2 men charged with murder in fatal shooting of black jogger in Georgia

[Auburn85 432]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ahmaud-arbery-murder-charges-gregory-travis-mcmichael-georgia/

 

Quote

 

Two men have been arrested and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man whose family said he was jogging on the day he was killed, officials from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday night. The shooting of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, which took place February 23, ignited racial tensions across Georgia.

Arbery was confronted by Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis, who shot Arbery before he collapsed and died, according to the bureau.

Gregory, 64, and Travis, 34, were both charged with murder and aggravated assault. The men were taken into custody and will be booked into the Glynn County Jail, the bureau said.

The decision comes days after cellphone video emergedthat captured the final moments of Arbery's life while he was jogging through the Brunswick neighborhood in February.

 

According to the only witness in the police report,McMichael told investigators he thought Arbery was a burglary suspect and ordered him to stop. McMichael said Arbery "violently" attacked his son, and the two fought "over the shotgun" before Travis shot him twice. At the time, no charges were filed.

McMichael is a former law enforcement officer who used to work for the local district attorney. Due to conflicts of interest, the case is now on its third prosecutor, who said he will ask a grand jury to bring charges.

Arbery's mother, Wanda Jones, said the cellphone footage of the incident proves her son was not committing a crime. "He was out for his daily jog and he was hunted down like an animal and killed," Jones said. "I'm hoping that all involved, they're indicted and they go to jail."

Arbery's death sparked condemnation across the country. "We're literally hunted EVERYDAY/EVERYTIME we step foot outside the comfort of our homes!" LeBron James tweeted Wednesday. "Can't even go for a damn jog man! Like WTF man are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!? No man fr ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!! I'm sorry Ahmaud (Rest In Paradise) and my prayers and blessings sent to the... heavens above to your family." 

Former Georgia Congresswoman Stacey Abrams weighed in on the arrests on Twitter, writing Thursday, "Important first step, but the first of many. The @Georgia_NAACP lifted up #AhmaudArbery and his family's struggle for action to help them draw attention to this heinous crime. We must not look away."

 

 

[AUDub 11,147]

They need to charge the people in power that were well aware of the video and chose not to press charges prior to it becoming public. 

[wdefromtx 3,159]

52 minutes ago, AUDub said:

They need to charge the people in power that were well aware of the video and chose not to press charges prior to it becoming public. 

Yep, they should have pressed charges immediately. 

[AUDub 11,147]

1 hour ago, wdefromtx said:

Yep, they should have pressed charges immediately. 

 

[wdefromtx 3,159]

10 minutes ago, AUDub said:

 

Sad that this is the case. 

[AUDub 11,147]

Just now, wdefromtx said:

Sad that this is the case. 

Not at all outside the historical norm, unfortunately. System protects its own and itself. Always has. 

[wdefromtx 3,159]

2 minutes ago, AUDub said:

Not at all outside the historical norm, unfortunately. System protects its own and itself. Always has. 

That is one of the reasons it makes it that much worse. Sad that this ignorance gets passed down generation to generation. 

[Grumps 3,704]

11 hours ago, AUDub said:

Not at all outside the historical norm, unfortunately. System protects its own and itself. Always has. 

This is the perfect case to expose how the "Good Ole Boy" system and white privilege and racism are still thriving. This is truly disgusting.

[AUDub 11,147]

27 minutes ago, Grumps said:

This is the perfect case to expose how the "Good Ole Boy" system and white privilege and racism are still thriving. This is truly disgusting.

There will always be those willing to carry their water. 

 

[Grumps 3,704]

2 hours ago, AUDub said:

There will always be those willing to carry their water. 

 

Always.

But in this case, it wouldn't matter if Ahmaud was an escaped convict carrying a stolen TV while running down the street--a citizen still can't chase them down and shoot him.

[homersapien 11,369]

The District Attorney Who Saw “No Grounds for Arrest” in the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery Has a History

Olivia Pearson’s life was turned upside down by George Barnhill, and she hasn’t forgotten.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/ahmaud-arbery-george-barnhill-olivia-pearson.html?via=taps_top

[aubiefifty 16,775]

why have we got two threads on the same topic? it is tough running back and forth........

[DKW 86 7,419]

On 5/9/2020 at 1:10 PM, homersapien said:

The District Attorney Who Saw “No Grounds for Arrest” in the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery Has a History

Olivia Pearson’s life was turned upside down by George Barnhill, and she hasn’t forgotten.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/ahmaud-arbery-george-barnhill-olivia-pearson.html?via=taps_top

Wow...That was more BS than I could handle. "Hot Pursuit?" "Probable Cause?" He was jogging with no evidence or stolen property on him.

I hate that they are dredging up his past. Past acts have zero bearing on any of this.

