The deep racism of this society has shown itself again. Ahmaud Arbery, a young African American man in Georgia, was hunted down by two men – a father and son – starting an altercation that gave them the pretext to kill him. They claimed he was preparing a robbery, but Arbery was out jogging. He had no tools or bags with him. He was in shorts and a t-shirt. The men claimed they killed him in self-defense after confronting him, and they were not arrested after the incident.
After the Georgia government ended its COVID-19 shelter-in-place policy, protestors risked their lives to gather and express their collective outrage at what happened. Prompted by their activism, a video of the two men was released to the media, showing the blatant execution of Arbery. The public outrage over this video has prompted the arrest of the two men on murder and aggravated assault charges.
All along, the local police department and District Attorney’s office had a copy of the video. They held onto it since February but did nothing with it! Why? One of the men who hunted Arbery down was an ex-police officer and investigator with the District Attorney’s office. Two different prosecutors have since recused themselves from the case due to professional relationships with the accused. Now that the video has come to light, we are seeing just how corrupt and racist the police’s actions were in this case.
Ahmaud Arbery’s name will join a list including Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and countless other people who have been victims of this violent, racist system and the police who defend it.
Watch this clip of Ahmaud Arbery‘s father and lawyer speaking to the media.
Featured image credit: Time Magazine
