When I say “stupid” I mean their actions were stupid. Even if the guy had been white, their actions were reckless. And now a man is dead because of their recklessness.
By choosing to chase the guy down and to do so while armed, they introduced an element of danger to the situation that was completely unnecessary, given that the alleged crime was simple burglery and the guy was not exhibiting threatening behavior to them or anyone else.
You act like chasing the guy down and being armed is something unusual. I carry a gun every minute of every day while I'm outside. So what ?
Arbery is dead because of HIS recklessness and criminal violence, nothing else.
Being armed is not necessarily the problem. Chasing a man down while armed presents a whole host of problems, especially if you have no idea whether or not the man you are chasing actually committed the crimes you think he did.
Also, I don’t know if the McMichaels usually went around armed as you do but it’s clear from their initial testimony that they specifically grabbed their weapons before setting out to accost Aubery.
Having said that, the way they went about this does not look good for them. They only had a suspicion that he was the burgler so they had no legal justification whatsoever for attempting to accost him at all.
It’s been pointed out many times that they called the cops. That’s all well and good except, they should have left it at that.