering. The effort, which failed, was prompted by a 2006 case in which an elderly Atlanta woman was killed in a shootout with police while they were executing a “no-knock” warrant at her home.

“It would be one of those things that I would be open to if there is sufficient evidence to indicate that it needs to be revisited and more appropriate standards and requirements put in place,” Deal said, adding he would want to make sure the law enforcement community was involved in any discussion on the issue.

Deal also said it might be something he refers to his Criminal Justice Reform Council for review, but cautioned he wants to hear the results of an investigation into the May 28 police raid in which 19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh was severely injured by a flash grenade that landed in his playpen at home in Cornelia. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case, and the boy’s family has asked for a federal probe.

“Sometimes legislative bodies react too quickly without looking at the broader consequences of what legislative action might be,” Deal said. “But on the same token, if the standards and the requirements are not appropriate then they should be adjusted accordingly.”

Georgia Libertarian Party activists and others will hold a rally Saturday in Habersham County to protest the use of no-knock warrants.

Doug Craig, Libertarian Party of Georgia chairman, said the harming of an innocent child and the terrorization of his parents is just one example of how the so called “War on Drugs” has become more dangerous than drugs itself.

“The War on Drugs has become a war on the citizens of the state of Georgia”, said Doug Craig. Prohibition has made our communities less safe, it has created an environment where law enforcement think they can perpetrate these atrocities on our citizens as long as they do it in the name of the War on Drugs. We must learn from the lessons of alcohol prohibition and realize law enforcement cannot solve public health issues with military force.”

State Rep. Sam Moore, who won a special election runoff in February and lost his reelection campaign has written on Facebook, “I sponsored a bill last Session that would have ended no-knock warrants, but the State House ignored it.”

What Moore leaves out of that statement is that his proposed measure attempted to end no-knock warrants by making it legal to shoot law enforcement officers executing warrants without knocking. The Canton Patch covered Moore’s bill earlier this year:

“The intent behind this bill is to stop the practice of no-knock warrants,” he said. “The reason for that is no-knock warrants present a danger to both police and civilians.”

“It is perfectly legal to use deadly force if someone is breaking into your house and you have reason to believe that they are not supposed to do that,” Moore said. “With a no-knock warrant, police officers that come in have not identified themselves, and therefore, the homeowner or person in the residence has no way to discern that it is not a robber or rapist. That person, realistically, would be expected to defend themselves with deadly force if they thought they needed to.”

[Cherokee County Sheriff Roger] Garrison said no-knock warrants are used to protect law enforcement officers and, again, said he did not understand Moore’s logic.

“There already is due process in place for us to seek when we secure a no-knock search warrant and that is a very valuable tool in law enforcement when we are going to execute high-risk search warrants for drugs or murders,” he said. “We have to present probable cause to a judge to secure those and those safeguards are in place.”

I am also concerned that such a bill would actually have the converse effect of making the serving of warrants more militarized and the use of force more overwhelming and increase the use of “shock and awe” tactics to serve otherwise routine warrants.

Jim Galloway writes that State Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) has already opened a conversation with law enforcement leaders on whether and how no-knock warrants can be limited.

Back in 2007, a bipartisan team of lawmakers, led by state Sens. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, and Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, tried to write into law the rules for no-knock warrants. The effort was spurred by a 2006 police raid of a southwest Atlanta home that left a 92-year-old woman dead.

The no-knock measure easily passed the Senate but died in the House — opposed by many of the state’s sheriffs and prosecutors.

Tanner, who lives two counties over from Habersham, is no Monday morning quarterback. He says he has been looking into the topic for more than a year.

For 18 years, Tanner was a Dawson County sheriff’s deputy. Much of that time was spent on a drug task force. He’s executed more than 100 search warrants, including “several dozen” of the no-knock variety.

“I understand what it’s like to go through a door and not know what’s on the other side,” he said. ”I do think there are ways to tighten the process down to ensure that it’s done properly and safely — as safe as you possibly can.”

Tanner says he is involved in “treetop-level” discussions with Georgia sheriffs and prosecutors, and he expects to produce a first draft of legislation within two or three months.

The Dawsonville lawmaker is wondering whether police agencies should be required to have written policies on the service of no-knock warrants. And whether supervisors should be required to be on the scene.

I agree that it appears that no-knock warrants are being used in ways that may not be appropriate, but it’s not clear whether there’s a systematic problem, or if it’s that isolated disasters like the Habersham County case merely create that perception. I look forward to hearing actual facts about how these warrants are used, and how important a tool they are for law enforcement.

Congratulations to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Mayor Reed has a new daughter with wife Sarah-Elizabeth Reed. Welcome to Atlanta to Maria Kristan Reed, born yesterday.

“Today, Sarah-Elizabeth Reed and I are blessed to announce the birth of our first child, Maria Kristan Reed,” the mayor said in a statement. “I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support we have received from our family and friends. This is truly the happiest moment of my life. As we celebrate our daughter’s birth, we ask that you continue to respect the privacy of our growing family.”

We don’t know what time the newest member of the Reed family was born, but perhaps the issue was on his mind when he said yesterday that he’s not the Atlanta City Council’s parent.

Reed said regulating council spending is a legislative issue, not an executive one.

“I’m not a parent, and I’m not going to speak to other adults about how they should conduct and comport themselves,” the mayor said Wednesday at an unrelated press conference.

“If they believe they need more oversight, everybody in the Atlanta City Council can introduce a bill,” he said. “And so I don’t think that’s the way for me to go.”

City auditor Leslie Ward said last week her suggestions from 2009 to reform spending practices and provide certain checks have so far been ignored by the council.