Posted on 05/12/2020 4:21:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
The tragic back road shooting of an unarmed black man by a former white police officer and his shotgun-wielding son in Brunswick, Georgia, has given the left a narrative they’re all too happy to run with, especially since blatant examples have been few and far between of late. Indeed, comparisons to Trayvon Martin abounded on Twitter by people ironically ignoring the fact that their “proof” that America is some sort of Klan-infested racist hotbed full of bigots just waiting to gun down hapless runners for the “crime” of “jogging while black” happened over eight years ago, in 2012, and was “justified,” according to one juror.
This story, however, seems on the surface to be an entirely different thing. I’m not going to speculate too much this early in the process, but I will say that it’s hard to imagine any reasonable person taking weapons and following anyone of any color down the street, much less blocking a road and trying to initiate a “citizens arrest.” It was dumb, it was unjustified, and Greg and Travis McMichael should feel the full weight of the law.
But there’s a difference between stupidly gunning-up and taking matters into your own hands because you believe a person may be a criminal, thus ending up in a deadly scuffle of your own making, and gunning-up to hunt down and murder a black man simply for being black. Both will land you in prison, of course, but with different sentences—sentences a jury will decide.
Meanwhile, however, the ‘jury’ of American public opinion seems to be leaning heavily in favor of the version that puts America firmly in an era where lynchings were the norm and these men as no different from those evil vigilantes of old or even the racist scumbags who drug James Byrd to his grisly death in 1998.
While plenty of people on both sides rightly called for justice for Ahmaud Arbery for weeks, especially in light of the fact that the shooting happened in February and there were odd conflicts of interest at play in the local district attorney’s office, a good percentage of comments bordered on inflammatory, if not patently absurd.
“We’re literally hunted EVERYDAY/EVERYTIME we step foot outside the comfort of our homes!” NBA legend LeBron James tweeted from the comfortable quarantine of his luxurious mansion while being adored by literally every man, woman, and child in America. “Can’t even go for a damn jog man! Like WTF man are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!?”
“This young man was jogging, and was hunted down and killed for absolutely no reason other than the color of his skin,” wrote a smugly certain Ellen DeGeneres.
Kentucky State Rep. Charles Booker demanded “hate crime legislation,” while attorney and former Obama-era official Walter Scaub called the shooting a “lynching.” CNN host Don Lemon said that “communities of color feel like we are under siege.” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms even tried to tie the shooting to President Trump.
The irresponsible comparisons weren’t limited to the left. Conservative writer David French wrote, “While we don’t yet know the full details about the McMichaels’ motives, their actions speak loudly enough. When white men grab guns and mount up to pursue and seize an unarmed black man in the street, they stand in the shoes of lynch mobs past.” And Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is now virtue-signaling his willingness to sign hate crimes legislation in the state.
Meanwhile, as conservative activist Candace Owens noted over the weekend, the narrative around Arbery’s actions has quietly gone from “just a jogger” to “just a trespasser.” That’s because Daily Mail published a previously unreleased surveillance video of a khaki-short-clad Arbery spending almost five minutes “appearing to loiter” inside an under-construction home. Obviously, loitering at a construction zone isn’t worthy of being shot or even confronted by weapon-wielding citizens, but it’s also hardly racist to be suspicious of a stranger in one’s neighborhood poking around where they aren’t supposed to be. Add Arbery’s own 2013 indictment for allegedly bringing a weapon to a high school basketball game and a 2018 arrest for shoplifting to the mix, and the caricature of ‘just a jogger’ is called into question.
Are black people being routinely gunned down in America for the “crime” of being black? Hardly. Such a dire pattern would doubtless dominate the news cycle daily, as this solitary case has and will continue to do for the foreseeable future. In fact, far more whites are actually killed and violently victimized by blacks than the other way around, and in higher percentages related to the overall population groups. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics for 2018, of the 563,940 violent incidents against blacks committed that year, only 10.6% (or ~60,000) were committed by whites. On the other hand, 15.3% (or ~548,000) of the 3,581,360 crimes committed against whites were perpetrated by black offenders. Further, according to BLS, “The offender-to-victim ratio shows that the percentage of violent incidents involving black offenders (22%) was twice the percentage of incidents committed against black victims (11%).” Blacks even comprise 24% of hate crime offenders, almost twice their representation among the population.
