Georgia
A Georgia beach aims to disrupt Black students' spring bash after big crowds brought chaos in 2023
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. – Thousands of Black college students expected this weekend for an annual spring bash at Georgia’s largest public beach will be greeted by dozens of extra police officers and barricades closing off neighborhood streets. While the beach will remain open, officials are blocking access to nearby parking.
Tybee Island east of Savannah has grappled with the April beach party known as Orange Crush since students at Savannah State University, a historically Black school, started it more than 30 years ago. Residents regularly groused about loud music, trash littering the sand and revelers urinating in yards.
Those complaints boiled over into fear and outrage a year ago when record crowds estimated at more than 100,000 people overwhelmed the 3-mile (4.8 kilometer) island. That left a small police force scrambling to handle a flood of emergency calls reporting gunfire, drug overdoses, traffic jams and fist fights.
Mayor Brian West, elected last fall by Tybee Island’s 3,100 residents, said roadblocks and added police aren’t just for limiting crowds. He hopes the crackdown will drive Orange Crush away for good.
“This has to stop. We can’t have this crowd anymore,” West said. “My goal is to end it.”
Critics say local officials are overreacting and appear to be singling out Black visitors to a Southern beach that only white people could use until 1963. They note Tybee Island attracts vast crowds for the Fourth of July and other summer weekends when visitors are largely white, as are 92% of the island’s residents.
“Our weekends are packed with people all season, but when Orange Crush comes they shut down the parking, bring extra police and act like they have to take charge,” said Julia Pearce, one of the island’s few Black residents and leader of a group called the Tybee MLK Human Rights Organization. She added: “They believe Black folks to be criminals.”
During the week, workers placed metal barricades to block off parking meters and residential streets along the main road parallel to the beach. Two large parking lots near a popular pier are being closed. And Tybee Island’s roughly two dozen police officers will be augmented by about 100 sheriff’s deputies, Georgia state troopers and other officers.
Security plans were influenced by tactics used last month to reduce crowds and violence at spring break in Miami Beach, which was observed by Tybee Island’s police chief.
Officials insist they’re acting to avoid a repeat of last year’s Orange Crush party, which they say became a public safety crisis with crowds at least double their typical size.
“To me, it has nothing to do with race,” said West, who believes city officials previously haven’t taken a stronger stand against Orange Crush because they feared being called racist. “We can’t let that be a reason to let our citizens be unsafe and so we’re not.”
Tybee Island police reported 26 total arrests during Orange Crush last year. Charges included one armed robbery with a firearm, four counts of fighting in public and five DUIs. Two officers reported being pelted with bottles, and two women told police they were beaten and robbed of a purse.
On a gridlocked highway about a mile off the island, someone fired a gun a into a car and injured one person. A white man was charged in the shooting, which officials blamed on road rage.
Orange Crush’s supporters and detractors alike say it’s not college students causing the worst problems.
Joshua Miller, a 22-year-old Savannah State University senior who plans to attend this weekend, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the crackdown was at least partly motivated by race.
“I don’t know what they have in store,” Miller said. ”I’m not going down there with any ill intent. I’m just going out there to have fun.”
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson was one of the Black students from Savannah State who helped launch Orange Crush in 1988. The university dropped involvement in the 1990s, and Johnson said that over time the celebration “got off the rails.” But he also told reporters he’s concerned about “over-representation of police” at the beach party.
At Nickie’s 1971 Bar & Grill near the beach, general manager Sean Ensign said many neighboring shops and eateries will close for Orange Crush though his will stay open, selling to-go food orders like last year. But with nearby parking spaces closed, Ensign said his profits might take a hit, “possibly a few thousand dollars.”
It’s not the first time Tybee Island has targeted the Black beach party. In 2017, the city council banned alcohol and amplified music on the beach only during Orange Crush weekend. A discrimination complaint to the U.S. Justice Department resulted in city officials signing a non-binding agreement to impose uniform rules for large events.
West says Orange Crush is different because it’s promoted on social media by people who haven’t obtained permits. A new state law lets local governments recoup public safety expenses from organizers of unpermitted events.
In February, Britain Wigfall was denied an permit for space on the island for food trucks during Orange Crush. The mayor said Wigfall has continued to promote events on the island.
Wigfall, 30, said he’s promoting a concert this weekend in Savannah, but nothing on Tybee Island involving Orange Crush.
“I don’t control it,” Wigfall said. “Nobody controls the date that people go down there.”
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Georgia
Georgia: Police use water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters opposing ‘foreign agent’ bill
Police in Georgia’s capital have used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades against crowds outside the country’s parliament protesting against a bill the opposition says aims to crack down on press freedoms.
