Sharpton gives eulogy at Grier funeral

Aug. 13—ATLANTA, Ga. — The Rev. Al Sharpton said the death of Brianna Marie Grier and others at the hands of law enforcement officers must end.

It was one of the focal points of Sharpton's message when he delivered the eulogy at Grier's funeral held at West Hunter Street Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta on Thursday.

The 28-year-old Grier died when she fell out the rear passenger door of a moving patrol car in Hancock County on July 15. She passed away six days later at an Atlanta hospital from what family members and others have indicated was trauma to her brain.

Since her death, agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Region 6 Office in Milledgeville have been investigating what happened.

Bodycam video was released from the two deputies with the Hancock County Sheriff's Office who responded to the call, Deputy Lt. Marlin Primus and Deputy Timothy Legette.

Hancock County Sheriff Terrell Primus, the younger brother of Lt. Primus, called in the GBI to assist the sheriff's office in the investigation. The Hancock County Coroner's Office is also involved in the investigation.

The sheriff said Grier was arrested on charges of public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. She was being taken to the Hancock County Jail in Sparta when she fell out of an unlocked door of a patrol car being driven by Legette.

Official autopsy results have not been released by the GBI.

Sharpton, who has been involved in the civil rights movement for decades, serves as founder, president and chief executive officer of the National Action Network (NAN), said he and others including Grier's family were there Thursday to commemorate her life.

"Let me say at the outset that the program says that we come to celebrate her life, but we also come to condemn her passing," Sharpton said. "We ought not act like we're here under a natural circumstance. These two young twins that the grandparents and attorney (Benjamin) Crump walked them to the casket to see their mother for the last time, one day we will have to tell them the story of what happened to their mother. But the troubling thing is that they will ask why did it happen."

Sharpton said when he arrived earlier at the church he thought about Ralph David Abernathy, for whom the street out in front of the church.

"Dr. Abernathy was president of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) when I started," Sharpton said. "We've been fighting these battles for a long time. And the question is not how long we fight, but that we must continue to fight until we solve this. The struggle is not about a season. The struggle is about a reason. And that is why when [attorney] Ben Crump called me and told me about Brianna, and told me what happened, and how her parents on my TV show, Politics Nation, asked me to be here."

Sharpton said the thing most troubling to him from the stories and reports he had read was that Grier was having a mental health episode.

"But the issue to me is not what she was thinking, but what [were] the police thinking," Sharpton said. "She may have had an episode, but what were they having that they had not secured who they arrested in the back of the cruiser? The issue is not Brianna's mind. The issue is their minds. And the mind of law enforcement in the county that let this happen."

Sharpton contends Brianna's parents did the right thing.

"They called the law," Sharpton said. "She was going through an episode. She needed help."

He then asked if this had happened in another community, would she have gotten the help she needed. Sharpton announced that he was pledging $5,000 from NAN to establish a college fund for Grier's daughters, Myriah and Marie.

He then referenced Biblical scripture of St. Luke 12:48.

"And it reads: To much is given; much is required," Sharpton said. "To much is given; much is required."

Sharpton explained that as Jesus talked with his disciples and informed them that he was going away and that he would receive them later, they asked him what they should do in his absence and how they should behave.

"He said, 'Well, you are graded by you are given much, much should be expected of you.'"

Sharpton said there were two sides to what was said.

"One side is that society gives more to law enforcement than to other citizens," Sharpton said.

He said an excuse too often familiar in the country today is that law enforcement officers are only human.

"Why is it true, they are both human, but they are given more than other humans," Sharpton said. "When they are given a gun and a badge to represent the state they are in. When you put on that badge, when you're given that state-sponsored gun, you are no longer expected to behave like other humans. You are expected to be trained and behave in a manner that you don't react with your emotions, but you react with your training. And you're then to sustain life, not to take life."

Questions abound about how such a thing could happen to Brianna Marie Grier, he said.

"When we question how come she was not secure since you arrested her, it is not that we are looking for excuses, we're saying that you were given, you were commissioned and you were confirmed by the state — much was given, therefore, you were required to bring her to receive the medical attention her parents sent up there for," Sharpton said. "That was your job. Your job wasn't to get angry, if she called you a name. Your job wasn't to get defensive if she wrestled with you. Your job was to bring her help. And if you couldn't do the job, then you shouldn't have signed up for the job."

Sharpton said he and others want to know why the deputies who answered the call and subsequently arrested Grier that night didn't handle the situation differently.

"Her parents called for help," Sharpton said. "They didn't call to have a funeral for their daughter. To much is given; much is required. Does this state require the police follow the guidelines? Does this state require that you follow the laws that you enforce? Well then, all we're asking for is that you be accountable to the law you enforce. You were not under any life extenuating circumstance. And you cannot explain how somebody in the back of a police cruiser ends up with that kind of injury that leads to death."

Sharpton said the people deserve answers.

"We want what the taxpayers, federal and state, pay you for," Sharpton said. "We want you to do your job or get another job."

Sharpton said the other side of the matter is that those in the Black community have been given a lot and more is required of them.

"Because as much as you were given, you are not answering your requirement," he told those in leadership within the Black community. "We didn't put you there to give you a title. We put you there to stand up for the least of those."

His comments were met with a standing ovation.

Sharpton said people died to open doors that used to be closed for those in the Black community now holding elected office.

"And all you could show us was your awards," he said. "Not no new laws. Not people that you put away."

He reiterated to much is given, much is required.

"That's why we hold the administration accountable," Sharpton said. "That's why if the county (Hancock) don't do something about Brianna, we're going to go to the Justice Department — the same Justice Department that this year, we got the justice department to come into the case of George Floyd even though they already had been found guilty on state charges."