None of this should justify any sort of racism, nor should it imply that most blacks are criminals. In fact, the vast majority of people of all races are law-abiding. However, these facts definitely do a lot of damage to a certain preferred leftist narrative, which is one reason why you might not have ever heard them.
Back to the Arbery shooting, Candace Owens nailed what the topic of discussion should be centered around right now in an America less hyper-focused on racial politics: “The national debate SHOULD have been about the legitimacy of citizen’s arrests in light of a tragic outcome,” she wrote. “Instead, we went with BLACKS ARE LITERALLY BEING HUNTED WHEN THEY STEP OUT OF THEIR HOMES FOR NO REASON. Race-baiting ALWAYS leaves us looking emotional & foolish.”
No matter how you slice it, a man is dead who should be alive right now. But ironically, decades-removed from an era when alleged black offenders would rarely get a fair trial, the McMichaels’ chances, no matter what the facts turn out to be, of any outcome short of life without parole or even the death penalty in this highly politicized and racially charged case is next to nil.
Why did Ahmad go after the man with the shotgun? Why didn’t he just keep jogging if he was indeed jogging?
Not a word said a few years ago when blacks blatantly and purposely played their little “knockout game” against ONLY white victims. And admitting it. Some died, some are mentally and/or physically impaired for life.
I don’t know all the facts of this case, but I will say this: The older McMichael is a former cop and a retired investigator for the prosecutor’s office ... and because of this, the rights of U.S. citizens have probably never even crossed his mind.
I had forgotten about the knock out “game.”
Wonder how mama explains his jogs to a small, isolated (google santilla dr Brunswick, GA) in the dark last October? Video shows him roaming the house under construction at night. No reasonable explanation for that behavior. I know Brunswick. This neighborhood is way off the beaten path.
Past tense of "to drag" used to be "dragged." Of course, nowadays, who knows?
Why did the McMichael’s go after Ahmad armed? At worst, Ahmad was trespassing which is a misdemeanor in the state of Georgia and even then it’s up to the owner of the property to decide that and we’ve heard nothing from the said owner.
Elkton couple, 85 and 86, fatally shot at Delaware cemetery; suspect dead
https://www.wbaltv.com/article/delaware-cemetery-shooting-elkton-couple-dead/32424716#
Is this tragic too? This type of crime happens much more frequently yet we never have these type of discussions. I guess white lives are expendably in our multicultural and diversity experiment?
If I was the defense attorney would have a video of an experienced runner Make the run from his home, down the highway, across the enormous bridge to the neighborhood. At real time. Just to show how ludicrous his mother’s explanation of jogging.
The neighborhood is tiny and not a joggers destination
Gee, maybe he didn't want to die and thought his only chance to live was to disarm the goober who was chasing him with a gun. Maybe he thought if I surrender, this crazy might blow my brains out.
But one thing I will agree on is the fact that the usual suspects will take this isolated (yes it is isolated) incident and race bait and demand such things as "hate speech" laws and increased Federal and State fund for some sort of bogus "justice" initiatives. Those things exist for one thing and one thing one- putting dollars in the pockets of the poverty pimps
I ask you all to please read an article currently in Breaking News....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3844013/posts
Here’s a story about a black guy who shot and killed two elderly people in a cemetery where they were visiting the grave of their dead son.
This happened right near me and it is a very weird thing.
Somehow the police got notified and there was a shootout and the killer too ended up dead.
BUT....butbutbutbutbut....the state police here in Delaware aren’t telling anything.
A black guy kills an 85/86 year old couple at a cemetery and we don’t hear a word.
As for this guy....why would someone try to wrest a shotgun from someone? Why wouldn’t he put up his arms or some such but no, he wanted the loaded shotgun.
Neither of these stories make much sense.
