Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Arbery Trial Ends in Convictions
Ahmaud Arbery went for a jog in February 2020, and he died at the hands of three men who thought he had no business being in their neighborhood. Mr. Arbery was a black American citizen. The three men who killed him in Brunswick, Georgia, were white. They chased him in their trucks, and one of them shot him with a shotgun. The police did nothing to bring the men to justice. Indeed, the local district attorney declined to bring charges. Then, the video of the killing leaked. Yesterday, after a fair trial that was televised for the nation to see, an almost all-white jury brought back guilty verdicts against each on several charges. It is almost as if America's legal system worked as it should have, once it was shamed into acting.
The story is a pathetic one. Mr. Arbery was running in the area, and he stopped to look at a construction site (he worked in the building trade so he had a professional interest). Then, he continued on his way. That is when Travis and Greg McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan decided they were going to find out what a black man was doing running on the streets of their neighborhood. They had no evidence that he had committed any crime, and their actions betrayed a racist undertone. They did not go after a white jogger or any of the other people who looked in on the construction site (security cameras showed Mr. Arbery and others looking around, but no one took anything).
The local officials tried to sweep the whole thing under the rug. The Washington Post reported, "But for Larry Hobbs, who wrote that first short news article, doubts about the case were raised at the onset.
"Hobbs, one of four reporters at the daily Brunswick News, said police wouldn't answer his questions or even tell him Arbery's name, which he discovered by calling the coroner. He published four stories before he obtained the police report, based almost entirely on an interview with Greg McMichael, who said he told his son to grab his gun when he saw a Black man running."
The WaPo adds, "Prosecutors were also not forthcoming, he said. Jackie Johnson, the Brunswick district attorney who was later indicted over her handling of the investigation and was voted out of office, gave the case to Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill. Barnhill justified the use of force as a lawful 'citizen's arrest' in a letter to police. Meanwhile, he told Hobbs he was still investigating, Hobbs said.
"The main thing I did was just not let go of it," Hobbs said. "I didn't do any great writing. I didn't do any investigative reporting. I'm a small-town newspaper. We don't really have time to invest. I come in every day and there's an empty newspaper I have to do my part to fill up."
The big break came when Greg McMichael had his lawyer show the video Mr. Bryan had shot on his cellphone. His purpose was to clear his name in the court of public opinion. These yahoos never considered that the video would prove they committed murder. And it did.
The jury was a concern for anyone who wants to see justice done and who knows the racial history of juries in the South. In a town that is 55% black, the court found a way to seat 11 white jurors and 1 black juror. The judge himself said that there was clearly some kind of racial animus in the selection of jurors, but he declined to do anything about it. That was further grounds for worry.
In the end, though, the jury believed its own eyes and did what their grandparents would most certainly not have done. They gave a black man murdered by three white men a modicum of justice. True justice is impossible. Justice would be Mr. Arbery having Thanksgiving dinner with his family today. That is not possible. But those who murdered him were held accountable. Maybe, the court even deterred a future murder.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Yesterday, that came a little closer to being real as well as true. It is a spark of hope at a time when it is needed.
© Copyright 2021 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
|
|
|
