The problem is that while Arbery is no doubt a criminal.... The defendants chased the guy, hit him with a car, and attempted to falsely imprison him in their citizens arrest.
If he was hit with a car, that definitely changes the picture!
From the wiki page:
As Arbery approaches the pickup truck, shouting can be heard.
[59] Arbery then crosses from the left side of the road to the right side and runs around the passenger's side of the truck. After passing the truck's front, Arbery turns left.
[58][60][62] Meanwhile, Travis McMichael, holding his shotgun, approaches Arbery at the truck's front.
[61][63] The camera's view of the confrontation between Arbery and Travis is momentarily blocked.[64]
Several media accounts of the video report that the audio of the first gunshot seems to be heard before Arbery and Travis struggle with each other.
[57][62][65] Some media accounts first report a struggle, and then mention the gunshot(s).
[60][66] Other media accounts describe that it was "not possible" to see from the video what was happening when the first gunshot was fired,
[67] or report that the truck "blocks the view of how the men first engage each other" with regard to when the gunshot is heard.
[68]
But no such mention of a car hit is ever mentioned, anywhere, so are you sure the car hit happened?
Watching video footage also reveals no car hit:
The fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old unarmed black man, was caught on video and has prompted a grand jury investigation.
www.tmz.com
However, the wiki is correct in that we see that no direct footage is recorded when the first shooting occurs. On top of that, there are lots of conflicting reports between witnesses of what happened. And finally, they lacked grounds for a proper citizens arrest. Combined with a lousy attorney and witnesses who incriminate themselves... suddenly the guilty verdict isn't too far fetched.
Because there is a lack of footage at the moment of the shooting, I really have no idea if Arbery charged in fear of his own life or not. If they were pointing a gun at him while yelling for him to stop or get killed, then Arbery still acted completely irrational, but in a stressful situation then it makes sense he could act in such a way. If Arbery was dodging gun fire and decided to go for a last stand, I could understaand that too, but in the video Arbery is fighting the man before the first shoot is discharged. That is self-defense.
Arbery may be innocent, but he's also dead. Why on earth would anyone charge someone with a gun? 99% of people simply freeze. Arbery would have won in regular court, and civil court afterwards, for false imprisonment.
As far as I can tell, the two conflicting sides of this story are:
1. People have a right to protect their community.
2. People cannot falsely imprison someone.
If it was established in court that these men had no good motive to mount a citizens' arrest (lack of proof), then there is still the separate question of whether or not someone has a right to defend themselves when charged by someone else holding a gun. Additionally, had Arbery been armed, it would have escalated into a shootout almost immediately, because someone brandishing a gun at you is obviously going to cause fear for someone's life.
These men did not do a good job of playing cop. They needed to calmly speak to the suspect with no gun brandished, and get his side of the story. They jumped to an arrest phase with not enough evidence and it resulted in a self-defense situation. To be a good cop, sometimes you must put yourself in harms way. The father was standing in the truck with a pistol, so there was no need for the man confront Arbery to brandish his weapon either on a mere trespassing charge.
I would charge the the father-son combo with manslaughter but not murder. The idea they had malicious intent to murder is ridiculous and the video shows no such thing, they were merely trying to protect their community, but it could be the case that "murder with malice" is lightly defined in Georgia.
The man who filmed it should not be charged with anything, this is 100% evil. This man filmed the truth so that people could have it, and instead he is punished for life? Say goodbye to anymore good Samaritans filming, what a garbage verdict.
But overall, false imprisonment is wrong, threatening someone to stop or die with minimal evidence is also wrong. False imprisonment of someone is probably worth 1-5 years in prison in most states. That it lead to a death is a serious crime, but not indicative of murder.
I believe regular people should be allowed to enforce the law. Citzens arrest is no different than an officer's arrest. The idea that a police officer has a better moral compass, or that the judge or jury does, is simply absurd. God gave everyone the same capacities to determine right from wrong.
But, that said, if you are going to act as a cop, you better damn well know the law and be prepared to be in danger while reserving judgement about a suspect. Threatening to shoot someone until they answer your questions is...
1. Unproductive, as 99% of people will lie about what they are doing.
2. Quite likely to harm innocents.
A Christian cannot execute a policy that could risk harming innocents. Not only does Jesus teach this, such as when Jesus refuses the request to rain fire and brimstone on Samaritans, but also how God refuses to rain fire and brimstone on Soddom and Gomorrah until every innocent person was evacuated from the city. It's also in the parable of the wheat and the chaff; God refuses to pull out any weeds in fear of harming even a single innocent.
So, based on the evidence presented thus far, we can conclude that there was Anti-White zealotry in over-convicting the defendants, especially for the man who filmed, but if it were my Kingdom I'd give both the father/son 20 years in prison for manslaughter. Definitely not murder, and in my perfect world murderers would get the death penalty. The fact that these guys were given murder charges instead of manslaughter shows Anti-White racism, but not an extreme amount.
Naturally, I could be wrong about anything above, feel free to tell me why!