Wait. The officer used to be...black?
let justice take its course.
however, how many of those screaming “racism” are out there protesting and demanding the lockdowns must end?
or are they demanding lockdowns continue, indefinitely, or at least until the November election?
how many of the anti-lockdown mob are concerned about the millions of black Africans who will die because their Governments followed the “lockdown” example of the developed countries? none, would be my guess:
15 Apr: Time: Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Choking Africa’s Food Supply
By FARAI MUTSAKA, AP; Associated Press writer Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.
(HARARE, Zimbabwe) — In a pre-dawn raid in food-starved Zimbabwe, police enforcing a coronavirus lockdown confiscated and destroyed 3 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables by setting fire to it. Wielding batons, they scattered a group of rural farmers who had traveled overnight, breaking restrictions on movement to bring the precious produce to one of the country’s busiest markets.
The food burned as the farmers went home empty-handed, a stupefying moment for a country and a continent where food is in critically short supply.
It was an extreme example of how lockdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus may be choking Africa’s already-vulnerable food supply.
Lockdowns in at least 33 of Africa’s 54 countries have blocked farmers from getting food to markets and threatened deliveries of food assistance to rural populations. Many informal markets where millions buy their food are shut.
About one in every five people in Africa, nearly 250 million, already didn’t have enough food before the virus outbreak, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. A quarter of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is undernourished...
In West Africa’s Sahel region, nearly 30 million are struggling to find food, said Granville-Ross of Mercy Corps.
On top of these problems, the World Bank said the virus could create “a severe food security crisis in Africa.”
Among those at risk are millions of children normally fed through WFP’s school meals program. A few weeks after the virus crept into Africa, so many schools have been closed that 65 million children are now missing out on meals, WFP told The Associated Press.
For many Africans, the immediate concern is not the virus — it’s surviving the lockdowns...
The continent of nearly 1.3 billion people has reported just over 15,000 cases and 815 deaths, although those figures may be vastly under-reported...
https://time.com/5821116/africa-coronavirus-food-supplies/
14 Apr: France24: AFP: ‘Starve or get sick’: Africa’s lockdown dilemma
Kenya has so far cordoned off the capital and parts of its coastline and imposed a night-time curfew and other social distancing measures.
Many these restrictions are having a wrenching impact on the poor, causing many to lose their jobs, said Odede...
“Locking up people in the slums will be the last option. A lot needs to be done before that,” a high-ranking security official told AFP on condition of anonymity...
“The inevitable reaction has been to follow what the rest of the world is doing,” said Jakkie Cilliers at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), who has called for Africans to come up with a “unique solution” to stave off the virus.
“A lockdown is unenforceable and unsustainable across much of Africa. You are trying to do something that is not possible and you are condemning people to a choice between starving and getting sick.
“It’s not possible for 10 people living in a tin shack... to not go outside for three weeks.”...
In sub-Saharan Africa, Liberia and Zimbabwe have also imposed full lockdowns...
Madagascar and Ghana have completely locked down selected regions and towns, while Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Niger have imposed states of emergency and night-time curfews.
Like Kenya, Benin has cordoned off key cities — preventing movement in and out — while the capitals of Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Niger are also cut off.
Ethiopia, with a population of over 100 million, has closed borders and schools and discouraged large gatherings, but has yet to restrict citizens’ movement...
“We can’t impose a lockdown like more developed nations, as there are many citizens who don’t have homes,” said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“Even those who have homes have to make ends meet daily.”...
“Coronavirus should not be a reason to destroy our economy at all,” said Tanzanian President John Magufuli...
https://www.france24.com/en/20200414-starve-or-get-sick-africa-s-lockdown-dilemma
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/race-and-homicide-in-america-by-the-numbers
Yet there’s not much press about the black guy who ruthlessly gunned down an elderly white couple who were visiting a cemetery in Delaware last week using a scoped rifle.
I don’t know whether racism was involved but what the heck. He killed those old people because they were white.
Old white people can’t even go to the cemetery anymore without getting gunned down.
even the racist scumbags who drug James Byrd to his grisly death in 1998
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Past tense of “to drag” used to be “dragged.” Of course, nowadays, who knows?
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I think ‘drug’ identifies as ‘dragged’ in 2020... nobody can ‘drug’ what their true authentic self is!
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