Anger over the murder of George Floyd boiled over into the streets of America on Friday night. In cities across America, protestors confronted police, leading to tense, often violent scenes which played out live on television. In fact, in Atlanta, one of the more harrowing clashes took place inside the lobby of CNN’s headquarters, as officers struggled to push back protestors seeking to enter the building.
During a press conference alongside Atlanta’s mayor on Friday night, Killer Mike made an impassioned plea to residents of Atlanta asking them to not vandalize their city while also expressing rage over the circumstances that led to the evening’s events.
“We have to be better than burning down our own homes because if we lose Atlanta, what else we got?” Killer Mike asked. “It is your duty to not burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house, so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. And now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize.”
Instead, Killer Mike encouraged protestors to make their voices heard at the ballot box: “It is time to beat up prosecutors you don’t like at the voting booth. It’s time to hold mayoral offices accountable, chiefs and deputy chiefs.” He also called on Atlanta’s police department to bring back a community board in order to better hold itself accountable.
“I’m mad as hell. I woke up wanting to see the world burn down,” Killer Mike went on to remark. “I’m tired of seeing black men die. He casually put his knee on a human being’s neck for nine minutes as he died like a zebra in the clutch of a lion’s jaw, and we watch it like murder porn, over and over again. That’s why children are burning things to the ground — they don’t know what else to do. And it’s the responsibility of us to make this better, right now. We don’t want to see one officer charged, we want to see four officers prosecuted and sentenced. We don’t want to see targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up systemic racism, burn to the ground. ”
“We need to get ahead of it,” he added. “We don’t need an officer who makes a mistake once, twice, three times… finally, he kills a boy on national TV and the next thing you know the country is burning down,” Killer Mike continued. He then took a swipe at Donald Trump saying, “We don’t need a dumbass president repeating what segregationists said: ‘If you start lotting, we start shooting.’”
Killer Mike also had harsh words for CNN, suggesting that by “feeding fear and anger every day” the network has made people “fearful.”
“I love CNN … but what I’d like to say to CNN right now- karma’s a mother…” Killer Mike remarked. “Stop making people so fearful. Give them hope!” Even still, Killer Mike added, “I’m glad they only took down a sign and defaced the building and not kill human beings like that policeman did. I’m glad they only destroyed some brick and mortar and they didn’t rip a father from a son, they didn’t rip a son from a mother like the policeman did. When a man yells for his mother in duressing pain and she’s dead, he’s essentially yelling ‘Please God, don’t let it happen to me.’ And we watched it.”
Watch Killer Mike’s full remarks below.
The whole country needs to stop right now and listen to Killer Mike. He’s verbalizing what a lot of us don’t know how to express pic.twitter.com/yiBEaicRGT
— ment (@mentnelson) May 30, 2020