Black Jogger Gunned Down In The Street

[ZiprHead]

What We Know About the Shooting Death of Ahmaud Arbery

Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was chased by armed white residents of a South Georgia neighborhood. He was shot dead during a confrontation.

Mr. Arbery, 25, was a former high school football standout who was living with his mother in coastal Glynn County, Ga., outside of the small city of Brunswick, Ga. He was shot dead in a suburban neighborhood called Satilla Shores. Friends and family said he liked to stay in good shape, and he was often seen jogging in and around his neighborhood.

On Sunday, Feb. 23, shortly after 1 p.m., he was killed in a neighborhood a short jog from his home after being confronted by a white man and his son.

Mr. Arbery was running in the Satilla Shores neighborhood when a man standing in his front yard saw him go by. The man, Gregory McMichael, 64, thought Mr. Arbery looked like a man suspected of several break-ins in the area and called to his son, Travis McMichael, 34.

According to a police report, the men grabbed a .357 magnum and a shotgun, got into a pickup truck and chased Mr. Arbery, trying unsuccessfully to cut him off. A third man was also involved in the pursuit, according to the police report and other documents.

Complete video at this site.

 

[Worldtraveller]

Warning: Don't watch the video unless actually seeing people gunned down in the street doesn't bother you.

I can't believe these (white) men haven't been arrested/charged yet.

 

[cycomiko]

From a Guardian article about this: According to a letter obtained by the Times, the prosecutor in Brunswick argued there was not probable cause to arrest the McMichaels because they were legally carrying firearms, had a right to pursue a burglary suspect and use deadly force to protect themselves.

I've held conceal carry permits in 3 states now and EVERY class you sit through makes it clear that you DO NOT grab your guns and pursue anyone. Even if Arbery was actually guilty of a burglary, I'm pretty sure that's not punishable by death. This is a murder.

 

[TSwizzle]

If you see two guys in the middle of the street holding guns, wouldn't you start running in the opposite direction rather than towards them ?

 

[TV and credit cards]

In Georgia, are you obligated to stop when another citizen tells you to? Even from the video, Mr. Arbery was attempting to mind his own business. The now silent Mr. Arbery was within his right to defend himself against an armed stranger. The other McMichael shot him down in cold blood.
But then again,

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer and a former investigator with the local district attorney’s office who retired last May.

So, there you go.

 

[Jarhyn]

Wow. Just .. wow...

Is someone actually defending a group that threw together a posse, who lynched a black man? That they shot instead of hung him makes little difference. It's a fucking lynching.

 

[rousseau]

Threads like this remind me that sometimes our 'debates' amount to an elementary school lesson where we ask how many apples we have if we add two and two together.

If you're black in America you're in grave danger from pervasive racism. Not sure what else can be said about it?

 

[laughing dog]

According to CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/us/ahmaud-arbery-jogging-georgia-shooting/index.html), the case will go to the grand jury. However, due to covid-19 concerns, grand juries in Georgia are not meeting.

 

[Derec]

I've held conceal carry permits in 3 states now and EVERY class you sit through makes it clear that you DO NOT grab your guns and pursue anyone. Even if Arbery was actually guilty of a burglary, I'm pretty sure that's not punishable by death. This is a murder.

In the video it can be seen that Arbery grabbed the shotgun. Not murder. Manslaughter at most.

 

[Derec]

If you're black in America you're in grave danger from pervasive racism. Not sure what else can be said about it?

Vast majority of black people get killed by other black people, which means that if blacks in America are in "grave danger", it's mostly from their own.
Also, blacks killing whites twice as often as whites killing blacks. Another thing that doesn't fit media's narratives of "pervasive white racism", so it doesn't get mentioned.

 

[Derec]

In Georgia, are you obligated to stop when another citizen tells you to?

Apparently there are citizen's arrest laws on the books.

Even from the video, Mr. Arbery was attempting to mind his own business.

Not if he really was the guy guilty of those break-ins. Given his history of theft, that is not unlikely.

