What Ahmaud Arbery’s death teaches us about justice as we know it
By: Mihika Yadav
Image of Ahmaud Arbery
"You know something that just does not sit right with me at this time? The man who killed my son has sat in this courtroom every single day next to his father. I'll never get that chance to sit next to my son ever again — not at the dinner table, not at the holidays and not at a wedding. When I close my eyes, I see his execution in my mind over and over. I'll see that for the rest of my life."
These heart-wrenching words were spoken by Ahmaud Arbery’s father in the trial of his murder in early January.
The story of this murder is even more upsetting to think about.
Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was jogging around Satilla Shores, a predominantly white neighbourhood in Georgia. Soon after he was stalked and killed by father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael, as their accomplice, William Bryan, filmed the “modern-day lynching”.
The 3 men involved were sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Gregory and Travis McMichael were sentenced to life with no possibility of parole. Whereas, their accomplice and neighbour, William Bryan was sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole once he has served a minimum of 30 years.
Before announcing the sentence for the three men, Judge Timothy Walmsley expressed, "Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down and shot, and he was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands."
Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan (as pictured from left to right)
The three accused claim that they believed Arbery to be a suspect, behind a string of burglaries that had taken place in the neighbourhood and were enacting their right to place a citizen’s arrest on him. They also came up with baseless accusations that Arbery was trespassing whereas no evidence has been found to corroborate this.
This clearly shows that the citizen’s arrest law was misused in this trial, as William Bryan and the McMichaels scrambled to find an excuse for their impulsive and unprovoked actions.
The authority citizens are given to arrest another member of society is too often abused, feeding into the superiority complexes or bigotry of some.
Simply because someone feels threatened by the existence of another person and accuse them of criminal activity. Most frequently, we see the misuse of the citizen’s arrest laws falling under racial lines. Fortunately, this incident has uncovered the need for this citizen’s arrest law to be re-evaluated and change is currently in the works.
Still, Arbery’s death is one of the very few recent murders of Black people in the U.S. to have received the amount of action it has, with all three of the accused serving life sentences.
But, when can we look at these stories and say justice has been served?
In order to answer this question, we have to stop viewing victims of these atrocious crimes as a statistic or a trending hashtag on social media.
Ahmaud Arbery was loved. His family described him as a good, generous young man. He was a former star high school football player and frequently exercised around his neighbourhood.
Breonna Taylor was shot in her bed, asleep, by police officers that stormed into her house with a faulty search warrant. But who was she?
Image of Breonna Taylor
A Black woman with a loving family, who hoped to have her own children in the near future. She worked as an emergency medical technician, an essential worker, at the height of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. She had just done four overnight shifts at the hospital she worked at the night she was killed. We are yet to see justice for her case.
Elijah McClain was a young black man who died after being put into a chokehold by a police officer and injected with ketamine over baseless claims that he looked ‘suspicious’. But this isn’t his story.
He was a soft, gentle soul according to his friends. He enjoyed playing the violin and was very fond of kittens. He worked as a massage therapist and was very close to his coworkers who speak highly of him.
Image of Elijah McClain
None of these people deserved to die. Justice in its truest and most pure form would mean that they would all still be alive. It would mean that anyone who abuses their authority would no longer feel empowered to do so. And in the words of Jemar Tisby for CNN, “Justice would be dismantling the racist narratives that led three White men to track and kill a Black person.”
But what’s done is done.
No matter how shocking or heartbreaking it is to hear about yet another innocent person dying, we can’t just erase what’s happened.
The closest we can get to pure justice is accountability.
If we can’t stop racists from committing horrendous acts of violence to people they feel superior to, the closest we can get to it is making sure they suffer the consequences of these actions.
Upon being asked about her sentiment about the verdict, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, articulated something that perfectly encompasses this idea. She expressed, "They were fully committed to their crimes — let them be fully committed for the consequences."
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