The legislation being debated by parliamentarians will require media and non-commercial organisations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.
Police used water cannon to disperse protesters. Pic: AP
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets of Tbilisi on Tuesday to oppose the legislation.
Clashes erupted between security forces and protesters as they faced tear gas, water cannon and stun grenades.
Thousands gathered to oppose the legislation. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Reuters eyewitnesses saw some police officers physically attack protesters, who threw eggs and bottles at them, before deploying the tactics to force crowds from outside the parliament building, the news agency reported.
After being dispersed, thousands continued to block Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue, barricading it with cafe tables and rubbish bins. Some shouted “slaves” and “Russians” at police.
Clashes erupted between police and demonstrators. Pic: AP
Levan Khabeishvili, the leader of Georgia‘s largest opposition party, the United National Movement, posted an image on X with his face bloodied and sporting a black eye.
A party official told Reuters that Mr Khabeishvili was beaten by police after disappearing from central Tbilisi.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who is opposed to the bill and whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said in a post on X the crackdown had been “totally unwarranted, unprovoked and out of proportion” and that the protests had been peaceful.
Demonstrators sit in protest. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
The bill has heightened political divisions, setting the ruling Georgian Dream party against a protest movement backed by opposition groups, communities, celebrities and the figurehead president.
It is viewed by the opposition as authoritarian and bearing a resemblance to Russian anti-independent media legislation.
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Politicians brawl in parliament
Critics have labelled the divisive bill “the Russian law”, comparing it to Moscow’s “foreign agent” legislation which has been used to crack down on dissent there.
Read more from Sky News:
Boy dies after bouncy castle blows away
Police raid university to break up protest
Parliament endorsed the bill in the first reading earlier this month. It must pass two more readings before becoming law.
A protester holds up an EU flag. Pic: AP
Those opposed to the legislation see it as an impediment to Georgia’s long-sought prospects of joining the European Union.
EU officials have said it could halt Georgia’s progress towards integration with the bloc.
VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) – On Tuesday, April 30, Governor Brian Kemp finalized new laws to strengthen Georgia’s No. 1 industry: agriculture.
Department of Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said the laws will impact tax policies in agriculture, operations of the Hemp program, and penalties on cattle theft. It will also ensure foreign entities are not able to purchase farmland needed for local farming.
“The legislation that we at the Department of Agriculture and our friends in the general assembly, that the governor signed into law today goes a long way in moving the ball in the right direction to continue to protect, promote and ensure our farm families across Georgia are successful which in turns allows agriculture to be successful which allows the state to be successful,” Harper said.
Gov. Kemp officially signed Senate Bill 465 into law which will increase the penalties for fentanyl dealers. It’s known by many as Austin’s Law.
It’s named after Austin Walters, a Valdosta man who died in 2021 after taking a single pill laced with fentanyl. Under previous law, there was no penalty to hold the drug dealer accountable.
“It’s a wonderful day for us as the family of Austin, it’s a wonderful day to honor him but truly it’s a great day for Georgia,” Gus Walters, Austin’s father, said.
The Georgia House and Senate unanimously approved SB 465, known as “Austin’s Law,” in March of 2024. Austin’s Law creates a new offense called aggravated involuntary manslaughter.
The bill states: “The offense of aggravated involuntary manslaughter shall be considered a separate offense and shall not merge with any other offense.”
The bill gives law enforcement and judges discretion when investigating and trying cases involving substance abuse.
“All Americans are dealing with fentanyl, so increased penalties, doing that to honor Austin’s life and having his family here was very special,” Kemp said.
Gus and Beth Walters, Austin Walters’s parents, were in the chamber for the vote. They have worked with Senator Russ Goodman and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’s office for almost two years to push this bill through the House and Senate.
“It became very personal for a lot of people there in the legislature, and I was just glad to see something that needs to happen,” Jones said.
The Walters family plans to continue to spread the word of Austin’s Law across the state and country. To learn more about Austin’s Law click here.
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To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook and X (Twitter). For more South Georgia news, download the WALB News app from the Apple Store or Google Play.
Copyright 2024 WALB. All rights reserved.
HARTWELL, G.A. (FOX Carolina) – The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) arrested a man on murder charges after a woman was found dead at a motel on Sunday.
GBI was requested to investigate by Hartwell Police after 36-year-old Candy Downer was found at the Day Nite Inn on Sunday, April 28.
The suspect 41-year-old Matthew Carey was arrested on Monday on malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault-family violence charges.
If anyone has information regarding this incident, call police at 206-376-3111 or the GBI regional office at 706-552-2309.
Stay with FOX Carolina as we work to learn more.
Copyright 2024 WHNS. All rights reserved.
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