It's time to close mouths about the Arbery murder.
THE KILLING OF AHMAUD ARBERY
The guy who owns the under-construction house that Arbery is on video looking at says that nothing was ever stolen:
Larry English, the man who owns the house under construction, told The Washington Post that the structure was not robbed.
“That’s completely wrong. I’ve never had a police report or anything stolen from my property, or any kind of robbery,” he said.
English also adamantly denies ever using the phrase “burglary” with police.
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At some point during all this, Gregory McMichael was outside at his son’s Satilla Drive home when he saw Arbery running down the street, he told police. He ran inside, armed himself and told his son to grab a gun, Gregory McMichael told police. He said they had seen Arbery on surveillance cameras. The two men got into his son’s pickup truck and caught up to Arbery at Burford Road and Satilla Drive, he told police. After asking Arbery several times to stop, Travis McMichael stepped out of the truck with a shotgun, Gregory McMichael told police.
The video shows Arbery approaching McMichael’s truck (presumably they sped ahead of him and stopped their truck in his path) before Travis McMichael got out of the truck with his shotgun and confronted Arbery.
If the McMichaels’s belief was that Arbery was a burglar based on having seen him enter a construction site that isn’t enough to legitimize their accusation (I’ve been out on walks before and have looked at construction sites, for crying out loud. Who hasn’t?). At best it’s trespassing but with no way to prove intent, the accusation of burglary doesn’t stand.
Georgia does not make it easy for citizens to go around arresting each other. Citizens are entitled to use reasonable force to arrest people who have committed crimes in their presence or immediate knowledge
(courts have held that these are synonymous). Here is the statute:
“A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape, a private person may arrest him upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion.”
The most important part of this statute is the unwritten bit — you are allowed to make arrests only with “reasonable force.”
You can’t burn down an orphanage to catch one child snatching extra bowls of gruel. And the Georgia Supreme Court has held, as a matter of law, that you can’t chase someone down with a weapon because you think they have committed burglary.
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As it is elsewhere in the country, so too is it illegal in Georgia to point the barrel of your gun at someone, loaded or unloaded, without any legal justification.
Some argued that Travis McMichael had the right to use lethal force when Arbery crossed in front of the truck. This argument doesn’t make sense to me. Here’s why:
In the video Arbery looked as though he was going to run on the right side of the truck to avoid the driver. When Travis McMichael exited his truck with his shotgun, went around the open driver’s side door to the front of the truck, that’s when Arbery crossed. While the younger McMichael and his shotgun are out of frame at this point, I can only extrapolate on this from the perspective of placing myself in Arbey’s situation at that moment: If I’m running, walking, whatever, and I see two men (with one standing in the back of the truck like he’s in a parade) who followed me and then pulled into my oncoming path while demanding I stop to talk with them, and one comes out with a shotgun? I’m going to fear for my safety. If one points the barrel at me you’re damn right I’m going to go for control of that barrel because there is no way on foot I’m going to outrun two guys in a truck. I’m amazed that some think Arbery should have extended the benefit of the doubt to the McMichaels when the McMichaels did not extend that courtesy to Arbery.
And no — private citizens do not have the right to stop the actions or movement of other private citizens and if someone in a vehicle demands you stop to talk to them you are under zero obligation — legal or otherwise — to do so. Besides, doing so would violate every single “stranger danger” lesson I ever learned in school.
Those who say that the McMichaels have their right of armed self defense apparently don’t realize that it can also be viewed that Arbery also had his right of self defense and I’m pretty sure felt as though his life was in danger the moment Travis McMichael stopped his truck in the road and got out to confront him with his shotgun.
Consistency is important, particularly when it comes to due process. So, too, is discussion of self defense rights. I’ve seen the video of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing (a link to this video …
danaloesch.com
This is from Dana Loesch for all here who want to make shit into a liberal thing. Arbery was murdered by 2 white men because he was black and they automatically thought he was a criminal. He did not attack anyone who was not threatening his life. That's what happened.