The now silent Mr. Arbery was within his right to defend himself against an armed stranger. The other McMichael shot him down in cold blood.

"Cold blood" definitely doesn't apply here, as Arbery was shot after the two struggled over a gun.

But then again,

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer and a former investigator with the local district attorney’s office who retired last May.

So, there you go.

I wonder if that's why Lee Merrittless took the case. Trying to shake down the county for millions.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

This exposes how stupid Stand Your Ground laws are. These idiots grab their guns and pursue a runner. The DA says, well, they were just defending themselves. But what about the runner? Has he no right to defense from a couple crazy assholes with guns?! Stand Your Ground is simply a bullshit law that is solely designed to defend Han Solo, ie the guy who shoots first).

In Georgia, are you obligated to stop when another citizen tells you to? Even from the video, Mr. Arbery was attempting to mind his own business. The now silent Mr. Arbery was within his right to defend himself against an armed stranger. The other McMichael shot him down in cold blood.
But then again,

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer and a former investigator with the local district attorney’s office who retired last May.

So, there you go.

The statement in the DA report notes that they had the legal right to apprehend the man... but the DA cites the law and law states you have to witness the crime, it doesn't state suspicion is enough.

What bothers me is the DA report refers to the video, so this video has been in their hands since the shooting and they are only now at a grand jury.

 

[southernhybrid]

This case is probably finally going to the Grand Jury to decide if criminal charges should be filed, which of course they should be filed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/us/ahmaud-arbery-killing-georgia.html

A Georgia prosecutor said on Tuesday that a grand jury should decide whether to bring charges in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old unarmed black man who was pursued by two white men and shot in southern Georgia in February, as video of the encounter spread widely online.
“After careful review of the evidence,” the prosecutor, Tom Durden, of Georgia’s Atlantic Judicial Circuit, wrote in a statement, “I am of the opinion that the case should be presented to the grand jury of Glynn County for consideration of criminal charges.”

“This is very grave and very serious judicial malpractice,” James Woodall, the president of the Georgia N.A.A.C.P., said on Tuesday afternoon.
In a statement, Andrea Young, executive director of the A.C.L.U. of Georgia, said “the vigilante behavior that we saw in Brunswick is unacceptable in a civilized society.”
A spokesman for the Glynn County Police Department could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Mr. Durden said in a statement that the case should go before a Glynn County grand jury once the state judicial system allows such bodies to be empaneled again. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Georgia Supreme Court has prohibited grand juries from meeting through June 12.
Mr. Durden said he made his decision after “careful review of the evidence,” and after consulting with the Glynn County Police Department, the F.B.I., the United States attorney for the Southern District of Georgia and the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.
Mr. Durden is the third prosecutor to be assigned to the case after the first two recused themselves because of professional ties to Gregory McMichael.

And no. This isn't normal in Georgia, but I know nothing about the politics of that part of the state. It sounds, from the little that is said in these articles, that the killers had political connections with some of those in power, considering that two prosecutors recused themselves. It appears to be an obvious case of murder.

Thankfully, I live in a mixed race neighborhood where black and white people walk and jog through the neighborhood and nobody worries about the color of the jogger's skin.

 

[southernhybrid]

Apparently there are citizen's arrest laws on the books.


Not if he really was the guy guilty of those break-ins. Given his history of theft, that is not unlikely.

The now silent Mr. Arbery was within his right to defend himself against an armed stranger. The other McMichael shot him down in cold blood.

"Cold blood" definitely doesn't apply here, as Arbery was shot after the two struggled over a gun.

But then again,

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer and a former investigator with the local district attorney’s office who retired last May.

So, there you go.

I wonder if that's why Lee Merrittless took the case. Trying to shake down the county for millions.

