‘A mistake.’ Georgia official apologizes for ‘angry’ protest comments but won’t resign
Longtime Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen on Thursday apologized for a Facebook comment he posted on a Wisconsin television station’s live stream of scenes there in the wake of violence surrounding George Floyd protests in which he wrote, “It’s now time to SHOOT to KILL them if they continue to destroy.”
Reached by phone, Allen, 70, whose term as District 6 commissioner expires at year’s end, said he was sorry for writing what he described as “an angry, hurtful comment ... and I regret it.”
Allen is not seeking re-election.
“It was not about the people marching, the protesters,” Allen told The Telegraph. “What I said was never against the protesters. ... Anybody can protest, that’s their God-given right.”
As of midday Thursday, more than 1,600 people had signed a change.org petition seeking Allen’s resignation.
Allen, a former firefighter and founder of the Christmas-toys-for-children charity Kids Yule Love, said that despite calls for him to resign his commission post, he had no plans to do so.
“I do regret my choice of words. I do,” he said of his “shoot to kill” remark that has generated widespread outcry.
“The bottom line is, I made a mistake,” Allen went on, adding that some people “are trying to crucify me right now for saying something that I’ve apologized for from the bottom of my heart.”
Asked by a Telegraph reporter what had compelled him to make his statement online, Allen referred to wall-to-wall coverage of Floyd’s death and its aftermath.
“That’s all that’s on. There’s nothing about COVID on,” he said. “Yeah, there is a little bit about COVID. ... But that’s all y’all want to talk about. That’s all anybody wants to talk about. ... I sit here and I see it over and over and over and I see people being hurt. I mean, I hate that people get hurt.”
Allen said he posted the comment on the TV station’s Facebook page “before I even thought” but said the post was not about protesters.
“I was very hurt at seeing people being injured,” Allen said.
In a Thursday statement, Macon Mayor Robert Reichert said comments like the one Allen posted are “in no way helpful in resolving situations like the ones in which we find ourselves these days, and they certainly do not help address the underlying issues which led us here.”
Bibb District 9 Commissioner Al Tillman said he spoke to Allen on Wednesday after Allen’s Facebook comment began circulating.
“I said to him what he said was insensitive,” Tillman said, “and I think that not only what he needs to know and understand but the whole world needs to know and understand is that you can’t change the narrative. You can’t make this about something else. This is about African American men who have been mistreated because of the color of their skin.”
Tillman said it wasn’t up to him to ask Allen to step down, but something people in Allen’s district must address.
“For me personally,” he said, “I’d rather know where a man stands so I can know how to deal with him ... (rather than) those to be hiding behind the blinders.”
Bibb County Sheriff David Davis, who supported protesters at a march in Macon on Tuesday, said he was at a “loss for words” about Commissioner Allen’s post.
“In our community, we had a very peaceful and meaningful march by committed and concerned citizens to show our righteous anger over shockingly lawless behavior by some law enforcement officers. Comments such as his do little to foster good community relations, and I would hope that people would allow those of us in charge of protecting our communities to determine the best ways to do so,” he said in a statement.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 1:59 PM.