Athens has been at the center of Georgia’s debate on prosecution of criminal suspects long before Laken Riley was murdered by a man who was a “guest” of our country, and should have been held on a detainer for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Riley’s accused murderer had been arrested previously in New York for child endangerment, and in Athens for shoplifting.
New York has long declared itself a “sanctuary city”. Athens pretends it is not, as state law doesn’t allow it. Athens-Clark County Sheriff John Q Williams reportedly campaigned for his office saying he would not cooperate with ICE on detainers. He now notes that Jose Ibarro, who is in his jail accused of Riley’s murder, was not booked into jail on his shoplifting charge.
Which brings us to a post Athens area Representative Houston Gaines placed on Twitter/X about local gang violence. One paragraph of it reads:
“Light on crime policies don’t work. Our criminal justice system is at a breaking point in Athens. One of the four suspects—Dakious Echols—in the murder from last weekend was arrested last year in Athens for running over a police officer’s foot – he was charged with felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer and possession of a pistol by a person under 18. He was released on Unsecured Judicial Release – meaning no bond, and just a signature saying that he will show back up for court. He was arrested again just a short time later for giving a false name to a law enforcement officer. This time he was given a $100 bond. As you might guess, he failed to appear for court in December – and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest (that was active at the time of the murder). Additionally, he and Shytavious Mathis, one of the other suspects in this case, were both arrested in Sumter County last year for serious drug offenses.”
Of note here is that we’re not talking about “migrants” or undocumented immigrants. We’re not talking about a new…
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