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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 26 november 2021

Ahmaud Arbery’s mom: Thankful for justice and son’s legacy

and a federal hate crimes trial he walked in his gated com- “Today is actually going to be
for them is scheduled for munity. Martin was visiting a day of rest. I’ve been sitting
February. relatives. in that courtroom since Oc-
tober 18,” Cooper-Jones said.
Youtube video thumbnail She also spoke with the “I’m gathering my immediate
Cooper-Jones said after the mother of Breonna Taylor. family. We’re going to have a
verdicts were read Wednes- Taylor was killed by Louis- small dinner. We’ve going to
day, she thought of her son’s ville, Kentucky, police who be thankful. We’re going to
supporters at the Glynn burst into her home with- give our praises to God.”
County courthouse every out knocking while serving
day who shouted “Justice for a warrant during a drug op- Other relatives are also grate-
Ahmaud!” eration. Taylor’s boyfriend ful for the blessing of justice.
fired on the group. The offi-
“I finally got a chance to come cers were not charged in her “We’re thankful for Ah-
out of those courtroom doors death. maud’s life. Thankful for
and say, we did it, we did it the love that he’s shown us,
together,” Cooper-Jones said. Other mothers who have for the years we had him.
(AP) — Ahmaud Arbery’s Cooper-Jones, told The As- lost sons and daughters to Thankful for the fight we
mother woke up Thursday sociated Press in an interview Sitting beside Cooper-Jones racial violence or in police stayed in for justice. Thank-
with a new, very impor- Thursday. as she heard the judge read shootings also reached out. ful that now we can start
tant blessing on Thanks- out guilty 23 times was the Cooper-Jones calls them a healing,” Arbery’s aunt Thea
giving Day. The three white men who mother of Ronald Greene, sorority. Brooks told the AP.
chased and killed Arbery in a Louisiana man who died
But there will still be an emp- Brunswick in February 2020 in 2019 after he was beaten “We come together. We share Cooper-Jones is also thank-
ty chair at the family’s cele- were all convicted of murder and put in a chokehold by our experience and we grow ful her son’s killers are fac-
brations. It is a reminder that Wednesday. They cornered state troopers after a high together,” she said. ing justic e and his death will
while she feels justice was Arbery after finding out he speed chase. Troopers said make Georgia a safer place.
served when the three white had been seen on a surveil- Greene suffered his injuries Cooper-Jones spent the past
men who helped shoot her lance camera at a nearby in a crash, but his doctors re- six weeks away from home, After Arbery’s death, Geor-
son were convicted Wednes- house under construction ported that didn’t appear to since jury selection started gia became the 47th state to
day for cornering and kill- and wanted to question him be true. A federal civil rights Oct. 18. She moved away pass a hate crimes law. The
ing him as he ran through a about recent burglaries in the investigation into Greene’s from Brunswick after her son Legislature also repealed the
coastal Georgia neighbor- area. death continues. was killed. citizen’s arrest law that de-
hood, she will never be made fense attorneys tried to use to
whole again because her son Arbery ran through the ADVERTISEMENT So she plans a quiet Thanks- justify chasing him, banning
is gone. neighborhood and other ar- giving away from home to- people who aren’t officers
eas near his home to clear his In the days after her son was day. She isn’t sure if they will from detaining people out-
“This is the second Thanks- head. He had nothing in his killed. Cooper-Jones got a call make Arbery’s favorite — side of shoplifting.
giving we’ve had without Ah- hands and ran from the men from the mother of Trayvon pork chops and butter beans,
maud. But at the same time for five minutes before one of Martin, an unarmed Black but if not Thursday, the they “When they hear my son’s
I’m thankful. This is the first them shot three times at him teen killed by a man who will have them soon because name. they will say, this
Thanksgiving we are saying at close range with a shotgun. successfully claimed self-de- she said her son loved them young man, he lost his life
we got justice for Ahmaud,” The men face life in prison fense during his murder trial for Sunday dinner. but he did bring change,”
Arbery’s mother, Wanda when they are sentenced later after confronting Martin as Cooper-Jones said.

Tribes to mourn on Thanksgiving: ‘No reason to celebrate’

(AP) - Members of Na- that they understand the sto- Hill, a windswept mound Wampanoag Tribal Council, world,” Weeden said. “Be-
tive American tribes from ries we all learned in school overlooking Plymouth Rock, said on Boston Public Radio cause we were thankful, we
around New England are about the first Thanksgiving a memorial to the colo- earlier this week that Ameri- were willing to share ... and
gathering in the seaside are nothing but lies. Wampa- nists’ arrival. They will also cans owe his tribe a debt of we had good intentions and a
town where the Pilgrims noag and other Indigenous livestream the event. gratitude for helping the Pil- good heart.”
settled — not to give people have certainly not grims survive their first bru-
thanks, but to mourn In- lived happily ever after since Participants will beat drums, tal winter. “That’s why, 400 years later,
digenous people world- the arrival of the Pilgrims,” offer prayers and condemn we’re still sitting here fight-
wide who’ve suffered cen- James said. what organizers describe as “People need to understand ing for what little bit of land
turies of racism and mis- “the unjust system based on that you need to be thank- that we still have, and trying
treatment. “To us, Thanksgiving is a day racism, settler colonialism, ful each and every day — to hold the commonwealth
of mourning, because we re- sexism, homophobia and the that was how our ancestors and the federal government
Thursday’s solemn National member the millions of our profit-driven destruction of thought and navigated this accountable,” he said.
Day of Mourning observance ancestors who were mur- the Earth” before marching
in downtown Plymouth, dered by uninvited European through downtown Plym-
Massachusetts, will recall the colonists such as the Pil- outh’s historical district.
disease and oppression that grims. Today, we and many
European settlers brought to Indigenous people around This year, they’ll also high-
North America. the country say, ‘No Thanks, light the troubled legacy of
No Giving.’” federal boarding schools that
“We Native people have no sought to assimilate Indig-
reason to celebrate the ar- It’s the 52nd year that the enous youth into white soci-
rival of the Pilgrims,” said United American Indians of ety in the U.S. as well as in
Kisha James, a member of New England have organized Canada, where hundreds of
the Aquinnah Wampanoag the event on Thanksgiving bodies have been discovered
and Oglala Lakota tribes and Day. The tradition began in on the grounds of former
the granddaughter of Wam- 1970. residential schools for Indig-
sutta Frank James, the event’s enous children.
founder. Indigenous people and their
supporters will gather at Brian Moskwetah Weeden,
“We want to educate people so noon in person on Cole’s chairman of the Mashpee