Posted on 05/13/2020 6:43:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the Ahmaud Arbery case, the media, as always, are theorizing in advance of the data, and they are doing so in service to a divisive racial agenda. The undisputed facts (excluding the inevitably self-interested statements from the men arrested) are as follows:
Travis McMichael shot 24-year-old Arbery. The question is whether it was self-defense, manslaughter or murder.
Greg and Travis McMichaels (father and son) are white, while Arbery was black.
Videos show Arbery entering a home under construction and Arbery inside the construction site.
Shortly before Arbery was shot, Greg called 911 to report that “There’s a black male running down the street.” He’s then heard to say “Goddamit. C’mon, Travis.”
In a second 911 call around the same time, an unidentified caller reported a possible burglary in the neighborhood, saying, “There’s a guy in the house right now, a house under construction.” Next, the caller said, “And he’s running right now. There he goes right now.” The unidentified caller reported that the possible burglar had been seen before in the neighborhood and had “been caught on the camera a bunch before at night,” adding “It’s kind of an ongoing thing out here.”
An infamous video (above) shows Arbery either running or jogging down the left side of the street. The verb “running” implies escape or aggression. The verb “jogging” has a recreational feel.
A white pick-up is seen further up the road, on the right side, with a man standing by the driver’s side door. Arbery abruptly veers across the street towards the right rear of the truck. A man stands in the truck bed. The video swerves, showing only foliage.
Seconds later, Arbery is running at top speed counterclockwise around the truck’s front right side.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The “jogger” ceased being a “jogger” when he decided to attack one of two armed men.
He then became a Darwin Award recipient.
RE: So the McMichaels reported only that they saw a black guy running, not that they saw him enter a house under construction?
It doesn’t matter. There’s no reason why the McMichaels should have confronted Arbery even if he’s guilty of everything they suspect him of. They’re not cops.
They didn’t personally witness him commit any crime. The risk that they would misidentify an innocent man as a criminal was perfectly foreseeable, especially to a former cop like McMichael.
They should have called the sheriff, who could have stopped Arbery lawfully and used the surveillance video mentioned in the police report to determine if he really was the burglary suspect they’re looking for.
Why didn’t they do that?
If they can get away with this then the “citizen’s arrest” statute is license for legalized vigilantism.
It doesn’t matter. There’s no reason why the McMichaels should have confronted Arbery even if he’s guilty of everything they suspect him of. They’re not cops.
They didn’t personally witness him commit any crime. The risk that they would misidentify an innocent man as a criminal was perfectly foreseeable, especially to a former cop like McMichael.
They should have called the sheriff, who could have stopped Arbery lawfully and used the surveillance video mentioned in the police report to determine if he really was the burglary suspect they’re looking for.
Why didn’t they do that?
If they can get away with this then the “citizen’s arrest” statute is license for legalized vigilantism.
This is *NOT* comparable with the Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown case.
‘Why didn’t they do that?’
Because when seconds count, the police are only 5 minutes away? And this man had on boots, not good for jogging. And they found a hammer dropped on the road, back a ways. And the dad was a former investigator or something.
Not defending the men, but the ‘jogger’ did come at the younger man and wrestle with him for the gun. Just observations on the WHY.
Why did seconds count - what was going to happen if Arbery "got away"?
That is an interesting comment. The larger narrative is that the two white men hunted down an innocent jogger (who had committed no crime) because he was black, cornered him, and shot him to death.
If police had hunted down an innocent jogger because he was black and killed him under the same circumstances, wouldn't that have been murder too?
I have been told police do this every day in America.
Look closer. It shows the video focusing on the hammer that was dropped on the pavement. The video guy is trying to make sure he captures the hammer lying on the road as he drives up to it.
RE: Because when seconds count, the police are only 5 minutes away? And this man had on boots, not good for jogging. And they found a hammer dropped on the road, back a ways
And that justifies them confronting him with a gun?
Why not just tail him and while doing so, call the police?
I watched the video, the footage was recorded by a security camera only a few minutes before Arbery died. But as you will see, the camera was not located on the property in question.
I don’t really see how this new footage changes the story very much.
First of all, the footage might establish that Arbery was in the vicinity (which we already knew by virtue of his corpse being splayed out on the road), along with the route he took to the scene of the shooting and his activities in the minutes preceding the event.
I say “might” because this isn’t particularly high-quality video and it was taken from a fair distance away. We see someone who definitely could be Arbery, given the seemingly similar clothing and proximity to the shooting site, but unless they have a much higher quality copy with better resolution, it could be tough to prove it definitively.
Assuming for now that it’s the same person, we see Arbery walking around for a few minutes on a property where a house is under construction. He disappears at various points, leading some to believe that he might have been up to something suspicious. But he winds up leaving the property without anything being seen in his hands.
Does this change anything vis-à-vis the subsequent shooting? Let’s look at this in the worst possible light in terms of Arbery’s behavior. You can assume that while he was out for a run he decided to duck into the construction site, perhaps looking for something valuable to steal. Even if he had come out of that house with a satchel full of power tools, does that somehow justify what happened next?
The McMichaels and their friend who filmed the shooting supposedly suspected Arbery of being involved in some recent break-ins that took place in the neighborhood. That means that they were trailing him over a matter of, at worst, burglary, or possibly even nothing more than trespassing. The video presumably recorded by their friend “Roddy” has already caught up Greg McMichael in one lie. He didn’t “pull up next to” Arbery and ask him to stop so they could talk to him. The McMichaels had gotten ahead of him to cut off his path through the neighborhood.
At that point, even if you suspect the person is guilty of a nonviolent crime, you don’t jump out with weapons drawn to make a citizen’s arrest.
If the person doesn’t seem inclined to talk to you and you really want to play private detective, you proceed to follow him while calling the actual cops on your cellphone to provide the location and details. The guy was on foot. It’s not like he was going to get away.
This still smacks of vigilantism to me.
It’s not letting me see it. Either youtube is censoring it, or it just won’t load on my old XP machine.
It is my understanding that Gregory McMichaels is the neighbor who called the police on the phone, so if this is in fact true, then yes, McMichaels saw him enter that house.
I’ve said from the start that that hammer could be a key piece of evidence.
I agree, this is a bad situation. Nothing warranted the armed encounter.
Gregory McMichael worked directly for the DA's office and in particular was one of the investigators who looked into an incident involving Ahmaud Arbery several years ago.
Given those circumstances and the fact that there is clear videotape of the subject at the construction site, I'm surprised McMichael didn't recognize him or try to pick him out of a booking photo down at the police station.
That's right, because modern Americans hide under their blankets like p*sssies rather than confront f***ing thieves as actual men would do.
RE That’s right, because modern Americans hide under their blankets like p*sssies rather than confront f***ing thieves as actual men would do.
I never said they should not have followed him or even they should not have called the police. There are MANY options to take other than this one and those options are NOT hiding under blankets.
What happens when any criminal "got away"? They just commit more crime later.
Are you suggesting criminals should just be allowed to "got away"?
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