CAMDEN COUNTY, Ga. — WARNING: Some viewers may find the video above difficult to watch
Civil rights groups are calling for the suspension, termination and arrest of four officers involved in an incident at Camden County Jail.
Security footage shows Officers entering the cell of Jarrett Hobbs, attempting to restrain him and then striking him multiple times.
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Attorneys representing Hobbs claim there is a pattern of abuse at the sheriff’s office.
“If Mr. Hobbs was an animal this would be cruelty to animals,” said Harry Daniels, a civil rights attorney representing Hobbs.
Daniels was joined by the Camden County NAACP calling for justice outside the Camden County Courthouse Wednesday afternoon.
One speaker held up a file full of what he claimed were lawsuits and complaints filed by inmates at the jail and at least two people spoke who claimed they had been personally mistreated in the jail.
READ: GBI to investigate after video shows inmate being beaten in Camden County Jail
They argued this is just the first incident where abuse was caught on camera.
Civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers also spoke.
He accused the Camden County Sheriff’s Office of covering up the incident, which occurred two months before the video came to light.
READ: Camden County Sheriff’s Office investigating after video surfaces of inmate being beaten in jail
Hobbs’ attorneys also said Hobbs had filed a complaint himself after the September incident, but it went nowhere.
“And so what we have here today is a department that is rouge, a department that is out of control, a department that’s absent leadership. A department that beats a Black man because they simply don’t give him the benefit of their humanity” said Sellers.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation into the incident and there was at least one GBI agent outside the jail following the press conference Wednesday.
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The Camden County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it has also begun an internal investigation into the matter, saying in a statement, “The findings of the investigation will deem if disciplinary actions will result at the conclusion of the inquiry”.
We asked Hobbs’ attorneys whether there was any additional video showing the lead-up to the incident.
They said it will be released soon and claimed it will show Hobbs did nothing to provoke the beating he received.
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“He could have been singing ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’ None of it matters because what they did to him was a criminal act,” said Sellers.
Hobbs’ sister Taylor Wood told us this isn’t the first time a Black man has been beaten in the Camden County jail, but it’s her intent to make sure her brother is the last.
“Fired. Convicted. Arrested and convicted. I want them behind bars. I want the roles to be reversed,” said Wood.
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