Atlanta Ferguson Solidarity group calls for occupation of Woodruff Park

The Atlanta-Ferguson Solidarity Committee announced a "call out for mass indefinite occupation" of Woodruff Park in Atlanta, Georgia on Friday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.  The group has organized several protests across metro Atlanta in response to a grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri, to not indict a white officer who killed an unarmed black teenager Michael Brown back in August.

Mass protests across the country escalated in the last few days after another grand jury in New York decided against indictment of a white NYC police officer who chocked a black unarmed man Eric Gaer. Gaer repeatedly pleated for his life with no response from the officers.

"Following the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson in the brutal murder of Michael Brown, and the non-indictment of officer Daniel Pantaleo in the filmed strangulation of Eric Gaer, we are announcing a mass indefinite occupation of Woodruff Park this Saturday, December 6, at 7pm," said the official statement on the AtlFergusonSolidarity.wordpress.com website.  "We have been spat in the face. We know that others share this grief and rage with us. We are calling for everyone to join us in a mass experiment involving taking space, coordinating resources, and sharing ideas to continue the fight against this present disaster.

"The fight against police violence cannot be allowed to slowly wither away. For this reason, we think it is necessary to create a space for continuous organizing and we believe an occupation can provide this. We stand in solidarity with rebels in Ferguson, New York City, Mexico and everywhere else fighting against police violence."

The Ferguson case wasn't captured by cameras, and many witnesses gave false accounts of what happened which made any legal action almost impossible. The inaccuracies in the Michael Brown case divided a lot of communities and appeared to fall along the party lines, with Republicans taking the side of the police officer and Democrats siding with Michael Brown.

However, the New York City case brought out larger and more diverse crowds, since the entire incident was caught on tape.  Both Republicans and Democrats appeared on television outraged over the no indictment decision in the Gaer case.  The police officer used a chokehold on the victim during the arrest, a move that was outlawed in NYC decades ago.  Gaer, who had asthma, said 12 times "I can't breathe" with no reaction from the police.

In the Ferguson case, the local prosecutor spent 20 minutes explaining why the grand jury decided against indictment, and all the evidence and witness accounts were released to the public.  In the Gaer case no explanation has been offered so far.

Hundreds of Emory University students staged protests on Wednesday night and Thursday in response to both Ferguson and NYC cases. Also Thursday night there were protests in the Underground Atlanta area with about 100 participants.