Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old unarmed black man, was the victim of a shooting in Brunswick, Georgia. The shooters are two white men, Gregory McMichael, and his son Travis McMichael. The shooting happened on Sunday afternoon on February 23rd of this year. It recently gained national attention due to a video of the shooting going viral.
Opinions about the incident and rumors relating to it instantly spread everywhere. Rumor has it that the person who filmed the incident is involved. Rumors have it that Ahmaud attacked the father/son duo for no reason on that Sunday afternoon. All of the rumors simply amount to personal opinions without many facts.
In order to gain more clarity, in this case, the story must start from the top. At 1:08 pm on Sunday, February 23rd, 2020 – either Gregory or Travis McMichael called the police. They reported a suspicious person loitering inside a house under construction. The responder asked what the person was doing inside the home and there was no response from the caller. Shortly thereafter, the caller says the man from the house is running down the street. He is described as a black man in a white t-shirt. The man “running” was in fact, Ahmaud Arbery. It’s not clear if Ahmaud is the same person from the home under construction or not.
Gregory McMichael calls the police at 1:14 pm. Just minutes after the initial call about the man in the home under construction. The phone call is more frantic than the first. Gregory and Travis are now confronting the black man wearing the white t-shirt. A fight breaks out, audible gunshots ring out, and the call ends. But the story does not end here.
According to family and friends, Ahmaud Arbery was an avid jogger. People in the neighborhood recognize him from jogging. It appears as if the was jogging again on the day he died. Gregory and Travis grabbed a shotgun and a .357 magnum, then got into their truck, and decided to follow Ahmaud, according to the police report. Maybe they wanted to do a citizen’s arrest because they thought he was burglarizing the home under construction.
Police Report Answers and Raises Questions
In the police report, Gregory says that Travis and himself followed Ahmaud to question him about the house. They eventually use the truck to cut him off. One of them hops out of the bed of the truck with his shotgun in hand. It looks like Ahmaud attacks first, but that’s not until after the shotgun is brandished.
This case has more questions than answers. If the incident happened in February, why is the video just now surfacing in May? Why weren’t any charges filed? Ahmaud was jogging on foot, so what was the purpose of a car chase?
Gregory McMichael has a history in law enforcement. According to several lawyers, the “prominent” District Attorney in the case, George E. Barnhill, may have tried to cover the story up to protect Gregory.
Misplaced Outrage
Marches and protests are scheduled to occur in Georgia and possibly throughout the United States. Outrage is the emotion felt by many. Cries of “white supremacy!” and “no justice, no peace!” are all over social media. NBA basketball player LeBron James says that black men are “hunted” every time they leave their homes. But is that truly the case?
Black people in America account for 52% of all murderers, 48% of all murder victims, while only being 13% of the population. Those numbers are wildly out of proportion. And the majority of that is black on black crime. That seems to go totally ignored. The rally-cry, in this case, is that there haven’t been any arrests. But most black on black murder cases go unsolved, in general. Especially in big city areas like Chicago. Apprehension rates of less than 30% are the norm.
A black Flint, Michigan security guard was killed by another black man because he asked a black woman to put on her face mask due to the virus. That case went viral due to the virus aspect of it. Once the races of the victims and perpetrators were discovered, it faded away just as quickly.
Episodes of racism do happen in America. That is a fact. But everything can’t be about race, all of the time. Isolated incidents are still a thing and should be treated as such.
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