It shouldn’t have taken a leaked video, a massive public outcry, and a social media campaign to lead to the arrest of Travis and Gregory McMichael, but that’s exactly what it took. The father-son duo has never denied that they shot Ahmaud Arbery, 25, while he was out jogging, unarmed, in his Georgia community on Feb. 23; what kept them out of handcuffs and uncharged for a baffling 74 days can accurately be described as a particularly nasty combination of white supremacy and corruption in law enforcement, further enhanced by the chaos of the novel coronavirus.
If you haven’t seen the video, I shan’t link it here, but trust that it’s both readily available and horrific. It also proves that the McMichaels, along with other members of the Glynn County legal machine, lied about what happened when they insisted they were merely attempting a valid “citizen’s arrest” under Georgia law.
Call them the chip and the old block, the apple and a nearby tree, but the McMichaels (allegedly) murdered a man together and were home in time for dinner, and have been home for every breakfast and lunch in the months since. It’s only been in recent days that demands for justice—including from presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden—overwhelmed both the Glynn County Police Department (GCPD) and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). For many, it may be startling to realize how close the McMichaels came to getting away with it. For many Black Americans, it’s likely more surprising that the wheels of justice are finally starting to turn in this case.
As previously reported by both Prism’s Anoa Changa and Daily Kos’ Lauren Floyd, two prosecutors have already recused themselves from the case. The Atlantic Judicial Circuit’s Tom Durden landed the case on April 13, but only formally involved the GBI on Tuesday.
The elder McMichael, 64, justified his actions in following Arbery—an avid runner who would have turned 26 on May 8, if he hadn’t been (allegedly) murdered—by claiming the slain man resembled a suspect in a rash of break-ins in the area. Augusta CBS affiliate WRDW revealed Thursday that the only recent report of burglaries in the area came the day that Arbery was shot by the younger McMichael, 34, while his father looked on from the bed of the family pickup truck.
According to USA Today, the McMichaels maintain that they thought Arbery was a local burglar. Yet property crimes in no way justify the McMichaels laying in wait for Arbery, guns in hand, much less chasing him, and certainly not shooting him when he didn’t want to “talk” to them.
It is very noteworthy that the elder McMichael is a retired GCPD officer and former investigator in the Glynn County prosecutor’s office. USA Today digs a little deeper.
Local officials and community leaders say a history of nepotism and privilege in the district attorney offices of Waycross and Brunswick has allowed the killers to remain free.
(Previous prosecutor George E.) Barnhill said in the letter that he was recusing himself from the case over a conflict of interest. In the memo, he stated that Arbery's mother wanted him off the case because his son worked in the Brunswick District Attorney's office.
Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson had previously recused herself from the case because Gregory McMichael was a retired investigator from her office. Gregory McMichael is also a former Glynn County police officer.
USA Today also reports that Alan Tucker, a criminal defense attorney who is not currently representing anyone involved with the case, came forward Thursday as the leaker of the footage that, in just two days, forced authorities to take action they’d been avoiding for two months. "My sole purpose in releasing the video was absolute transparency because my community was being ripped apart by erroneous accusations and assumptions," Tucker said in a statement. Tucker has refused all questions about how he obtained the video.
Speaking of the video, the public is also demanding charges for whoever was holding the camera—allegedly McMichael family friend William Bryan, according to a memo from Barnhill. Prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump is leading the charge.
Taken together, the 911 calls and the video paint a horrific picture of a young man hunted down and killed for the grave “crime” of exercising while Black, for jogging while Black, at one in the afternoon on a Sunday.
As Arbery family attorney Lee Merritt noted on Tuesday, “it was a lynching.”