I can’t help it, I just have this warm, almost holiday like glow in my chest. For tonight, for the first time in 21 months, Ahmad Arbery can finally rest in peace. And tonight, for the first time in 21 months, Ahmad’s parents can finally hold each other with family members and grieve, knowing that while nothing will bring back their son, the three racist assholes who ended his life have already breathed the last free air they will ever taste. They have justice.
And all of the racist, abusive cops running around out there of whatever stripe had better be scared shitless. And so should racist mobs like the Loud Tois, the 3% IQ’ers, and the Oath Creepers, because there’s a new sheriff in town. Because there’s a new sheriff in town. And I don’t mean congress, or the DOJ, or new laws, or the Internal Affairs Division, or even the media, although they certainly play a part. The new sheriff in town is everyday citizens with cell phone cameras.
- If it weren’t for a teenage girl willing to risk a lifetime of nightmares and self regret to record the cold blooded murder of George Floyd, the case would have devolved into a He said, they said pissing contest, and Derek Chauvin wouldn’t be modeling orange right now while he awaits his federal civil rights case.
- Without one of the defendants, stupid enough to tell the cops that he did it, basically recording a snuff flick of the murder of Ahmad Arbery, neither the cops nor the District Attorney had any interest in even investigating the case. When it happened, the local police never bothered to seal and secure the crime scene, detain and interview the suspects, or search the trucks. It was game over, self defense.
- Without the dashboard camera footage being hounded to release by the Chicago media, the cop who pumped 16 shots into Chicago teen Laquan McDonald, who was 20 feet away, that CPD officer would not be currently serving 20 years for murder, and looking over his back 24/7.
- If it weren’t for an innocent bystander taking cell phone video of South Carolina police officer Michael Slager pumping rounds into the back of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man running away from Slager through a park, Slager wouldn’t be spending every day of the next 20 years eating protean loaf off of a cardboard plate, and occupying a 6×9 cell.
But the critical thing to remember is that, as important as cell phone and police dash cam video is, it isn’t worth a bowl of piss Jack Daniels if a) nobody sees it, and b) nobody gives a shit when they do. Some of these videos were posted online directly by the people who shot them, while other video and dash cam was pried, kicking and screaming, from the hands of authorities by victim family member lawsuits, as well as media FOIA requests. One way or another, the videos got into widespread public circulation.
But however they were released, the release of the videos sparked widespread and long lasting civil unrest. People saw those videos, and got highly pissed off. And they took to the streets to show their displeasure. And it was this persistent, daily, long term peaceful protest that forced local governments to take action that they really didn’t want to take.
But the real problem for local law enforcement was that it wasn’t just African Americans taking to the streets to protest. That could be pushed aside. But the BLM protesters were joined by an alarming number of white protesters who were tired of seeing innocent people slaughtered in the streets by racist police. If it were only blacks involved, the police could have put down the protests with much more force and gotten away with it.
The Kyle Rittenhouse case in Kenosha is a perfect example of that I’m talking about. The unrest in Kenosha was brought on by the shooting of an unarmed young black man 7 times in the back by a white police officer as he tried to get into his car to get away. This sparked multiple nights of protest in Kenosha. But bear this in mind. The thug murderer Kyle Rittenhouse shot two people to death that night, and permanently partially disabled a third, and all of them were white! African Americans are no longer fighting this fight alone.
The racists, and the bad cops who parrot them are losing. It is cell phone and Instagram videos that are creating federal defendants in the January 6th insurrection. And a ton of the tips that are leading to arrests and charges are from private citizens that are using available technology to find and identify criminals using FBI provided video! People are fed up with the extremism, and they are taking action to actively combat it.
But to close with, here’s what keeps that bright, warm glow in my chest. The murder of Ahmad Arbery was a totally, unabashed racially motivated crime. And as a result, Arbery became a national cause to celebrate. Thanks to systemic racism in the judicial system, the overwhelming majority of Georgia state prisoners are black or Hispanic. And now these three white, racist, self entitled assholes are going into that system. For good. Sure, they can join the local Klan chapter in prison, or the Aryan Brotherhood, but they now have a mark on their backs. Their shoulders will never stop twitching. And for that I am thankful.
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Part, only part of me is thankful tonight. First, I agree with some commentary that went along the lines of today’s verdicts not being justice because non-white people and black people especially still have good reason to fear as they go about their daily lives – but at least today we saw some accountability for three racist assholes who assumed they could get away with a lynching, albeit one done with a shotgun instead of a rope.
