Posted on 11/24/2021 3:55:57 AM PST by MtnClimber
Like many people, I followed the Kyle Rittenhouse trial out of Kenosha, Wisconsin fairly closely over the past several weeks. As discussed in Jane’s post on Sunday, that trial proved to be a riveting instance of a totally false and racialized progressive narrative (“white supremacist vigilante crossed state lines with illegal firearm to go on shooting spree against innocent mostly peaceful BLM protesters”) getting completely contradicted by incontestable facts (mostly videos) introduced in evidence at the trial.
But following the Rittenhouse trial has inherently meant little time left to follow another high-profile trial unfolding simultaneously in Brunswick, Georgia — the trial of Gregory and Travis McMichael and Roddy Bryan for the alleged murder of Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020.
Having not devoted much attention to the Arbery matter before now, my brain was of course, as is inevitable, heavily infected with the official progressive narrative of the situation. Here that narrative goes something like this: “innocent unarmed black recreational jogger in white neighborhood hunted down and murdered by white supremacist vigilantes for doing nothing more than ‘jogging while black.’”
With the verdict in the Rittenhouse case in, I’ve now had time to catch up on the Arbery matter. There is an extensive trial record, as well as closing arguments, all of which can be watched on video. And of course, learning the facts has proved yet again that essentially everything, or at least everything important, about the official progressive narrative is false.
That does not necessarily mean that Arbery’s accused murderers will be acquitted. Their claim of self-defense is, for reasons discussed below, somewhat weaker than that of Rittenhouse. As of this writing, the jury has just begun its deliberations. However, before reading up on the facts my sense had been that this was an open-and-shut case against the defendants. Now I would say that they have at least a 50/50 chance of acquittal.
Where might I have ingested the official progressive narrative in the Arbery matter? Well, here is the New York Times article from November 9, shortly after the November 5 start of the trial, headlined “What We Know About the Shooting Death of Ahmaud Arbery.” Excerpt:
Mr. Arbery, 25, was a former high school football standout who was living with his mother outside the small city of Brunswick. He had spent a little time in college but seemed to be in a period of drift in his 20s, testing out various careers, working on his rapping skills and living with his mother. . . . 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 an avid jogger who was often seen running in and around his neighborhood. On Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020, shortly after 1 p.m., he was killed in that neighborhood after being confronted by a white man and his son. . . . Mr. Arbery was running in Satilla Shores when a man standing in his front yard saw him go by, according to a police report. The man, Gregory McMichael, said he thought Mr. Arbery looked like a man suspected in several break-ins in the area. . . .
The Times itself doesn’t use the phrase “jogging while black” in that particular piece, substituting instead the patronizing “friends and family said he liked to stay in good shape and . . . was an avid jogger.” However, you can’t look very far for articles about this case in the media without finding that phrase everywhere. Examples: The Conversation, May 7, 2020, “The killing of Ahmaud Arbery highlights the danger of jogging while black.”; The Undefeated, May 8, 2020, “Running while black: Ahmaud Arbery’s killing reveals runners’ shared fears of profiling.” Or there was the Times’s own collection on May 18, 2020 of responses to its “request to readers” to “share their experiences of ‘running while black.’” One could accurately look at this last one as a very intentional effort to divert readers’ attention away from the actual facts of the Arbery case.
To understand the Times’s key deception, the important background to know is that prior to the incident the neighborhood in question, known as Satilla Shores (just outside Brunswick, Georgia) had been plagued by a string of burglaries. The repeated burglaries had particularly affected a certain property that was a home belonging to a guy named English, that was under construction, and therefore not attended in the evening and not completely secured from intruders. To deal with the burglaries, including at this particular property, the neighborhood had started a “neighborhood watch” program. Separately, English had installed several security cameras at his property.
