A former White sheriff deputy in Georgia reportedly discussed charging Blacks with felonies so they’d be denied the right to vote, the U.S. Department of Justice stated in court.
According to an FBI affidavit, ex-Wilkinson County sheriff’s deputy Cody Richard Griggers also boasted he’d beaten a Black man in custody while texting with members of an extremist group, calling it “sweet stress relief.”
The text messages were uncovered while the FBI and ATF were investigating extremist groups’ violent rhetoric on Facebook and illegal gun sales. The feds then learned that that Grigger, a former Marine, was telling the White supremacists he was illegally acquiring sawed-off shotguns and silencers, according to the Macon Telegraph. The investigation and subsequent findings led to Grigger’s termination in November 2020.
Griggers, 28, pleaded guilty in Macon, Georgia, to one count of possession of an unregistered firearm on Monday, April 26, 2021, in federal court. He will get up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in July.
“This former law enforcement officer knew that he was breaking the law when he chose to possess a cache of unregistered weapons, silencers and a machine gun, keeping many of them in his duty vehicle,” Acting U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary said in a statement on Justice.gov. “Coupled with his violent racially motivated extreme statements, the defendant has lost the privilege permanently of wearing the blue.”
The FBI said Griggers had also discussed “killing liberal politicians” and blaming it on Muslim extremists. He texted about charging Black people with “whatever felonies I can to take away their ability to vote,” The Grio stated.
Griggers also talked frequently often about making explosives and gathering illegal firearms at his home. During an FBI search, agents found a total of 11 illegal guns between his home and his squad car.
