‘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"?
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.
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.
Just like most of these stories.
ALL parties involved acted idiotic. That is why it is a mess.
And this man had on boots, not good for jogging.
That is completely incorrect, widely debunked, and totally irrelevant. I wonder why folks keep saying it.