MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The charge against the man accused of threatening Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer was reportedly dismissed Thursday morning.
George Johnson was facing a misdemeanor assault charge after he was seen on camera yelling profanities at Sawyer while waving a confederate flag in June of 2021.
Johnson was part of the crew moving Nathan Bedford Forrest’s remains and dismantling a pedestal that had supported a statute of Forrest before it was removed in 2017.
Speaking with WREG before his arrest, Johnson initially labelled the warrant for his arrest “fake news” and did not apologize for his actions.
“I have no apologies whatsoever for what I did because this is my heritage,” Johnson said.
Court records state the case was dismissed on the grounds of “no probable cause.”
Sawyer reacted to the dismissal Thursday. She said while the judge found Johnson’s actions “pathetic”, he could not identify “a reasonable level of fear” on her part.
“It is absolutely reasonable that I, as a Black woman, would have felt fear from a white supremacist threatening me and singing Dixie,” Sawyer said. “But, unless the courts look more like the country we live in (among other necessary changes), my reasonableness won’t be recognized.”
Sawyer also said the dismissal is an example of why representation matters.
“If this is the system we have to operate in, we must ensure that the people who get to assess what is reasonable represent us all,” Sawyer said.