Jogging while black

This editorial appeared in The Washington Post. W hat if Ahmaud Arbery had been white? What if the two men who confronted Mr. Arbery before one of them shot and killed him had been black? What if the graphic video showing a young man needlessly gunned down while on a Sunday afternoon jog had not been anonymously posted to the Internet but, instead, had been kept hidden?

We all know the terrible answers. Had Arbery not been black, it would not have taken law enforcement authorities in Georgia more than two months to be shamed into seeking some semblance of justice in his killing. The announcement by a Georgia prosecutor that the case would be presented to a grand jury for consideration of criminal charges against the two men involved in the shooting came Tuesday, the same day that a video of the Feb. 23 shooting surfaced, sparking outrage and reigniting America’s debate about whether black lives matter.

The 36-second video is difficult to watch. Taken from inside a vehicle by an unidentified person, it shows the unarmed, 25-year-old jogging on a residential road when he comes upon a white truck stopped in the street. One white man is standing in the bed of the pickup and another beside its open driver’s-side door. Both are armed, one with a shotgun. Arbery runs around the truck and disappears from view before he reemerges. There is muffled shouting and three shots sound as Arbery tussles with the man with the shotgun before he stumbles and falls on the road. There is blood on his shirt.

The two men, neither of whom has been arrested or charged, are father and son. The father, Gregory McMichael, is a former police officer and retired investigator in the local district attorney’s office who told police he and his son chased Arbery because he resembled a suspect in a rash of recent break-ins..

Police apparently limited their investigation to interviewing McMichael, while a prosecutor concluded that the men had acted legally under Georgia’s citizen arrest and self-defense statutes. Authorities seemed more upset that the video that appeared on the Internet had been posted than with its gut-wrenching contents.

It is clear there is a need for an independent investigation.

“All I want to do is get justice for my son,” said Marcus Arbery, the slain man’s father. “This is terrible. It could happen to anybody’s kid.”

Especially and tragically, if they are black.