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<\/a>\nPatrick David reports from Macon, 7 Jan 2011,\n<\/a>\nPatrick David reports from Macon, 7 Jan 2011,\n\nQuitman 10: New Year’s Day protest march sends message to J. David Miller, GBI<\/a>:\n\nApproximately three hundred marchers converged onto the steps of the\nBrooks County Courthouse to send a public message that voter intimidation\nand voter disenfranchisement will not be tolerated.\n\nThis story has flown under the radar of the mainstream media, but the GBI\nin conjunction with Republican J. David Miller, the district attorney for\nthe Southern Judicial District that represent majority-African-American\ntowns such as Thomasville, Moultrie, Valdosta and Alma, is preparing\nto move forward in the targeting of ten African-American Brooks County\ncitizens, otherwise known as the “Quitman 10”.\n<\/blockquote>\nI mentioned the day after the arrests (22 Dec 2010) that\nit was curious that the local newspaper,\nthe Valdosta Daily Times, seemed to have nothing about that.<\/a>\nAt least WCTV and WALB reported the arrests, but they don’t seem\nto be following the story since.\nDean Poling did report in the VDT 24 Dec 2010 that\n\nCharges won\u2019t keep Brooks school board members from serving<\/a>:\n\n\n
\n\u201cThey will be able to serve on the board as a full member,\u201d said\nBrad Shealy, the Brooks County Board of Education president.\n<\/blockquote>\n\nGeorge Rhynes seems to be the only one\n\nwho has posted the names of the Quitman 10<\/a>\n(Angela Bryant.\nApril Proctor,\nElizabeth Thomas,\nKechia Harrison,\nLatashia Head,\nLinda Troutman,\nLula Smart,\nNancy Dennard,\nRobert Dennard,\nSandra Cody)\nalong with the details of what they were charged with\n(various counts of Unlawful Possession of Ballots and\nof Violation of Procedure for Voting by Absentee Ballot).\n
\nAnd he draws a parallel:\n
\nTheir arrest reminds me of May 5, 2005 when Valdosta City Mayor John\nFretti, and Council arrested \u201cThe Valdosta 15 for addressing their\npublic officials at a public meeting. However NOT a single person\narrested were interviewed or mentioned in the press outside of the\ncrime report. Therefore We must stand strong for right and NOT for\nunfair ruling handed down too often by South Georgia Judges in racial\ncourt cases. Even they may be the controlling patriots and Christians\nof this dispensation.\n<\/blockquote>\nHe links to a VDT story of 1 May 2006,\n\nCourt rules arrests unconstitutional,\nCase involves 15 citizens arrested and charged with disrupting a lawful meeting<\/a>\n\nValdosta Police Commander Johnnie Fason entered the council chambers and\nrequested that all those who wanted to be arrested follow him. Of the\n20 who left the council chambers with the police, 15 were arrested and\nplaced in vans for transport to the jail. They spent the night in the\nLowndes County Jail until bond hearings could be held on Friday. Rose\nwas placed in solitary confinement for 24 hours, and all 15 citizens\nwere released on bond.\n\nWhen asked what the ruling meant for the future of Valdosta and Lowndes\nCounty during an interview with a Valdosta Daily Times reporter, Rose\nsaid, \u201cIt\u2019s going to say to the City of Valdosta that citizens have\nthe right for redress of grievances before this government and that\nright cannot be abridged by laws that subvert the first amendment of\nthe U.S. Constitution.\u201d\n<\/blockquote>\nThe story says the Valdosta City Council has since passed a different\nordinance that its attorney says was modeled after one that was upheld\nby the South Carolina Supreme Court.\n
\nThe specifics of the cases are not the same, but George Rhynes\nmay have a point about lack of media coverage.\n