Vigilante justice
Georgia jogger was gunned down because he might have ‘looked like’ a burglary suspect.
The fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by two white vigilantes in Georgia is a painful reminder of why such cases must be thoroughly investigated in the most transparent way possible to achieve justice and reassure the public that the law is being equally applied.
It also shines a new light on how the open carry, citizen arrest and standyour-ground self-defense statutes on the books in Texas and many other states can be abused.
Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was shot and killed in Glynn County, Ga., in the early afternoon of Feb. 23 as he jogged through Satilla Shores, a quiet unincorporated community not far from his home. An autopsy concluded that he died as a result of two shotgun blasts to his chest.
Police quickly determined that Arbery had been killed after a confrontation with Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, who had armed themselves with a shotgun and handgun to chase the jogger who they said looked like a man suspected in a rash of area break-ins.
Gregory McMichael told police that he shouted to Arbery, “Stop, stop, we want to talk to you,” before pulling up beside him in their truck. McMichael said Arbery then attacked his son, who killed him as the two struggled for the shotgun.
A Georgia prosecutor, who later admitted to a conflict of interest, advised Glynn County police that there was “insufficient probable cause” to issue arrest warrants, noting that the McMichaels were carrying their weapons legally and in “hot pursuit” to execute a citizen’s arrest as allowed under Georgia law. The McMichaels were not taken into custody or charged.
That’s where things remained until May 5, when a video of the confrontation leaked, showing that instead of chasing Arbery, the McMichaels had blocked the road with their pickup. The footage, according to President Donald Trump was “very, very disturbing.” Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, said watching the video was like seeing Arbery being “lynched before our very eyes.”
As Arbery tries to run past the truck and away from Travis McMichael, who was standing on the driver’s side, the two men move out of view when muffled shouting is heard. That is followed by three shotgun blasts and an image of Arbery staggering to the ground.
The McMichaels were arrested two days after the video became public — almost three months after the shooting — and are awaiting a grand jury investigation.
The case has exposed many of the issues that have fed public distrust of investigations related to the deaths of black men at the hands of whites. It began with the apparent acceptance that a black man jogging through a mostly white neighborhood could be considered a “suspect” without any evidence.
The investigation is also tainted from the start by bias. Gregory McMichael had worked for years as a Glynn County police officer and investigator in the district attorney’s office, but police and prosecutors were slow to recuse themselves and seek an independent inquiry.
Then came the choice to ignore or suppress the video evidence until it was leaked and rightfully sparked a public outcry.
In the recent police shooting of Houston gospel singer and choir director Adrian Medearis, Police Chief Art Acevedo was right to publicly acknowledge video of the shooting and vet it against the official report. Instead of releasing it, he chose to share it with Medearis’ family, which he said has asked that it not be made public.
No one wants to see a loved one’s last moments played out on the internet forever. But especially in police-involved shootings, authorities should be as transparent as possible to avoid fueling public mistrust. And given the still-unanswered questions about the deadly Harding Street raid from January of last year, Acevedo can’t simply assume Houston residents will take his word that the video supports the official report.
Authorities also need to make sure that open carry and citizens arrests laws are not misused to encourage vigilante justice and lynchings.
The Georgia law says that a private person may arrest someone if a crime is committed in his presence or “within his immediate knowledge,” which wasn’t true of the McMichaels in this case.
A similar Texas law says “a peace officer or any other person, may, without a warrant, arrest an offender when the offense is committed in his presence or within his view, if the offense is one classed as a felony or as an offense against the public peace.”
Neither of these laws suggests that deadly force can be used against an unarmed person who merely “looks like” someone who may be suspected of burglary.
The Arbery case should remind those in the criminal justice system that people are watching. And that’s a good thing.