The key deception in the Times’s November 9 piece is the line that defendant Greg McMichael “said he thought that Mr. Arbery looked like a man suspected in several break-ins in the area.” That line is very carefully calculated to give the impression that Greg McMichael was wrongfully racially profiling Mr. Arbery, based only on Mr. Arbery’s race, and without reasonable grounds for suspicion that Mr. Arbery had committed a crime. Mr. McMichael may well have uttered the quoted statement at some point. But the truth is that by November 9 it was absolutely clear that Mr. Arbery not only “looked like” a suspect, but was absolutely known to have been the very person who was wrongfully in the English house on multiple occasions. The security cameras at the English house had captured Arbery illegally entering this property at least five times, between October 25, 2019 and February 23, 2020. Greg McMichael’s son Travis — another defendant in the case and the one who actually pulled the trigger on the shot that killed Arbery — had observed Arbery with his own eyes entering the under-construction house. The video footage from the English house security cameras was shown to the jury, and also compiled as a collection of stills into a trial exhibit, that can be found in the Daily Mail coverage of the trial here on November 11.
The quality of the pictures is not great, but there is no question that it is Arbery. From a summary at Legal Insurrection of the closing argument on behalf of Greg McMichael, given by lawyer Laura Hogue:
She noted that it was incontestable that it was Ahmaud Arbery returning night after night, repeatedly caught on camera, at the same time thousands of dollars worth of property was disappearing. Did we have a picture of Arbery walking off with the property? No. But the only reasonable inference of someone skulking around another person’s home at night, with valuable property found missing the next day, is that the person skulking was plundering that property, and engaged in felony burglary under Georgia law.
A video of the full closing argument is available at the link.
The reason that the defendants in this case have a less-clear self-defense case than did Rittenhouse is that Rittenhouse had been pursued and attacked by the people he killed in self-defense. By contrast, the two McMichaels and Bryan pursued Arbery, after Greg McMichaels had observed Arbery running from the English house. Thus this case involves not just a pure claim of self-defense, but also requires that the defendants have been justified in pursuing and attempting to detain Mr. Arbery. That justification is good, but not completely open-and-shut. The defendants assert that they were entitled to pursue and detain Arbery under a Georgia “citizen’s arrest” statute. Here is the full text of that statute (via Law of Self Defense):
“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.”
So the issues for the jury are whether Arbery was “escaping or attempting to escape,” and whether the defendants had “reasonable and probable grounds for suspicion” that a felony had been committed. In considering how the facts bear on these issues, keep in mind that the crime of felony burglary in Georgia does not require that you actually took anything on this particular occasion of unlawful entry.
I’ll leave it to the jury to make the decision on whether the McMichaels and Bryan were justified in their conduct. But however the result comes out, the narrative of “innocent recreational jogger murdered for ‘jogging while black’” is and always was completely false. Arbery absolutely did enter the English house illegally on multiple occasions, and Ms. Hogue is completely right that the only reasonable inference is that he was the one stealing the property that repeatedly went missing. Shame on me for reading the New York Times and uncritically thinking there might be some truth to what they were reporting.
Name ONE !
From the policeman - to issue a simple ‘no trespass’ order. NEXT!
When did they call 911?
Not til after they shot him.
In Texas as in Georgia signs are needed for exterior property. Texas has the purple fence post law which covers trespassing of exterior property. Structures in the other hand with doors regardless of there construction status automatically are considered unlawful entry and burglary of a structure both are state jail felonies and neither require the actual taking of property to be a felony. The fact that the door or window was breached alone make it a felony. By having a barrier that must be breached it is legally implied that access is restricted and by crossing that barrier a crime has been committed unless authorised or invited by the owner or owners agent of said property. Texas also has a fleeing felon clause and force including deadly force is authorised to stop a fleeing felon in most cases. The Georgia statue was put in this article it seems they also have a fleeing felon clause. If this guy was fleeing a burglary and tried to grab the shotgun and got dusted for it then a not guilty would be my vote jerk give these two guys a medal for taking out the trash. Of course he was an aspiring rapper living with momma and he dindu nuffin enjoy your dirtnap scumbag.
This is an example of how people keep putting forth an opinion based on ignorance. He did call the police, and if you had bothered to learn the facts of the case you would have known this.
But that didn't stop you from declaring these two men defending their neighborhood from a known crook "guilty" and deserving of prison.
They should get a medal for ridding the world of another crook. So should Kyle Rittenhouse.
Great post. Thank you.
Sure, because everyone knows it's reasonable to be inside someone else's house in the middle of the night on four or five occasions.
“ He was running straight at him”
Wrong !
“when there was plenty of room to go to the side. “
Wrong !
