The Ahmaud Arbery shooting I noted in April is now going national. CNN aired a video of the fatal confrontation, the case is going to a grand jury and Joe Biden is demanding justice. Now both sides (all sides?) get to grab their scripts and we can fight over whether Ahmaud Arbery is Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, or someone else entirely. Any chance he's Ahmaud Arbery and this case doesn't fit a template? Naah.
As is so often the case, the vdeo shows what people want it to show. This is CNN:
Elements of the disturbing video are consistent with a description of the shooting given to police by one of those involved in the incident.
In a separate document, [local prosecutor] Mr. Barnhill stated that video exists of Mr. Arbery “burglarizing a home immediately preceding the chase and confrontation.” In the letter to the police, he cites a separate video of the shooting filmed by a third pursuer.
Mr. Barnhill said this video, which has not been made public, shows Mr. Arbery attacking Travis McMichael after he and his father pulled up to him in their truck.
The video shows Mr. Arbery trying to grab the shotgun from Travis McMichael’s hands, Mr. Barnhill wrote. And that, he argued, amounts to self-defense under Georgia law. Travis McMichael, Mr. Barnhill concluded, “was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself.”
Where did that take the local prosecutor?
Mr. Barnhill also wrote that he did not believe there was evidence of a crime, noting that Gregory McMichael and his son had been legally carrying their weapons under Georgia law. And because Mr. Arbery was a “burglary suspect,” the pursuers, who had “solid firsthand probable cause,” were justified in chasing him under the state’s citizen’s arrest law.
It's all good!
I'm just a tired old Yankee who is losing patience with this bullshit. Arbery was not jogging down the street carrying a television. And if he was, you're going to shoot him because of it? Why? No one was being kidnapped, no one was being raped, no one was being assaulted - what about this suggested it was a deadly force situation?
Or if these vigilantes were gunned up out of fear that the jogger might be armed, well, if the situation is that dangerous just take a deep breath and let it go. I don't care how legal this shooting was, it was stupid and quite likely the law is stupid as well.
Now yes, Arbery should not have attacked, as the video suggests he did. Legally that may be exculpatory but I'm not even sure why that is a defense. What, the vigilante plan was to show up with a shotgun to arrest a guy who, they hoped, would be calm and act responsibly? Just how did they picture this unfolding if the jogger was terrified, hopped up on drugs, had anger management issues, had mental health issues, or whatever? The plan was what - if he's a sensible citizen they'll arrest him, otherwise they'll shoot him? Come on, man.
These vigilantes faced a situation where no one was at risk of physical harm and turned it into a situation that had a high potential for disaster. And that's what they got. There ought to be consequences for cranial-anal impaction.
Nothing better than Ace's FLAMING SKULL!! Does my heart good to see it! Thanks, Captain!
Posted by: MissMarple2 | May 07, 2020 at 04:00 PM
Posted by: Dave (in MA) | May 07, 2020 at 04:03 PM
Black man sentenced to 43+ years for Jogging in the country and the armed home invasion of Joe Jurevicius while on probation but mostly for Jogging in the country:
https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2019/03/chaotic-end-to-sentencing-for-man-who-robbed-former-browns-receiver-joe-jurevicius.html
Posted by: Pinandpuller | May 07, 2020 at 04:05 PM
Miss Marple, it went from one skull, to 32 mini skulls (4 rows of 8), to one HUGE skull and back to a normal one. A brand new Pixy treat!
mostly I just get crap calls on it that I do not want to get.
After living almost half a century with a person who slavishly answers every fucking call on the worthless landline and refuses to just hang up on deadbeats, I get a large amount of pleasure out of terminating, with malice, every number I don't recognize.
Posted by: Captain Hate | May 07, 2020 at 04:08 PM
Clarice,
iPad phone is great for face time call.. I talk to family in England, Ireland, France and Belgium using it.
Posted by: Jack Lillywhite | May 07, 2020 at 04:08 PM
James Comey
@Comey
·
21m
The DOJ has lost its way. But, career people: please stay because America needs you. The country is hungry for honest, competent leadership.
3.5K
1.8K
8.1K
Posted by: clarice | May 07, 2020 at 04:10 PM
Comey the fucking weasel shows up like a dog returning to its vomit. And that’s insulting to dogs.
Posted by: lyle | May 07, 2020 at 04:12 PM
Very funny Capt'n but I noticed he doesn't interrupt Levin when he's on. Levin must have laid in to him.
Posted by: Rocco | May 07, 2020 at 04:12 PM
DOJ did ask for dismissal with prejudice
Posted by: Neo | May 07, 2020 at 04:14 PM
Rocco,
He reminds me of how deferential Dick Vitale was to Bob Knight, surely for the same reason.
Posted by: Captain Hate | May 07, 2020 at 04:14 PM
Insty:
They were spinning from the first paragraph.
Posted by: lyle | May 07, 2020 at 04:15 PM
If Comey was born as part of a litter to a reputable dog breeder, he'd be immediately drowned as a genetic abomination.
Posted by: Captain Hate | May 07, 2020 at 04:17 PM
20 ppp well worth reading
Thanks, Clarice. I second that.
So the filing implicated the entire "7th floor" of the FBI, but seems to have exonerated Yates, Clapper and Brennan in the Flynn frame-up.
Then Comey used Trump's request to go easy on Flynn to implicate Trump in obstruction of justice, which led to two years of the Mueller witch hunt.
What a disgrace.
Posted by: Extraneus | May 07, 2020 at 04:18 PM
Drowning is too kind for that miserable cur.
Posted by: lyle | May 07, 2020 at 04:21 PM
Heh;
-- And so the reckoning begins.
