Atlanta, GA – As several cities across the United States continue to erupt in riots and protests over the police killing of 46-year-old George Floyd, Killer Mike is attempting to encourage the Atlanta community to stop burning down their own city.
On Friday (May 29), the Run The Jewels MC delivered an impassioned speech at the Atlanta Mayor’s Press Conference and got emotional as he spoke about Floyd’s murder.
With tears in his eyes and t-shirt that read “Kill Your Masters,” Mike explained the frustrating position he’s in as both a black man and son of an Atlanta city police officer.
“I got a lot of love and respect for police officers down to the original eight police officers in Atlanta that even after becoming police, had to dress in a YMCA because white officers didn’t want to get dressed with n*ggers,” he said. “Here we are 80 years later, I watched a white officer assassinate a black man and I know that tore your heart out. I have nothing positive to say in this moment, because I don’t want to be here.”
He continued, “I am duty-bound to be here to simply say it is your duty not to 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.”
Mike then talked about how it’s time to “beat up” corrupt politicians at the voting booth, while asserting he’s “mad as hell.”
“I woke up wanting to see the world burn yesterday because I’m tired of seeing black men die,” he said. “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. So that’s why children are burning it to the ground. They don’t know what else to do.
“And it is 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 for systemic racism burnt to the ground.”
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Fellow ATL rapper T.I., who spoke right before Mike at the same conference, agreed riots aren’t the way.
“Atlanta has been here for us,” he said. “This city don’t deserve it, however I understand that a lot of others do. But, we can’t do that here…it’s sacred. It must be protected.”
Watch the full conferenced below, which also includes commentary from Dr. Bernice King and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.