“Then he reverses course when Travis pulls out the gun.”
Wrong !
My recollection, from looking at this case a long time ago when it was first making the news, is that the $2,500.00 worth of fishing equipment stolen from inside the house was before the owner installed cameras, and is in fact the reason why he installed cameras.
There were other thefts in the neighborhood, but nobody had cameras on recording it.
His brother is a crook too. Maybe he stole his siblings loot and sold it?
Of course it makes sense that Arbery would have hung on to $2,500.00 worth of fishing equipment. He might want to go fishing after his jogging.
I think they did nothing wrong too. So did the police, and the first several District Attorneys that looked at this case.
It wasn't until the national lying service made them into Emmanual Goldberg that the GBI suddenly saw a pressing need to make them into scapegoats.
Excellent summation.
Crook gets shot for violently attacking man with a shotgun, and you want to convict the guy who fought back against the crook.
Yep, based on the testimony I saw and also read. Sorry if that triggers you.
I've seen this claim made several times. I think what you means is "saw no way out short of getting arrested by the police."
In fact, there was one option that would have allowed him to do that and which was less dangerous than what he did. He could have simply kept running. Clearly the fat McMichaels couldn't have stopped him short of shooting him, and I think it is highly unlikely they would shoot him in the back.
I have now come to realize what motivated Arbery wasn't fear, it was anger. He lived a thug life, and if you had any knowledge of this mindset, you know these people aren't going to let anyone "punk" them.
The McMichaels were trying to "punk" him, and he wasn't going to take it.
If you doubt me on this, look at the two videos of him interacting with police during his shoplifting confrontation and that confrontation in the park. Arbery is belligerent and just daring the officers to start some sh*t with him.
One officer said he was going to use his taser on Arbery, but it malfunctioned.
Arbery wasn't cornered, he decided to fight because he was a thug, and that's what a thug would do.
GUILTY!
This witness disagrees !
“Did not chase…”
“ 1:59 a.m.: Minshew says Bryan told him he was working on his porch when he saw a Black man run by and a white truck following him. Bryan said he didn’t recognize the “Black guy” or the men in the truck, Minshew says.”
Yup !
“ Breaking: All 3 men found guilty in death of Ahmaud Arbery trial
After nearly two days of deliberation, jurors have decided the fates of three men accused in the death of Ahmaud Arbery.
Author: First Coast News Staff
Published: 1:46 PM EST November 24, 2021
Updated: 1:49 PM EST November 24, 2021
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — After a day and a half, jurors returned their verdicts in the trial stemming from the February 2020 death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.
Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan, were all charged with murder in Arbery’s death.
Each faced nine felony counts carrying potential penalties of anywhere from one year in prison to life behind bars.
VERDICTS:
Travis McMichael
Count 1: Found guilty of malice murder
Count 2: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 3: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 4: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 5: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 6: Found guilty of aggravated assault
Count 8: Found guilty of false imprisonment
Count 9: Found guilty criminal attempt to commit a felony
Gregory McMichael
Count 1: Found not guilty of malice murder
Count 2: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 3: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 4: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 5: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 6: Found guilty of aggravated assault
Cpount 8: Found guilty of false imprisonment
Count 9: Found guilty criminal attempt to commit a felony
William “Roddie” Bryan
Count 1: Found not guilty of malice murder
Count 2: Found not guilty of felony murder
Count 3: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 4: Found guilty of felony murder
Count 5: Found guity of felony murder
Count 6: Found not guilty of aggravated assault
Cpount 8: Found not guilty of false imprisonment
Count 9: Found guilty of criminal attempt to commit a felony”
You have made up your mind that they are "scum" because you were brainwashed with media lies about two racist inbred hillbilly rednecks murdering an innocent black man for being in their neighborhood.
You have embraced that lie, and it has colored everything you have thought about it since.
This is why the media is so effective at rigging elections. They spread lies and people swallow them, and then regurgitate the media lies to other people.
They tried to say Kavanaugh was a rapist, and that failed, only because he was the darling of so many establishment republicans. They said Judge Roy Moore was a rapist of minors, and that worked because so many of the establishment Republicans hated Moore anyways.
The news lying system is the greatest threat to this nation, and it has even brainwashed people like you.
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