Tag: georgia

They Called It Jim Crow, Then Georgia Voters Proved Them Wrong

The Day the Game Got Hijacked

Major League Baseball (MLB) made a scheduling decision regarding the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta. The decision was a political statement because of mounting pressure from the Biden Administration, Stacey Abrams, and a litany of virtue-signaling CEOs. In one decision, MLB removed any doubt that it didn’t have the baseballs when it moved the All-Star Game to Denver, Col.

Why were the wolves howling four years ago? Because the state of Georgia had the temerity to pass an election integrity bill, Senate Bill 202. Democrats, without any evidence, described the bill as “Jim Crow on steroids.” Stacy Abrams, that bastion of integrity, called for economic boycotts. 

Later, when her state lost millions in tourism revenue and small income, she feigned regret. Meanwhile, corporate giants like Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines piled on. The lame-stream media echoed their scripts with such vigor that we were shocked that their pom-poms didn’t get caught in their teeth.

We didn’t witness political theater as much as it was an act of narrative warfare.

Remember the Lies They Told

News readers on MSNBC and CNN warned us that the sky was falling because voter suppression was imminent. This new Georgia law, they claimed again without proof, would disenfranchise Black voters disproportionately by restricting early voting, limiting drop boxes, and requiring voter ID, something framed as a modern-day poll tax.

Ironically, Colorado, now hosting the All-Star Game, had similar voter ID requirements. Similar, but not an improvement. Georgia’s law expanded early voting days to 17 statewide, more than what some blue states offer. Never mind that absentee ballots could be requested with relative ease as long as you proved who you said you were.

Like everything on the Left, facts didn’t matter. If they said you were a suppressed voter, then by golly, you were one suppressed voter. The left found a convenient villain: Georgia.

With that, Biden, Abrams, and every late-night TV host from Kimmel to Colbert repeated “Jim Crow” like a religious mantra. The goal wasn’t to debate the law’s merits; it was to teach Georgia the lesson that it had acted too boldly, too rashly, and too independently.

Here’s What Actually Happened

So what became of the doom they predicted? Georgia held elections again, several of them. And the result?

Record-breaking voter turnout.

In the 2022 primary, early voting surged by 212% compared to 2018. Turnout among Black voters not only matched but, in some counties, surpassed previous years. According to a University of Georgia survey, 99% of voters reported having no problem voting. Even liberal polling outfits struggled to reconcile the numbers with the narrative they’d pushed.

In other words, the so-called “suppression law” didn’t suppress anything except the credibility of those who screamed the loudest.

And yet, few apologies came. No one from the Biden administration issued a correction. Stacey Abrams never acknowledged the economic damage caused by her boycott campaign. Why should they? The drive-bys were following orders to leave them alone.

After cutting ties with Georgia in 2021, MLB quietly announced in 2023 that the All-Star Game would return to Atlanta in 2025. 

No press conference. No mea culpa. Just a quiet reversal that no one would notice.

But we noticed.

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Former CBP Officer Sentenced for Smuggling Cocaine from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Atlanta

Ivan Van Beverhoudt, 45, a former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, will serve a 20-year prison sentence following his convictions for importing and possessing with intent to distribute over 15 kilograms of cocaine.

“Van Beverhoudt betrayed his badge by committing one of the very crimes he was entrusted to prevent—smuggling dangerous drugs into our country,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “Our office and its agency partners will hold accountable any law enforcement officer who abuses his authority for criminal ends, and Van Beverhoudt’s twenty-year sentence demonstrates that such abuse will be met with severe consequences.”

“This case highlights the severe repercussions for law enforcement officers who abuse their positions of trust,” said Steven N. Schrank, the Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Georgia and Alabama. “Ivan Van Beverhoudt’s attempt to smuggle over 15 kilograms of cocaine into the country was a grave violation, and thanks to the efforts of HSI and our partners, he will spend 20 years behind bars.”

According to U.S. Attorney Hertzberg, the charges, and other information presented in court: On January 10, 2020, Van Beverhoudt, a CBP officer, boarded a commercial flight from St. Thomas to Atlanta with 16 bricks of cocaine in his two carry-on bags. To avoid TSA screening in St. Thomas, Van Beverhoudt traveled in his official capacity with his loaded CBP-issued firearm. Upon arriving at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, a CBP-trained narcotics K-9 officer in the jetway alerted to Van Beverhoudt’s luggage, which led to the discovery of the cocaine. 

On February 24, 2025, following a five-day jury trial, Van Beverhoudt was convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, importation of cocaine into the United States, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. 

On July 8, 2025, United States District Judge J.P. Boulee sentenced Van Beverhoudt to 20 years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. 