There is no evidence that the man who was murdered broke the law. The two shooters said that he looked like the guy who broke into some homes. Gee. Fucking white assholes have a long history of mistaking the identity of black men. Do you have an idea how many innocent black men have been charged with crimes that they didn't commit? Now, a man is gunned down for the crime of jogging while black. Disgusting!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I was once yelled at when I was in high school. I was doing hill intervals, going up and down the same big ass hill several times. I start going back down to the bottom and some guy asks me "Do you think you are funny?" I'm thinking "What?!" He went to accuse me of shutting his garage door. I'm thinking, I've been going back and forth on this hill (I fucking look like a runner, have been running the neighborhood for a couple years at that point). He demands to know where I live, I give him a vague description of the house, you know, just down the road, and he kind of gets his anger boner going flaccid. And it ends, and I go back to running up a hill like an idiot.

So I have an inkling of the confusion that poor runner must have had. But certainly not the fear when seeing a couple of entitled white assholes with guns telling you what to do. And you are thinking, what the fuck is going on, who the fuck are these guys, etc...

And that there was video and that concurred with the killer's story? That is disturbing.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Apparently there are citizen's arrest laws on the books.

If they witness a crime committed. They only suspected it.

"Cold blood" definitely doesn't apply here, as Arbery was shot after the two struggled over a gun.

There is definitely premeditation when you grab your guns to follow someone. They called it in, they could have followed at a distance... they didn't need to get involved. We have another dead person because the law is currently written that defends people recklessly creating situations and then shooting people because of the hazard they created.

There is a subset of white people that just don't understand walking around with guns (and not hunting) can be a bit intimidating for others.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Well ... that was fucking murder.

 

[southernhybrid]

I found another article in the Atlanta Journal about this case

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/bring-charges-against-brunswick-shooter/fz7taEww0Nqfedg8JgXm2K/

Brunswick attorney James Yancey said he believes Greg and Travis McMichael would have avoided criminal charges if not for the video. “It showed the depths of humanity,” Yancey said.Now, the investigation enters a whole new phase. GBI agents will now be asking the questions, backed by assurances from Gov. Brian Kemp they’ll conduct a thorough, independent probe.

nstead, Glynn police asked the GBI investigate the public release of the video. The agency tweeted its honoring that request while also looking into “allegations of threats against GCPD and individuals involved in the active investigation.” But the video, posted on YouTube Tuesday morning, had put the onus back on local law enforcement. Was race a factor in Glynn police’s decision not to charge the McMichaels, who are white, for the killing of an unarmed black man?

Questions also surround Greg McMichael’s ties to local law enforcement. The elder McMichael was once a Glynn police officer before joining the Brunswick Judicial Circuit as an investigator in the D.A.’s office.

So, the killer was a former police officer. That might explain why the prosecutors didn't want to take the case. And people wonder why so many black folks don't trust the police!

 

[cycomiko]

I've held conceal carry permits in 3 states now and EVERY class you sit through makes it clear that you DO NOT grab your guns and pursue anyone. Even if Arbery was actually guilty of a burglary, I'm pretty sure that's not punishable by death. This is a murder.

In the video it can be seen that Arbery grabbed the shotgun. Not murder. Manslaughter at most.

Chasing him down while brandishing the weapons shows intent even if it's not "premeditated". I think that's the definition of 2nd degree murder but I'm no law expert. Do you expect Arbery to just lay down on the ground and not try to fight his way out? These aren't police chasing him.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I've held conceal carry permits in 3 states now and EVERY class you sit through makes it clear that you DO NOT grab your guns and pursue anyone. Even if Arbery was actually guilty of a burglary, I'm pretty sure that's not punishable by death. This is a murder.

In the video it can be seen that Arbery grabbed the shotgun. Not murder. Manslaughter at most.

Chasing him down while brandishing the weapons shows intent even if it's not "premeditated". I think that's the definition of 2nd degree murder but I'm no law expert. Do you expect Arbery to just lay down on the ground and not try to fight his way out? These aren't police chasing him.

Dude, the right to try and defend yourself doesn't apply to black people. Grow up. The man may have even had a cellphone.