[alexava 6,973]

On 5/10/2020 at 2:40 PM, DKW 86 said:

Wow...That was more BS than I could handle. "Hot Pursuit?" "Probable Cause?" He was jogging with no evidence or stolen property on him.

I hate that they are dredging up his past. Past acts have zero bearing on any of this.

Not only did he not have any stolen property on him, nothing has even been reported stolen by the property owner. The two that killed him had no relationship with the property owner. It makes zero sense. 

[alexava 6,973]

This guy throws some perspective into it that might not have been considered  

 

[bigbird 60,515]

14 minutes ago, alexava said:

This guy throws some perspective into it that might not have been considered  

 

That was a very good synopsis and run down. Appreciate the post, @alexava

Like he said, there is gonna be egg on a lot of faces. Some pretty revealing facts.

[McLoofus 35,182]

54 minutes ago, alexava said:

This guy throws some perspective into it that might not have been considered  

 

I went into this expecting to have a particular response. It made me think a different way. Thanks for sharing.

I don't anticipate I'll change my stance on how insane some laws are in this country. 

[alexava 6,973]

This is probably the one thread that doesn’t need to be in the smack talk forum. Not that it matters. After reading a few other things that I didn’t necessarily believe I saw this and it did open things up. This video seems more visible. Not much in this video to argue against. 

[homersapien 11,369]

Meh.  It certainly laid out the defense's case.  But that doesn't mean it exposed the "truth" of this incident. 

For example, stopping and looking inside a house under construction is something I might do back when I was jogging - just out of curiosity. (Of course it never occurred to me it might be a felony to do so, plus I am white.)

Likewise with the relevant statutes on citizen's arrest and bearing arms while doing so.  While that may provide some degree of legal "cover", it doesn't change the reality of being a young black male in such a town. He didn't appear to be an imminent threat to anyone.

I seriously doubt this would have happened had the victim been white.

[McLoofus 35,182]

4 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Meh.  It certainly laid out the defense's case.  But that doesn't mean it exposed the "truth" of this incident. 

For example, stopping and looking inside a house under construction is something I might do back when I was jogging - just out of curiosity. (Of course it never occur to me it might be a felony to do so, plus I am white.)

Likewise, with the relevant statutes on citizen's arrest and bearing arms while doing so.  While that may provide some degree of legal "cover", it doesn't change the reality of being a young black male in such a town. He didn't appear to be an imminent threat to anyone.

I seriously doubt this would have happened had the victim been white.

Totally agree about that. What the guys did was incredibly wrong. There is absolutely no valid reason on earth that they should have done a single thing beyond calling 911. By any logical definition, it was murder.

But this is Georgia. Logic isn't really in play. Georgia elected a guy whose entire campaign platform was "I'm going to drive around in my truck with a gun and a chainsaw and round up illegals." The dude in the video presented a very compelling case that what they did was not legally murder in the state of Georgia.

8 years since Trayvon Martin was murdered and the son of a bitch walked. We've gotten nowhere. 

[autigeremt 6,602]

15 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Meh.  It certainly laid out the defense's case.  But that doesn't mean it exposed the "truth" of this incident. 

For example, stopping and looking inside a house under construction is something I might do back when I was jogging - just out of curiosity. (Of course it never occur to me it might be a felony to do so, plus I am white.)

Likewise, with the relevant statutes on citizen's arrest and bearing arms while doing so.  While that may provide some degree of legal "cover", it doesn't change the reality of being a young black male in such a town. He didn't appear to be an imminent threat to anyone.

I seriously doubt this would have happened had the victim been white.

Actually something similar did happen to a young white male a couple of weeks ago but to me it doesn't matter. There's no justification for doing what they did. There's a reason for having law enforcement UNLESS you are being preyed upon. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, autigeremt said:

Actually something similar did happen to a young white male a couple of weeks ago but to me it doesn't matter. There's no justification for doing what they did. There's a reason for having law enforcement UNLESS you are being preyed upon. 

I'd be curious to know more about the other story. Genuine curiosity- not looking to contradict. 

My son's only 1 so I've got some time before he's out there putting himself in bad situations, fortunately. But I'm always looking for new reasons to be terrified of when that day comes. 

[autigeremt 6,602]

1 minute ago, McLoofus said:

I'd be curious to know more about the other story. Genuine curiosity- not looking to contradict. 

My son's only 1 so I've got some time before he's out there putting himself in bad situations, fortunately. But I'm always looking for new reasons to be terrified of when that day comes. 

I feel for the parents of young boys/men these days. Even more so for young black, brown or poor white men. Rise above is all I know. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, autigeremt said:

I feel for the parents of young boys/men these days. Even more so for young black, brown or poor white men. Rise above is all I know. 

Out of likes but absolutely.