The Need for Colorblind Justice

The Need for Colorblind Justice

By Billy King

I find it ironic that I mentioned the story of Travon Martin in my last blog only to see something similar come up later in the week. Apparently, I have been living under a rock until this past week when I had seen a tweet from LeBron James stating that black people are “literally hunted EVERYDAY/EVERYTIME we step foot outside the comfort of our homes!” This made little sense to me so I looked into it.

Two months ago, Ahmaud Arbery was jogging through a neighborhood in Glynn County, Georgia. Two other men, a father and son named Gregory and Travis McMichael, approached him in a pickup truck suspecting his involvement in a string of burglaries. A struggle ensued and Arbery was shot dead. It was two months before any arrests were made. Video footage emerged this past week that shows the shooting and what occurred.

According to the video, it appears that Arbery is jogging down the road when he comes upon a truck. He runs around to the passenger’s side and then he and Travis McMichael emerge around the front of the vehicle and seem to be fighting over a shotgun. You can hear the gun go off twice and assume that those are the deadly shots that kill Arbery.

I guess now is a good time to note that Arbery is black and the other two men are white. This should not be necessary as skin color does not make death more or less tragic in anyone’s eyes but apparently, that is the wrong way to look at things if you ask other people on social media. As with the Trayvon Martin case, which sparked a racial divide in this country years ago, it appears we are going to have another case to cause further division. To me, this is almost as tragic.

Racial lines are being drawn as the narrative of being gunned down for jogging while black is already taking shape. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the Arbery family, stated, “The series of events captured in this video confirm what all the evidence indicated prior to its release— Ahmaud Arbery was pursued by three white men that targeted him solely because of his race and murdered him without justification. This is murder.” I must say that I disagree with this statement. While the video does show what happened, it does not show the motives of the McMichael men.

Many other people are pointing to the fact that it took two months for the police to charge anyone as evidence of racism. However, if you look at the fact that Gregory McMichael was a former investigator with the district attorney’s office, it appears more like a “good ole boy” system than racism. Everyone knew McMichael and did not want to have to charge an old buddy. That is not right but it is not racism either. It should be noted that according to the New York Times, Arbery was convicted of shoplifting and violating probation two years ago, and was indicted five years ago for bringing a gun to a high school sporting event. George Barnhill, a prosecutor who has since recused himself from the case (likely because of his relationship with McMichael) sited the above reasons for his hesitancy to issue warrants for arrests

Before I go any further, I would like to give my take on this situation.

First of all, let me put myself in the shoes of McMichael and his son. If I am standing in my yard and see a man running by my house and he looks like a burglary suspect as these two claim; I am not grabbing my gun and my son and chasing after the guy as if we’re Batman and Robin! That is a job for the police, not my son and me. The last thing we need is vigilantism. It is as if no one has learned from George Zimmerman. This man decided to follow Trayvon Martin instead of allowing the police to do their job.

Secondly, let me look at it from Arbery’s point of view. If I am out on a morning jog, and two armed men approach me, I am not trying to disarm either man. I may turn and run the other way. I may try to run to someone’s house for help. I may even stop and ask what they want from me. I am unsure exactly what I would do but I can tell you the very last thing I would do is try to fight with someone who is armed. Trayvon Martin made a similar mistake when he decided to attack George Zimmerman instead of letting him return to his car as was claimed.  

It seems to me that bad decisions were made on both sides and those awful decisions lead to a tragic death of a young man and the lives of a father and son will now be changed forever.

This is not to say that McMichael and his son should not be held accountable. They most definitely should! There needs to be justice for Arbery! That being said, I fear that something similar to the Travon Martin case will happen. I am afraid that prosecutors will buckle under pressure from the public and try to charge McMichael and his son with too much. I already see calls for the death penalty for these two. If a prosecutor buckles and tries to get these two executed, no juror will convict them if evidence shows that this was, in fact some horrible decision making on both sides and not two rednecks out hunting for minorities to kill as LeBron claims. Then the two will walk free and there will be no justice for Arbery.

As I said before, I can already see the racism narrative mounting. If our justice system allows these two men to walk free because a prosecutor gets overzealous, then the narrative will only get worse. Not only will the narrative be about bigots who go minority hunting; it will also be about how the racist justice system in America lets them get away with it.

It seems that everyone’s mind is stuck in the 1950’s and 60’s when we had Jim Crow laws which allowed tragedies like this to happen on a regular basis. The difference is what happened two months ago and what happened during Jim Crow is the fact that when black men were hunted down then, it really was about racism. The perpetrators of such crimes had a racist history. Most were actually in the Ku Klux Klan and everyone knew it. That is not the case here. The only person with a history in this case is Arbery who had a criminal history. As damning as that video evidence is for the McMichael men, there was no evidence of racism nor has any additional evidence been brought to light.

Now I see people on social media already trying to make this about racism saying silly things like “This is why Kaepernick kneeled!” and “Black Lives Matter!”

First of all, that is not why Colin Kaepernick kneeled. Kaepernick kneeled because he was a subpar quarterback who was no longer relevant and wanted to make himself relevant but that’s another rambling for another day.

I also cannot fathom why anyone would want to cite a terrorist group such as Black Lives Matter! It is no wonder that popular Milwaukee Sherriff David Clark has likened this group to the KKK. This is a group who make these hateful chants about police officers like “Pigs in a blanket; fry ‘em like bacon!” as well as this chant:

“WHAT DO WE WANT?

DEAD COPS!

WHEN DO WE WANT THEM?

NOW!!”

We cannot allow social media as well as mainstream media dictate justice for Arbery. Otherwise, there will be no justice.

It is imperative that we do not let this be about racism.  I am sorry for beating this dead horse but we must learn from the mistakes made during the saga of Trayvon Martin. We do not need overzealous prosecutors buckling under pressure from a bloodthirsty public and seeking unrealistic punishment for the crime of terrible decisions that lead to horrendous consequences.  

While everyone is trying to make this a black and white issue, the truth actually lies somewhere in the gray area in between. If there is to be justice for this young man, she not only needs to be blind but colorblind as well!