When he was a teenager, Ahmaud Arbery did a couple of stupid things. One was serious, while the other wasn't so much. First he took a hand gun to a high school basketball game. Second, he got popped for shop lifting. Since those two incidents--a period of close to six years--he had been as clean as they come. He hadn't been accused of, or charged with any sort of crime.
On February 23rd of this year he, did, however, make a fatal error. It was one uniquely American. He underestimated just how savage and crazy white people can be when it comes to young black men.
That day he went for one of his usual jogs through a neighborhood on the edge of Brunswick, Georgia called Satilla Shores. He paused on his route to take a look inside a house under construction. It is something I've done myself back when nearby neighborhoods were being built.
I'm white though and Ahmaud Arbery was black, so it didn't take long for things to go horribly wrong. An unidentified person made a call to 911. It went like this: "There's a guy in a house right now, a house under construction." The dispatcher asks if, "the guy," is breaking in. The response from the caller was, "No, it's all open, it's under construction."
At that point on a security cam from across the street, Ahmaud Arbery emerged from the house. He wasn't carrying any sort of loot, not even a piece of scrap lumber. He resumed his jog and the caller told the 911 operator, "He's running right now, and there he goes right now." The dispatcher asks, "OK, what is he doing?" The caller answered, "He's running down the street."
Well yeah, that's exactly what you do when you're out for a run.
The dispatcher then asks, "I just need to know what he was doing wrong. Was he just on the premisis and not supposed to be?" The garbled tape provides no clear answer to the question--a perfect description of how shit like this takes on a life of its own and spins out of control.
That's when Greg and Travis McMichael got involved. Greg McMichael is a retired cop and investigator for a local DA's office and Travis is his son. They apparently witnessed the the suspicious jogging, grabbed a couple of firearms, because that's what white Americans do, then took off after Arbery in a pick up truck.
They got ahead of him, then blocked the road with their vehicle. In some quarters this is known as an ambush. Trailing behind was William Bryan who had his phone recording the nightmare. Bryan was described by one DA--there have been three now--as being part of the, "hot pursuit," of the suspect.
Bryan's video shows him coming around a bend in the road. The McMichael truck is blocking it, but Arbery tries to jog past on the passenger side. He disappears for a moment in front of the vehicle which is at an angle. He then comes back into view on the other side, now struggling with Travis McMichael who is holding a shotgun. Arbery has grabbed the weapon and is holding on with both hands for dear life as McMichael attempts to bring the barrel to bear on him. The two move out of view for an instant and the first shot is heard. Then they both come back into the frame and there are two more. Ahmaud Abery then lets go of the weapon and attempts to stagger away. After two, or three steps he collapses onto the street.
He never made it to the hospital.
What happened next is pure post reconstruction old south. Initially the police told Arbery's mother her son was shot in the house during the commission of a robbery. Then the first DA on the case recused herself because she had worked with the elder McMichael and perhaps knew what was coming.
When a second DA, George Barnhill took over he wrote a letter to the New York Times saying neither McMichael had done anything against Georgia law, plus he had proof Arbery had mental issues which explained his, "aggressive behavior." Add it all up, he said, and there was no probable cause to arrest Travis and his Dad. Almost as an aside he also told the Times there was a video of the shooting.
It later turned out, Barnhill's decision not to prosecute might have been based more on his own connections to Greg McMichael rather than Georgia statutes. When, Arbery's family found out about those connections they immediately demanded Barnhill also recuse himself, which he did.
All this nonsense dragged on for two plus months. Then the video of the shooting hit the internet, along with one showing Arbery coming out of the unfinished house empty handed. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was handed the case, took one look at the tapes, and within 36 hours arrested both the McMichaels.
The Georgia Attorney General is now asking the feds to get involved. Of course he did. Hey, there isn't a soul out there who is going to be happy with the outcome of this gruesome mess no matter what, so let's punt to the Department of Justice and let them take the heat.
Yes, politicians will be politicians no matter where you find them.
It would be easy to claim the killing of Ahmaud Arbery is some monstrous aberration, or even just an awful mistake made by over zealous fools, but we all know it isn't. It is, quite horribly, a part of life in the United States. It is the evil we cannot purge.
That's not the scariest part of it though. No, in the end, the really scary part is a large chunk of us like it this way
sic vita est
5-11-20
Sadly, not surprised by this. Many factors have come into play in recent years to strip society of the veneer of social progress. I suspect the trauma of the coronavirus has already contributed in some way. But, my main fear is, what we will see 4-5 years down the road and beyond? Whether our current president is re-elected or not, the genie of racism and stupidity is out of the bottle and now far away from it.
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