Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Social posts reflected area’s fear before Arbery shot

- By Lindsay Whitehurst and Russ Bynum

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Months before Ahmaud Arbery was killed, shooter Travis McMichael wrote a simple, chilling response to a Facebook post about a suspected car burglary in his Georgia neighborho­od: “Arm up.”

The item he commented on was sandwiched between chats about lost dogs and water service interrupti­on, like in many online communitie­s in the U.S. based around physical neighborho­ods.

But in the year before Arbery’s death, the posts in the Facebook group for the subdivisio­n where Mr. McMichael lived portray a neighborho­od increasing­ly on edge over low-level incidents, with residents swapping suspicions, keeping children inside and becoming willing to take matters into their own hands.

At a time of broad re-examinatio­n of race, criminal justice and the role of technology, such online neighborho­od forums in the U.S. have a troubling tendency to veer from wholesome community chitchat to anxious hypervigil­ance when suspicion is the discussion topic.

“It causes people both to be more anxious, more onalert or hypersensi­tive. But it also makes them more suspicious of someone not like them” in a variety of ways, said media psychologi­st Pamela Rutledge. “It’s really sort of stacking the kindling, so to speak, because people are then watching for something to go wrong.”

Closing arguments are expected Monday in murder trial for Mr. McMichael and two other white men charged in the slaying of Arbery, whose death became part of a broader reckoning on racial injustice in the criminal legal system.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael grabbed guns and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after seeing the 25-year-old Black man running in their neighborho­od outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick in February 2020. William “Roddie” Bryan, who joined the pursuit in his own truck, took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery as he threw punches and grabbed for the shotgun.

They say that they were trying to lawfully stop burglaries in their neighborho­od, and Mr. McMichael testified he shot Arbery in self-defense.

He also testified that much of what he knew about local burglary reports came from the Facebook group for the Satilla Shores subdivisio­n where he lived with his parents.

His “arm up” comment came in response to a July 2019 post, included in court documents, in which a woman warning of car burglaries said: “Remember, you can’t tell if a thief is a lightweigh­t or a murderer.”

An item from that November referenced a Black man and a white couple recorded on back-to-back nights inside a home under constructi­on five houses down from the McMichaels. Travis McMichael’s response: “They are reallyplay­ing with fire.”

All sides agree the Black man was Arbery, who was recorded on video five different times inside the same house — including just before the McMichaels began their pursuit of him — though prosecutor­s say there’s no evidence he committed any crimesin the neighborho­od.

One neighbor testified that a post about a car break-in prompted her to check her husband’s truck and discover some of his tools missing. Brook Perez said it “felt like a violation.”

Neighbor Lindy Cofer said people on the Facebook group swapped theories and suspicions behind who might be responsibl­e for certain property crimes.

Scholars have long found that people who consume a lot ofmedia tend to have a greater sense of fear, said David Ewoldsen, a Michigan State University professor who studies media and psychology.

On a neighborho­od site, it’s even closer to home and thus “magnifiest­he effect,” he said.

Humans have a “fight or flight” response to fear. When the spark is a social media post from a neighbor they know, people may want to somehow respond to the situation. “So you have all of that intertwine­d, and it’s going to it’s going to increase the likelihood of a violent response,” Mr.Ewoldsen said.

 ?? Sean Rayford/Getty Images ?? Defendant Travis McMichael stands as the jury enters the courtroom Nov. 8 in Brunswick, Ga.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images Defendant Travis McMichael stands as the jury enters the courtroom Nov. 8 in Brunswick, Ga.

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