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, with valuable assistance provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General. 

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Understanding the RICO Charges in Atlanta

Since the beginning of 2023, prosecutors in Georgia have threatened to charge activists protesting against a planned police militarization facility known as “Cop City” with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Last week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr indicted 61 people on RICO charges in Fulton County.

In indiscriminately lumping together scores of arrestees, many of whom have ostensibly never met, into a fabricated conspiracy case, the prosecution is attempting to criminalize protest itself. This case represents politically driven repression aimed at suppressing all forms of activism and dissent, in the style of Vladimir Putin. It should be of interest to anyone who is concerned about civil liberties such as the freedom to protest or the freedom to advocate against police brutality and authoritarianism or in favor of preserving the environment.

The indictment does not seem to indicate that prosecutors have any previously unreleased information at their disposal indicating the existence of a conspiracy, in the sense that the word is ordinarily employed. Rather, they have brought new charges against those whose names they already had as the result of previous arrests, and are now clumsily endeavoring to frame them as participants in a cohesive criminal enterprise.

The defendants include 42 people already charged with “terrorism” for allegedly participating in the movement to #StopCopCity, many of them on the basis of actions as simple as entering a forest or posting to social media; three more people already charged with felonies for allegedly distributing handbills; and another three people charged last May with “money laundering” and other crimes for organizing legal support for activists. None of these previous charges has resulted in a single conviction.

The only thing that connects all of these indictees is that they all appear to have been arrested or detained at some point, however randomly, on suspicion of protesting against the government’s plan to destroy the Weelaunee Forest.

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What A Mess In Georgia, Will National GOP Leadership Do The Right Thing? Or Overlook The Stink Of Corruption As 2026 Approaches

Many of us in the grassroots have been shocked at the behavior of GOP officials across the nation. It’s almost as if the GOP leadership doesn’t give a damn about Americans who want to participate in the political process.

In Miami-Dade for instance, we witnessed county GOP officials acting in a tyrannical manner, refusing to allow participation of those with the ‘wrong opinions’ in the selection of leadership. This resulted in many leaving the party in disgust and frustration as we have documented extensively at The Miami Independent.

In fact, it has happened all across Florida as the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) did nothing as Republican Executive Committees (REC) around the state literally had individuals removed from leadership, or saw the entire REC cancelled for being MAGA and pro-Trump.

The behavior of the RPOF stinks to high heaven.

Guess what, the GOP stinks like a pogie plant in Georgia too!

The GA GOP convention in Dalton was the most recent example.

We have documented extensively here at The Georgia Record the tyrannical behavior of the Josh McKoon faction at the convention, where the grassroots are supposed to be given access to the mechanisms of power and the people’s voice is supposed to be heard.

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Nicholls Police Chief arrested on child sex crime charges

The Nicholls Police Department’s (NPD) Chief was arrested June 19 on charges including enticing a child for indecent purposes and criminal attempt to commit child molestation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) announced on June 20.

NPD Chief Ashley Wilson, a 40-year-old from Broxton, is in custody at the Coffee County Jail, the GBI said.

Through their investigation, the GBI said they found that Wilson sent messages to a 15-year-old girl telling her he wanted to have a sexual relationship with her. Many of the messages were sent while Wilson was on duty as Chief of Police, the GBI said.

Now, Wilson is charged with the following, officials said:

  • Three counts of enticing a child
  • One count of violation of oath of office
  • One count of conspiracy to commit child molestation

Investigators said that the girl’s mother discovered text messages between her daughter and Wilson, so she reported the incident to NPD.

Wilson’s arrest comes after the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) got a report late June 18 alleging that an NPD officer was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a minor, according to the sheriff’s office. CCSO said they immediately dispatched a deputy to evaluate the situation, and they found that the allegations warranted a comprehensive investigation. CCSO then requested that the GBI investigate this case.

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Democracy in Georgia Is Under Threat by the US Congress and the Helsinki Commission

 It was Lincoln who once said “I would like to see someone proud of the place in which they live.” The 16th president never made it to the South Caucasus, but here reside a people quite justly proud of the place in which they live. Among the most striking differences between the vision offered to Georgian citizens by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and by the Western-backed opposition parties is that the former is unabashedly so.

From the perspective of an American of rather longstanding, it seems the politics of the GD are not dissimilar to those of MAGA Republicans; Hungary’s Fidesz; France’s National Rally; Poland’s Law and Justice; or the UK’s Reform Party. The pro-NATO, pro-EU Georgian opposition coalition, having lost a democratic election by a convincing margin last October, continues to call for foreign powers (the US, the EU) to sanction members and funders of the GD. The bedraggled youth who sit in protest on the steps of the Georgian Parliament under the flags of a foreign powers are calling for those powers to sanction the legitimate winners of their country’s last national election: Do they not know what “democracy” means?