However, what had been a pleasant chat with my sister who I called a day early to wish a Happy Thanksgiving turned distressing. A nice talk about the week, her plans for tomorrow and the rest of the week and her interest in my recipe for stuffing/dressing she brought up the Rittenhouse thing. I almost cried more than once. She is like many who believe he should have stayed the hell out of that situation in the first place but fervently believes he’s been unfairly maligned. That he had every right to do what he did. And after saying she hadn’t followed the trial closely started citing drone video footage proving that KKKyle was a good guy caught up in a bad situation and was viciously attacked by all three of the men he shot. I’d point out certain facts and she’d say in effect I got them from the news and therefore was misinformed. I wanted to scream “And just where are YOU getting your information?”, even as she cited stuff from the trial that I saw (I only saw clips until KKKyle took the stand, then watched quite a bit till the end) that painted a very different picture to me. Even how it all got started she told me I was wrong, and that police video proved it. I stated that Jacob Blake had been shot in the back seven times and she said I was flat out wrong! I’d seen the only known footage of the actual shooting, taken by cell phone from across the street. It showed Blake walking around the front of his car and trying to get in, then a cop grabs him by his t-shirt and shoots him seven times IN THE BACK and you can hear the gunshots! She claimed he had a knife. No, he didn’t. Not in his hands or on his person and if I’m not mistaken there was never one found in his vehicle either. (Somehow I’ll bet the KKKenosha Police passed word via mouth at briefings for next time someone to drop at least a pocketknife into the car of someone they shoot!)
She commented on the criminal histories of the people KKKyle shot. It’s hard to muster sympathy for someone who even though he was only 19 himself molested minors. Or someone with a history of domestic abuse for that matter. KKKyle of course had no way of knowing any of that when he carried out a death sentence on the both of them, which is the one concern she expressed – and relief that he hadn’t killed someone “truly innocent.” As for the paramedic that got his bicep shot off she called him a convicted felon who was illegally carrying a firearm. I explained the charges against him and that he’d been convicted of a misdemeanor charge of being drunk and disorderly while having a weapon on him. Now, I’ll be the first to say booze and guns don’t go together and someone deserves to take a legal hit for that. But he didn’t lose his firearm privileges. Of course, she told me I’m wrong but unless the court records themselves are wrong…
But what really hurt my heart was when I posed a hypothetical. I told he she knows me and how I am. I asked her to imagine me at some march where I live where things got out of hand, and I saw someone shoot another person and then run away in my direction. I asked her what if I, using my cane as a way to stop that person to disarm them she would say if I failed and that person shot ME dead? Would she say that person had a right to “defend themselves” if I used my cane as a weapon to disarm them so they couldn’t shoot anyone else? Without hesitation she said maybe they WOULD be justified!
I thought WTF? Did I just hear her correctly? It would “depend?” Her own fucking brother who she knows would try to do the right thing and intervene to stop or contain someone shooting people? I did because she did a little justifying of her position. My heart is hurting tonight. Something funny happened with her husband shortly after that so we were able to end the chat on that note, but the memory of her wanting so badly to justify what KKKyle did (and unlike her I knew long before the trial all three VICTIMS were white – but n-word lovers are as bad as n-words themselves to some people) will haunt me.
Regardless, despite my old ass being broken down when it comes to mobility in my legs I WILL try to stop and disarm people like this little shit walking around allowing himself to be feted as a hero by RWNJs if while attending/watching some march or protest I see the need to stop someone who has done violence.
ritt would not have needed to protect himself if he didn’t bring a gun. this is really going to escalate protests going forward. it also just makes self defense as an old west, who shoots first is innocent and the other is guilty,
It’s even worse than what you correctly note (and even my sister agreed) that he should have stayed home, or at least if he’d gone to spend some time with his father & friends in Kenosha stayed in that night instead of heading downtown. If he’d just stayed at that burned out car lot he claims he wanted to protect that night this tragedy wouldn’t have happened. But Nooooooooo! (in my best John Belushi voice) The little fuckwad craved some ACTION. He left the relative security of his fellow ad hoc militia pals and went down the street on his own. He assumed (I guess) that with his GUN people would bow down in fear to him. That he could strut his stuff and feel like a big shot. A badass and that he could later go spreading bullshit to his pals about how tough he’d been and how the crowd he was in behaved like sheep because of his “imposing” presence. He probably was in fact shocked that some in the crowd did NOT in fact fear him. And he panicked. That panic led to him murdering two people and inflicting a life altering wound on a third who is lucky to be alive. He is, and in my opinion always will be a little fuckwad who succumbed to Rambo fantasies.
The final line from the first season of True Detective, in reference to stars in the night sky, comes to mind: “Seems to me the light’s winning.”
I am so sorry that you had this conversation with your sister. I know it hurts. I guess try to turn your attention to what is right and good in the world.