With demonstrators filling the streets of Atlanta and other major cities protesting police violence against black men, lawyers and law enforcement officers called for accountability and justice.

Late Friday afternoon, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a statement from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police calling for action against the Minneapolis police officers responsible for the death of George Floyd.

"We were shocked by the video from Minneapolis," the police chief organization's president, Toombs County Sheriff Wesley Walker, said in the written statement. "We want and expect the officers to be held accountable for their actions."

Walker was referring to the video shared on social media showing an officer kneeling on Floyd's neck until paramedics arrived, finding no signs of life. A distraught store clerk said in a televised news report that he had called police over what he thought was a counterfeit $20 bill. A few minutes later, Floyd was dead. His last words were inscribed on posters and shouted from megaphones in Atlanta Friday: "I can't breathe."

The incident followed the death of Ahmaud Arbery in the coastal Georgia city of Brunswick. Though Arbery died in February, it was not until May that a video of his shooting was released on social media. Two days after that, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested a former police officer and his son and charged them with murder. They had told police they were suspicious of Arbery running through their neighborhood and stopping at a house under construction. A third arrest followed for a neighbor charged with felony murder, accused of helping trap Arbery.

"All too often, African Americans get justice by video," said L. Chris Stewart, an Atlanta civil rights lawyer who is part of a team representing the Arbery family. "And that is not just immoral and improper and illegal, that is not justice."

Arbery's death brought up memories of a case that put Stewart in the national spotlight in 2015—a case that was largely defined by video of the incident at issue. Stewart negotiated a $6.5 million settlement with the city of North Charleston, South Carolina, for the family of Walter Scott, who was killed by a police officer.

In that case, the officer blamed Scott for fighting over a taser. But the officer was arrested—and later pleaded guilty—after a video of the shooting was released on social media. The video showed Scott running away, and the officer shooting him in the back. The officer then radioed a colleague to say he shot someone who was trying to take his taser. The officer is shown walking to the body and planting his taser on the ground.

As with the Scott shooting, no arrests were made for Arbery's death until after a video of the shooting went viral on the internet. And in both cases, police initially blamed the victim, Stewart said. Scott was blamed for running away from an approaching officer. His family believed he ran because he knew he had an outstanding arrest warrant for unpaid child support. Margaret Huang, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center, issued a statement late Friday calling those names and more.

"The impact of these murders reaches across the country, and there must be accountability. It is absolutely imperative that local police departments and district attorneys investigate, arrest and prosecute officers and all who violate the rights of the people who live in the communities they are charged to serve," Huang said.

She also called on law enforcement to "stop responding to peaceful protest of police killings with more violence."

"Police are obligated to protect those in the community, and punishing peaceful protest is a gross abuse of human rights," Huang said. "We stand with millions of people across the country who are rightfully outraged by the killing of unarmed Black people."

Huang urged law enforcement and governments to "join our efforts and call out white supremacy and acts of violence against Black people and other communities of color."

"For too long, we have seen police officers, local prosecutors, judges and juries perpetuate the violence against Black people through repeated failure to hold law enforcement officers responsible for their actions," Huang said. "We need to do more than condemn the violence; we need the killing to stop."