Community demands justice after killing of Ahmaud Arbery

Brut America

“We shouldn’t have to have a video to launch an investigation about why a 25-year-old unarmed black man was jogging, and was murdered, on a street.”  More than two months have passed since the killing of Ahmaud Arbery — why have no arrests been made yet?

Transcript

00:00I think we as a society need to fear how desensitized we may become when we hear of another Black

00:07man die today.

00:09We shouldn't have to have a video to launch an investigation about why a 25-year-old unarmed

00:15Black man was jogging and was murdered on a street.

00:21It shouldn't have to take a video.

00:23But since it has taken a video, let's make sure that it's not just a video.

00:28It's us who are making sure that justice is finally done.

00:32No justice, no peace!

00:59This is not law and order.

01:00This isn't some mystery.

01:03They admitted to doing it.

01:05They admitted to killing this young man.

01:07They admitted that he was unarmed.

01:10They admitted that they were the ones who tracked him down, confronted him with guns,

01:17and they admitted to shooting him.

01:20So I don't know any other place that this is going to happen except between when there

01:25are white parties and a Black man.

01:27They're claiming in their statement to the police that they believe that the young Black

01:33man was the person who had been burglarizing their neighborhood.

01:41Names are Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael.

01:44So they get in their pickup truck with a shotgun and handheld guns and drive in front of the

01:52jogger yelling at him, saying that they need to stop and they want to talk to him.

01:57They claim that they get out of the truck and confront him and Mr. Ahmad grabs the shotgun.

02:05After a scuffling ensues, he's shot with two shots and dies.

02:11So they're claiming self-defense while they were trying to make a citizen's arrest to

02:16apprehend him.

02:18Now I don't know about you, but if there was a jogger running down my neighborhood and

02:24somebody in pickup trucks and a shotgun decided to run after them just to talk to them, and

02:32this person ended up dead, I don't know how you can stay in that community.

02:36Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself on February 27 due to what

02:58she calls a conflict of interest because Mr. McMichael, Gregory McMichael, the father, was

03:04an investigator at that DA's office for over 30 years.

03:07So he knew a lot of people in the office and everything else.

03:11Shooting happened on February 23rd.

03:14It's February 27th.

03:16No one has been arrested, no charges, no indictment.

03:20So afterwards, another district attorney gets a piece of it.

03:28This is District Attorney Barnhill, and he said that he was going to recuse himself from

03:35the case because Barnhill's son is a district attorney in the Brunswick judicial circuit

03:40where Gregory McMichael was a former investigator.

03:45He also said that he stated that he did not believe there were grounds for an arrest for

03:51any other people involved in a shooting.

04:17Right now we're talking about an invisible enemy.

04:22Those are the words that Donald Trump uses to describe COVID-19 and how to combat it

04:32in a war-like situation since he believes that he's a war president.

04:38There has always been another invisible enemy that Black men have been confronted with for

04:44over 400 years, and that is white supremacy.

04:48It has killed thousands of Black families, Black lives all across this country.

04:57And we have yet to find a cure for it.

05:00I looked at the date, and February 23rd is three days away from Trayvon Martin's murder.

05:07Something that happened in 2012.

05:10So eight years from what happened ago.

05:14Something that swept the nation and the world with how a young Black man can be treated

05:19and killed in his own neighborhood.

05:23We're still dealing with that same problem now.

05:26And have had a series of events that have happened since.

05:30So this is nothing new.

05:32Black men have always been treated a certain way in America.

05:39If you believe in the true ideals of what this democracy and what justice stands for,

05:45then these two, three individuals would not be roaming free in their neighborhoods right now.

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