New video shows Ahmaud Arbery appearing to commit a burglary right before he was confronted.

Protesters in Georgia. ABC News.

New video shows Ahmaud Arbery appearing to commit a burglary right before he was confronted by two armed men performing a citizens arrest on him. ABC News. Arbery's death has caused a firestorm of criticism and two men, Gregory and Travis McMichael, were arrested. Previous video shows Arbery running towards the two men before wrestling with one of the men who was armed with a shotgun. His family says he was out for a jog, but the new video shows him walking up to a house under construction and only starting to run after someone is seen in the video, presumably calling the police. The McMichael's legal defense rests on the idea that they were responding to a felony, which burglary is in Georgia, and had legal rights to stop Arbery. 

Atlanta Journal Constitution. 

My Comment:

Though it is risky to talk about this case, I've already been shadowbanned on Twitter once for discussing it and the number of trolls and threats I have gotten has massively increased, I think it's important to cover this case. In my view it looks pretty obvious this is yet another case where the media is going to get egg on their face, just like the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases before them. 

In the media's version of the events the McMichael's saw Arbery jogging through their neighborhood and they had a problem with that because they were racist. They saw the man, grabbed their guns and then brutally murdered him. They had no real reason to do this other than racial hate and anyone who argues otherwise is called a racist. 

Of course that theory has been blown out of the water. It was clear that Arbery was not out for a jog but he was out committing a felony. From the video I have seen, at the very least, Arbery is guilty of 2nd degree burglary and if he stole anything that bumps it up to 1st degree, both of which are felonies. You can't enter a home without permission and it doesn't matter if the house is under construction or not. What he did is pretty obviously a felony and under Georgia law you are allowed to attempt a citizens arrest if you have probable cause that someone committed a felony. If the McMichaels saw him running from the house, then they had legal reason to stop him.

With the release of the above video and other video from inside of the house that Arbery entered, it's very clear that had the police gotten to him first and if he hadn't fought with the men, Arbery had committed a serious crime. The full video of the 2nd security cam footage hasn't been released but it does show him entering the property. He would have been arrested for burglary and trespassing. 

So, at the very least, their is an obvious defense to the murder charges filed against the McMichael's. I don't think there is much of a legal case against this not being a lawful citizens arrest unless the McMichael's said something that casts doubt on that or there is other evidence we are not seeing. Without other evidence it's clear that they had the right to try and stop Arbery.

I also want to point out that the 2nd video also seems to make claims that Arbery was out jogging unbelievable at best. The only footage I have been able to find is the news report below that is incredibly biased in Arbery's favor but it's clear that Arbery was not showing the signs of someone out for a jog. He wasn't sweating, he wasn't out of breath, and he doesn't appear to be displaying any of the other signs of exercise that you would see from a man out on a jog. And indeed, Arbery walked up to the house before he entered it. The only footage we see of him running is after someone is seen with a cell phone and before he gets into the fight with the McMichael's. EDIT: A reader who is an experienced runner informed me that if Arbery was also an experienced runner, he probably would not have shown signs of exercise if he was keeping a easy pace. Though that doesn't change the fact that he wasn't seen running until after he left the house, it is important context that I thought I should add. 

Of course none of this matters if the McMichael's didn't follow the rules of self defense. A quick note, I am not going to post the video of the shooting itself. I have gotten in trouble with Google before for doing stuff like that as they don't approve of posting violence on their platform... if you are conservative. The video should be easy enough to find though and I recommend you watch it before I continue. 

If you have seen the video, it shows Arbery running up to a white truck with one man in the back and another around the front of the vehicle. Arbery runs to the man in the front of the truck and we don't see what happens other than hearing a shot firing. Once the men end up on the other side of the truck it shows the two men wrestling over the shotgun and Arbery punching and the gun going off two more times, with the other man in the truck pulling his handgun. Arbery then falls to the ground shortly after. 

The legal question now becomes who had the right to invoke the rules of self defense. Was it the McMichaels, who believed they were confronting a man who committed a crime, or was it Arbery that may have believed that he was going to be attacked? 

