Like many Americans, I just learned this week of the shooting death of a 25-year old Georgia man Ahmaud Arbery. The young man was killed back on February 23.
In the 2-1/2 months since the shooting, no arrests had been made. As such, there was growing fear that this would be yet another example of a black man being killed by a white person yet not receiving the proper justice.
Thankfully,
arrests were finally made on Thursday evening.
Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, were arrested on Thursday and will be booked into the Glynn County Jail.
Cellphone video showing the moment Arbery was killed has prompted national outrage since surfacing online this week, but his mother said she can't bring herself to watch it.
"I don't think I'll ever be in a mental state where I can actually watch the video. I had others that watched it that shared what they saw and that just was enough," Wanda Cooper-Jones told ABC News in an interview that aired Thursday morning on "Good Morning America."
In the 28-second video, Arbery, who is black, can be seen jogging around a neighborhood just outside the port city of Brunswick on a sunny afternoon in late February. The footage ends with two loud gunshots.
What prompted the incident was the elder McMichael believing that Arbery resembled a suspect who had committed burglaries in their neighborhood. So when he and his son saw Arbery jogging through the neighborhood, they claimed they took off after him in a pickup truck in an effort to get his attention. However, video footage clearly shows that the father and son stopped in the road ahead of Arbery and attempted to block him from running past (WARNING: footage shows a man dying).
It would appear that Arbery felt threatened by the men. That is perfectly understandable since both were brandishing firearms. So when Arbery attempted to disarm the younger McMichael, he ended up being shot twice.
A few other thoughts:
- Some have cited Georgia's citizen arrest law as the rationale for the McMichaels attempting to detain Arbery.
The law is as follows:
A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape, a private person may arrest him upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion.
I'm no legal beagle, but this wouldn't seem relevant here since Arbery wasn't committing any kind of offense (unless jogging while black is suddenly illegal) nor was it ever proven he was responsible for a rash of burglaries that had recently occurred in the area.
- I've seen a few stories where Arbery had some indiscretions as a younger man, including an arrest for a gun possession charge. Not entirely sure what drudging that up is meant to accomplish, but it has absolutely zero relevance here.
- As with any high profile shooting death, anti gunners will politicize. Specifically, some have used this incident to decry "Stand Your Ground" laws, essentially saying the statute "legalizes murder." But as my friend and staunch 2nd Amendment advocate Mitch Berg always emphasizes,
four criteria have to be met before killing someone can legitimately be considered self-defense:
1. You’re not the aggressor. You didn’t start the fight. You basically have to prove that you didn’t want the confrontation in the first place.
2. You reasonably fear immediate death or great bodily harm.
3. You can only use “reasonable” force - meaning “what it takes to end the threat, and no more. You can shoot until your attacker falls over. You can’t finish ‘em off after they drop.
4. Finally - you must make a “reasonable” effort to retreat.
After seeing that video, do you believe the McMichaels satisfied all four areas? Hell, they won't (or definitely shouldn't) get past # 1.
Let's hope justice is as swift as possible in this case. Lord knows Arbery's family deserves no less.
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