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Atlanta Police Officer Resigns After Première Of Police Brutality Docuseries Copwatch America Airs On BET

Atlanta, GA — After the pre­mière of the high­ly antic­i­pat­ed docuseries Copwatch America aired on BET, the City of Atlanta pre­sent­ed Atlanta Police Officer Sung Kim with two alter­na­tives: resign or be ter­mi­nat­ed. The for­mer APD offi­cer shot and killed unarmed 21-year old Jimmy Atchison in January 2019. 

Attorney Gerald Griggs teamed up with BET to pro­duce the docuseries pro­vid­ing unlim­it­ed, nev­er before seen evi­dence to the net­work. This is the first time in the his­to­ry of tele­vi­sion that a major net­work was grant­ed exclu­sive access to an attorney’s investigation.

“It’s going to be raw and uncut, but we are going to ele­vate the voic­es of these fam­i­lies. I want­ed to show peo­ple the prob­lem and then the solu­tion because there is a solu­tion, and that’s the Obama 21st cen­tu­ry polic­ing ini­tia­tive,” said Attorney Griggs.

Former President Barack Obama con­vened a task force con­sist­ing of 150 par­tic­i­pates — includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives from law enforce­ment, elect­ed offi­cials, and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners from 40 cities to iden­ti­fy the best prac­tices to improve the rela­tion­ship between law enforce­ment and the com­mu­ni­ty. Mr. Obama released their rec­om­men­da­tions to the pub­lic and their munic­i­pal­i­ties in 2015. To date, no law enforce­ment depart­ment has imple­ment­ed all the rec­om­men­da­tions, one of the rea­sons BET decid­ed to begin film­ing this project ear­li­er this year.

“Far too often, con­tact between law enforce­ment and black civil­ians ends in vio­lence against inno­cent mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty. It is our hope that this first-of-its-kind-exposé sheds light on the issue, pro­vides solu­tions, and fos­ters a demand for account­abil­i­ty and jus­tice,” said BET Networks pres­i­dent Scott Mills.

The docuseries will also include the cas­es of Veltavious Griggs, Oscar Caine, Eric Garner, Jamarion Robinson, and Nicholas Bolton. Griggs works along­side Chris “City” Mungin, Yonasda Lonewolf, Shar Bates, and Patrick Newbill.

Attorney Griggs has worked as an activist for over 20 years. His work with Jaheem Herrera’s case launched the National Anti-Bullying Movement and strength­ened Georgia’s Anti-Bullying Law. Griggs’ intense inves­ti­ga­tion into the alleged crimes of R&B Singer Robert Sylvester Kelly led to felony indict­ments in sev­er­al states, and Griggs pur­suit of jus­tice into the bru­tal beat­ing of Maggie Thomas in front of her four-year-old daugh­ter end­ed with Atlanta Police Officer James Hines fired in sev­en days.