From the footage alone it sure looks to me like the McMichael's were in the legal right. Arbery approached them first and had plenty of opportunity to either flee the scene, talk to the men or even call the police himself. The new video shows they had probable cause to try and stop him and Arbery had the opportunity to leave. In my view Arbery was very clearly the aggressor and once he tried to take McMichael's gun away from him, it was legally justified to shoot him. 

However, it is unclear what happened in front of the truck. It's unclear if the man in front, presumably Travis McMichael, was aiming his gun at Arbery or if it just went off. It's even possible that Arbery fired the shot himself, probably my mistake, if McMichael wasn't practicing trigger discipline or Arbery reached into the trigger guard. The 2nd shot appears to have been shot in the struggle and it was only the third shot that we clearly see Arbery getting shot. But the critical first shot isn't on the video and it's a shame that it isn't as it would remove any doubt one way or the other about who was justified. 

To be clear, we shouldn't just trust video, context could be missing. With limited audio it's possible the McMichael's issued a threat or possibly even some racial language at Arbery, which might ruin their claims of self defense. Also the missing information from he lead up to and the aftermath of the attack could hide things that could be exculpatory or damning for the McMichael's. Without access to further evidence right now I don't think it's right to claim this case either way. I remember with the Charlottesville case, which also looked like self defense, there were some damning statements from James Fields that ruined his court case and justified his conviction. Though there isn't any indication that will happen here, it is important to note that we don't have all the evidence yet. 

I think it's very clear that the media narrative around this case is, for lack of a better term, evil. Though we don't know with 100% certainty what happened in front of the truck we do now know that Arbery was at the very least fleeing from the scene of a crime. His families claim that he was out for a jog doesn't hold up and it at least gives a justification for the McMichael's attempt to stop him, if not the shooting itself. The media is already wrong in this case and I won't be surprised if more evidence comes out that shows that this was a justified shooting, at least under the laws of Georgia. 

All that being said, I do find some fault in what the McMichael's did. Though under Georgia law you are allowed to confront someone you think committed a felony, it was still a stupid thing to do. At most following the guy until the police can catch up was probably justified but getting out of your vehicle to confront the guy wasn't the good move as it gave Arbery a chance to escalate things. Had they stayed in the car, they would be free men and Arbery would likely be sitting in a jail cell. Of course there is a chance he would have fought with the police instead but at least then the McMichael's would be legally safe. They appear to be within their rights here, but that doesn't mean that they should have done what they did.

That isn't to say that Arbery was in the right either. He made several huge mistakes that day and doing so cost him his life in very predictable fashion. He should have known better than to enter a house under construction and he had absolutely no reason to confront the McMichael's. Both of those actions were remarkable stupid things to do if he was doing them without ill intent.

Which is one of the reasons why many of the counter arguments in favor of Arbery make no sense to me. I know better than to enter property that doesn't belong to me and I don't buy the idea that it's ok to look into construction sites given how common theft is from them. I also know better than to try and pick a fight with people that are chasing me, especially when I can fairly easily get away as Arbery could have easily gone into the woods or doubled back. If he really was innocent why didn't he run and hide and call the cops saying two men were chasing him? His actions make zero sense to me if he was an innocent man. 

But the dumbest thing he did at all? Trying to take a weapon from someone. That's legally an admission that you are willing to shoot and kill them and doing so is a very low percentage move. Even if we were to admit for the sake of argument that Arbery was legally allowed to defend himself, trying to disarmed two armed men is a suckers bet and running away would have been a much smarter thing to do. But he didn't do it and it's no surprise that he died for what he did. Even in a case where there isn't any doubt about who the aggressor is, once someone has a gun out, trying to take it is an act of last resort at best and should only be done if you think you are dead anyways and have nothing else to lose. That clearly wasn't the case here and Arbery should have run away instead. 

As for the case itself, though I am glad that something other than the Coronavirus is getting into the news, I am not surprised that it came up when it did. It's an election year and President Trump's popularity among blacks is a major threat to Joe Biden and the Democrats. Since racial relations have been on the backburner for awhile and many blacks were happy with the $1200 relief checks they received the Democrats and their media allies had to do something to pry attention back. This case is likely the first of many efforts to foster and ferment racial animosity between whites and blacks in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election.