Posted on 05/18/2020 8:32:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s all over the news, two white guys shot a black man in Georgia while he was jogging because they thought he was a burglar. The racial aspect touched a nerve, which was compounded because Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael took the law into their own hands. It looked like the Trayvon Martin fatal shooting all over again. And things got worse when more details started coming out.
So is this a modern day racist lynching, as some like Al Sharpton are claiming, or is it merely an unfortunate situation? Now it’s too early to pass judgment, since the men are entitled to a jury trial in a court of law. We don’t know all of the facts yet. But we do know quite a few, and the main controversy seems to come down to the men’s decision to follow Armery.
People were outraged that the men were not arrested right away. It took the release of a video of the shooting a couple months later, invoking loud protests, to arrest them.
The prosecutor for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, Jackie Johnson, recused herself because the elder McMichael had worked in her office. The next prosecutor assigned to the case, Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill, also recused himself because his son worked for Johnson’s office.
Shortly before the shooting occurred, a neighbor of the McMichaels called 911 and said a black man had entered a house that was under construction nearby. The McMichaels say they saw Arbery jogging and got into their truck to follow him. Now anyone in law enforcement will tell you it’s not a good idea as a citizen to accost someone who is not in the process of committing a crime. If Arbery had burglarized homes, he wasn’t burglarizing one when they saw him jogging down the road.
But the law is vague about timing. In Georgia, the private citizen’s arrest statute says, “A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge.” The McMichaels apparently thought Arbery had just come from robbing a home.
Prosecutors initially told the police not to arrest the two men, saying they were acting within Georgia’s citizen’s arrest and self-defense statutes. However, Arbery family attorney S. Lee Merritt says the most Arbery was doing was trespassing, which doesn’t justify a citizen’s arrest. Those who know Arbery say he was known for jogging in that area.
The McMichaels said they yelled, “Stop, stop, we want to talk to you.” The elder McMichael said his son got out of the car with a shotgun. He said Arbery started to violently attack Travis and the two started fighting over the shotgun. Travis then shot Arbery three times. Arbery did not appear to be armed.
Barnhill said in his letter recusing himself that the older McMichael had previously investigated Arbery. CNN obtained a text message that was sent to a homeowner by a Glynn County police officer instructing him to contact Gregory McMichael if he saw a burglar on his security cameras.
Barnhill also said that Arbery had a criminal history. Arbery was indicted for bringing a gun to a high school basketball game when he was 19. He was arrested in 2018 for shoplifting. Barnhill said he believed the shooting was justified as a citizen’s arrest. He questioned whether maybe Arbery had caused the shotgun to be fired.
The McMichaels claim Arbery looked like a suspect in a string of burglaries. Travis McMichael called 911 several days before the shooting to report a man going into a house. One homeowner said he has previous video of a man entering his property and stealing fishing tackle. But Glynn County Police Lt. Cheri Bashlor said just one burglary in the neighborhood had been reported, theft of a firearm in an unlocked car outside the McMichael’s home. And Larry English, who owned the home under construction, said nothing had ever been stolen from the home.
George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, was acquitted of charges by a jury that found he was acting in self-defense. Zimmerman got out of his car and followed Martin because he thought he was a burglary suspect and was behaving suspiciously. There was evidence there had been a scuffle, since Zimmerman had a bloody nose along with lumps and two cuts on his head.
The two shootings are so similar there is a very good chance a jury will acquit the McMichaels. So should people be outraged? The problem likely lies in the law. Perhaps citizen’s arrest laws need to be narrowed to make it clear that citizens can only arrest suspects at the time of the crime, not 20 minutes later. It’s the concept of private citizens chasing after a suspect who isn’t in the process of committing a crime that bothers people. It makes it look like the people in pursuit are escalating the chances of violence.
Lindsay McMichael, the sister and daughter of the suspects, has come forward saying that the two are not racist, that they have always approved of her nonwhite boyfriends.