For some reason, the Georgian opposition thinks Washington and Brussels (a EU and NATO “Information Center” resides in a handsome building just off Tbilisi’s Freedom Square) have something to teach Georgia about democracy. Still worse, the illusion that Washington has both the right and duty to teach Georgia how to govern itself persists in the American media and in the halls of Congress.

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Democrat Georgia Mayor Arrested for Child Molestation, Wife Charged with Cruelty to Children

A Democrat mayor in Georgia has been arrested for child molestation, and his wife was also arrested and charged with cruelty to children.

Joseph Kelly, 38, the mayor of the City of Climax and a Decatur County School District employee, was charged with two counts of child molestation. Natalie Kelly, 44, was charged with two counts of cruelty to children in the second degree.

According to the school district’s website, he is a math teacher at Bainbridge High School. It is unclear if he remains employed there.

The acts are alleged to involve multiple children.

Both were arrested on Saturday.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement:

“On Saturday, May 31, 2025, the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office requested the assistance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate allegations that Joseph Kelly had sexual contact with multiple minors. Both Joseph and Natalie Kelly were arrested later that same day by GBI agents and Decatur County Sheriff’s Office investigators. They were booked into the Decatur County Jail.”

The bureau added, “At this time, there is no indication that the alleged acts are related to his employment.”

The accused child predator has since been released on a $55,400 bond. His wife was released on a $11,400 bond.

The investigation remains ongoing.

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Soros-backed Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who slammed the rich, doubles net worth since taking office

Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock — who has praised Marxism and cheered the redistribution of wealth — has made a killing since he took office, The Post has learned.

The Peach State pastor — whose campaign was heavily backed by far-left billionaire George Soros — doubled his net worth from just over $1 million in 2020 to as much as $2.2 million in 2024, financial disclosure records show.

Warnock, 55, made history in 2021 when he became Georgia’s first black senator by defeating incumbent Kelly Loeffler in a special election.

He accused his predecessor during the race of using her seat to get rich.

But records show he almost tripled his annual earnings, going from $242,101 when he was a reverend in 2020 to bringing in on average $659,977 each year since becoming a politician — between salaries for his various gigs, book deals and investments, records show.

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Georgia Elections: 74% VOTING SYSTEM ERROR- Saved By Hand Count!

In this VIDEO clip, DeKalb Board of Elections Attorney, Brent Herrin explains to the State Election Board that: “…TABULATING MACHINES WERE NOT ACCURATE. A decision by the board was made to do a HAND RECOUNT to ensure accurate results of the election,” Keisha Smith, DeKalb Elections Director, nods her head repeatedly in agreement. Duh! Isn’t that what we have been saying for 20+ years? Georgia’s Dominion voting system declared the wrong winners for the May 22, 2024 DeKalb Co. District 2 Commission primary. It only became known because a candidate received no votes in the precinct where she and her husband lived and voted. When she reported the problem to the DeKalb Election Board, they ordered a machine recount that produced the same results again. They then conducted a hand count of the race that proved the voting system shorted the candidate 3049 of her actual 4078 votes, over 74% of her total votes. The system gave 1456 of her votes to one of her opponents and failed to count another 1805 of her votes. The July 15, 2022 DeKalb Co. Election Board materials attributed the massive miscount to a complex ballot alignment error after one candidate withdrew from the race. However, no one has ever been willing to explain why the system failed to count 1805 votes.

So what really happened?

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Family says woman declared brain dead but her pregnancy continues under state law

The family of a 30-year-old metro Atlanta mother and nurse said she was declared brain dead more than 90 days ago — but is still being kept alive because she’s pregnant.

Adriana Smith, a registered nurse at Emory University Hospital, was nearly nine weeks pregnant in early February when she started experiencing intense headaches. According to her mother, April Newkirk, Smith sought treatment at Northside Hospital but was released after being given medication.

“They gave her some medication, but they didn’t do any tests. No CT scan,” Newkirk said. “If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented.”

The next morning, Newkirk said Smith’s boyfriend woke to her gasping for air in her sleep—gargling sounds he believes were caused by internal bleeding. 

He called 911. Smith was taken to Emory Decatur and later transferred to Emory University Hospital where she worked. A CT scan revealed multiple blood clots in her brain.

“They asked me if I would agree to a procedure to relieve the pressure, and I said yes,” Newkirk said. “Then they called me back and said they couldn’t do it.”

Smith was declared brain dead. Her family has been by her side every day since, including her young son, who they said still believes his mother is just sleeping.

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