Posted by: guy who always thinks that reckonings are beginning at May 07, 2020 02:52 PM--
Posted by: Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki | May 07, 2020 at 04:23 PM
LOL, Ig.
A quick look at Twitchy reveals that the progtards aren’t taking the Flynn news too well.
Good.
Posted by: lyle | May 07, 2020 at 04:26 PM
Odd for a very tall man like Comey to have a small man’s complex.
Posted by: Jack Lillywhite | May 07, 2020 at 04:27 PM
--Comey the fucking weasel shows up like a dog returning to its vomit.--
I question that it's vomit Comey comes back to eat.
Posted by: Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki | May 07, 2020 at 04:28 PM
Posted by: lyle | May 07, 2020 at 04:32 PM
What the hell?
Posted by: lyle | May 07, 2020 at 04:33 PM
Hah, the NYT spins it thusly:
"Disagreement"? Yeah, that's one way to describe it. I suppose Mike Nifong "disagreed" with the outcome of the Duke lacrosse case too.
Posted by: jimmyk | May 07, 2020 at 04:33 PM
Typhuspad sux.
Posted by: lyle | May 07, 2020 at 04:34 PM
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.191592/gov.uscourts.dcd.191592.198.0.pdf
Posted by: Extraneus | May 07, 2020 at 04:36 PM
Ahh Pope Asshat...yeah, there is your No. 1 nincompoop lawyer who, like Ben Wittes was all about how Tumpkins had better get used to how guilty traitorous Flynn was going to have a merry Christmas in jail, go home they're waiting for you!, and blah blah blah - yeah? sucks to be you Mr. Expert Prosecutor!
Posted by: Boswell at May 07, 2020 04:28 PM (32YRo)
Posted by: Captain Hate | May 07, 2020 at 04:37 PM
I hate to interrupt the Flynn celebration but this is too funny from Steven Hayward at PL;
Academic Absurdity of All Time?
The abstract is not actually the most incomprehensible mass of progtalk I've ever read but the premise is off the charts.
What I struggle with is, is "queer" like "wop" or "beaner" where only one of that persuasion may say it, or is queer pretty much permissible for anyone who has not yet been arrested by the thought police?
Posted by: Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki | May 07, 2020 at 04:37 PM
New thread
Posted by: Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki | May 07, 2020 at 04:38 PM
Posted by: Extraneus | May 07, 2020 at 04:38 PM
I wonder if Comey read the pleading before tweeting today.
Posted by: Extraneus | May 07, 2020 at 04:39 PM
Ooooops. NEw thread.
Posted by: Extraneus | May 07, 2020 at 04:39 PM
Remingtons algerian aide camp would have dispatched him
Posted by: Narciso | May 07, 2020 at 04:41 PM
TK, 12:43 "It shouldn’t get you so twitapated"
(And, yes, you corrected the spelling shortly thereafter).
Do you really mean that he was losing control of his rational thought processes due to sexual ... hormonal ... let me rephrase ... ROMANTIC excitement?
Posted by: JimNorCal | May 07, 2020 at 04:43 PM
Pretty really. If some stranger is rolling down my driveway in my car with a television (or two!) dangling out the back, I'm certainly not going to shoot them. Call it in, maybe I'll get it back, maybe not.
But I won't be getting in a gunfight with anyone, or a fistfight (far too old for that now). Or a lawsuit, or a politicized arrest.
Threats to my family's safety get a more vigorous response. And I am able to afford to live in a safe neighborhood which has had zero homicides in the thirty years I've lived here.
And since you ask, there is a huge gap between your hypothetical of me letting anyone rob me freely and these two vigilantes chasing down strangers on suspicion that maybe they had committed a crime. If these two had stopped the guy as he exited their home with a television in his hands we (the nation) would be having a different conversation. Or more likely, ignored it altogether.
Posted by: Tom Maguire | May 07, 2020 at 05:00 PM
Tonight it is “Gestoomde Mossels “ or in francais “Moules Marniere” with a nice white wine, probably one one my SIL’s Chablis from Beaune! I got 6 lbs at Publix for this Ocassion. End of the R months in a way.
Posted by: Jack Lillywhite | May 07, 2020 at 05:22 PM
Ooooo! TM, respond to mine, too!
Jim,Sunnyvale at 11:56 (page 6)
Posted by: JimNorCal | May 07, 2020 at 05:31 PM
new
Posted by: JimNorCal | May 07, 2020 at 05:32 PM
How much longer do I have to wait for Patterico to weigh in on Flynn’s exoneration?!???
Serious question:
What's with you guys' obsession with the guy, who you long ago convinced me was a moron, not worth my time.
I meant to ask the other day, when he was the topic of an entire evening's discussion.
Posted by: anonamom | May 07, 2020 at 05:48 PM
"these two vigilantes chasing down strangers on suspicion that maybe they had committed a crime"
If the one involved were in fact an off duty LEO would there have been probable cause to apprehend and detain? If the suspect tried to take the firearm away and got killed would this be on the LEO or the suspect?
I understand the notion that LEOs have "special authority", just not sure it's that special.
Would I do it, no. The fact that some people would does not surprise me. Seems to me it is being assumed here that any one who would is a menace to society and I am skeptical based on the "facts" being discussed.
Posted by: boris | May 07, 2020 at 06:32 PM
--Seems to me it is being assumed here that any one who would is a menace to society and I am skeptical based on the "facts" being discussed.--
It's a pretty common me-tric;
Would I do it? No, so no one else should, even though it's legal.
A corollary;
Should the rich be taxed more? Yes. Are you rich? No, the rich always make one dollar more than me, regardless of my income.
Posted by: Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki | May 07, 2020 at 06:46 PM
new
Posted by: JimNorCal | May 08, 2020 at 05:18 AM