This doesn’t appear to be a racist hate crime. It’s most likely a situation where the law failed and needs to be revised. As a former police officer, the senior McMichael no doubt knew the citizen’s arrest law well, having encountered people using it while on the beat. He thought he was within his rights to follow Arbery. But it doesn’t mean it was a good judgment call.
“...(burglarized so often cameras were installed inside)….”
Except that the homeowner has stated that nothing was ever stolen from the house under construction. The only thing happening was Lookie Lous wandering through.
Because that is not what happened.
Aubery charged the junior McMichaels from 60 feet away, and closed the last 15 feet at an accelerated pace, punched McMichaels in the head, and grappled for the shotgun.
Now that is an assault.
You don't get a free pass for that kind of stupidity just because you are a Black man. And indeed, race becomes irrelevant under the circumstances. "Think of it as Evolution in Action".
Exactly what I meant when I talked about repeating lies.
“They were in a VEHICLE”
Not when the career criminal Arbery attacked. Why did you even say that? You can’t possibly have thought it was true.
“how could Arbery have been wrestling their weapon if they were in a vehicle?”
Moot. The son was standing outside the truck.
“Unless the son came down to confront Arbery?”
OMG! No! No! A white man confronting a black career criminal in the commission of a felony? The horror! The horror! What the son did was completely legal. What the career criminal did was a felony.
“Was that confrontation necessary?”
We all have a duty and a responsibility to confront career criminals when they are out and about pursuing their chosen career.
“Why did they not call the police while tailing Arbery?”
What would make you think you could get away with telling a lie like that? Not only has it been reported many times that they did call the police, the 911 tape itself has been released.
“Please answer those.”
I suspect it will have no effect on your repetition of those lies.
“Arbery being a career criminal? OK, did the McMichaels have access to his files?”
If you’re old enough to vote and you can’t recognize a career criminal on sight, you make Forrest Gump look like a genius.
Aggravated assault is a felony. It may not be that hard to prove that jumping out of a truck with a shotgun constitutes aggravated assault. I’d certainly be concerned bodily harm in that circumstance.
> But they should have called the police while doing so...
They did. Gregory McMichael called at 1:14.
He is a common criminal. The evidence IS there.
RE: They did. Gregory McMichael called at 1:14.
Well if they did, why bother coming down the vehicle to confront Arbery? Keep the Cops on the phone and tell them your whereabouts while following the man.
RE:He is a common criminal. The evidence IS there.
Tell me the evidence again for this particular incident... what did he steal?
If I am not mistaken, English, the owner of the house in question, stated that nothing THIS TIME was taken from the house.
The entire neighborhood had been plagued with burglaries.
I hear you. That may be the exact way the prosecution proceeds.
C: murder the result of two wannabe cops who confronted and killed a man who was defending himself from two knuckleheads
According to this story, the owner said nothing had ever been taken from the property.
“It was kind of unsettling to have somebody coming on your property in the middle of the night,” English told the AJC. The videos show no evidence of theft and English told police nothing was ever taken from the property.”
With some people you just expect it.
Here's what was reported by the NYTimes a few days ago...
Two months before Ahmaud Arbery was fatally shot in Glynn County, Ga., a police officer there sent a text to a property owner who was worried about recurring trespassing incidents, a lawyer for the homeowner said on Friday.The officer provided the phone number of a nearby resident, telling the owner to call it the next time his motion-sensing security cameras whirred into action.
It's called confirmation bias. They have their minds made up and only listen to those detail which confirm their belief.
This case is WAY too complicated for a rush to judgment (except perhaps for family members).
It looked to me like that first DA gave it a pretty thorough going over.
In one of the AJC stories, the homeowner was quoted as saying the same thing about the fishing gear, and also that he was not sure if it had been stolen at the Brunswick property or at the property where he lives now.
The homeowner says he never contacted McMichael about people on the property or anything else.
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