For the Record
In the first 10 days following George Floyd’s death, the Associated Press reported, more than 10,000 protesters were arrested, many for misdemeanor offenses such as curfew violations and failure to disperse, and “the count has grown by the hundreds each day.”
In Tennessee, misdemeanor arrests are included on public background checks and often crop up on applications for employment, housing, college and even some volunteer organizations.
According to a recent TIME article, the majority of protesters are white, but those being arrested are not. In Atlanta, for example, 48 of the 82 people processed through the Fulton County Jail the weekend following Floyd’s death were Black, the article states.
As protesters continue to call for a re-examination of the criminal justice system, the spotlight is also being shone on a philanthropic arm, the subject of our first story below.
– Jennifer Bardoner, editor