03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 5:56 pm
Once again. A person chasing you down hops out of his truck brandishing a shotgun is doing far more than simply minding his own business open carrying. We can pretend these two were simply minding their own business while exercising open carry but we all know that is not what happened. Arbery was being pursued and then was cornered by a guy following from behind and two guys blocking his path. He is the person who was exercising self defense. He has the presumption of innocence. He had no way of knowing why two rednecks in a truck were chasing him down. Nothing proves he entered that construction sight with the intentions of committing burglary. We shall see but my bet is that there will be two racist rednecks headed to prison when this is all over with. Looking at the pictures of them, they will be just fine after joining up with the Aryan brotherhood once behind bars. It is no stretch to believe a black man living in a state with a strong history of rednecks killing black men for every reason from looking at a white woman to walking in the wrong neighborhood would fear for his safety in this situation and attempt to defend himself.
You must have watch a completely different video than I did.
bran·dish
/ˈbrandiSH/
verb
wave or flourish (something, especially a weapon) as a threat or in anger or excitement.
"a man leaped out brandishing a knife"
From the video, I didn't see anyone brandishing anything. "Holding" or "possessing" would be a better, and legal, adjectives. I see a man get out of the front seat of the pickup holding a shotgun; A perfectly legal act in Georgia (and Texas, for that matter).
And again, from the video, Arbery was neither pursued nor cornered. He could have turned around or gone in a tangental direction. No one was blocking his path in any way.
He approached
them. And then
he initiated an assault by charging from the right-side of the pickup, across the front, and grappling for the gun. At least that is what the video is showing. From the evidence publicly available so far, there was no confrontational behavior or language from the McMichaels towards Arbery. Certainly nothing that rises to the level of threat where Arbery would need to defend himself against.
Your use of language in calling the McMichaels "rednecks", "racists", and saying that "they will be just fine after joining up with the Aryan brotherhood once behind bars" is evidence of
your bias*; Not theirs. These things may or may not be true. I wouldn't know as I don't know the McMichaels or anyone involved in this case. All I can do is look at the evidence released so far and compare that with what the law actually says. That's all any of us should do. If\when new evidence comes out, I'll certainly reevaluate and revise my opinion as necessary. But for now, this is how it is and any non-evidence based opinions are just wishful thinking.
*NOTE: I'm not saying you're any of those things either; Just that you're obviously biased against the McMichaels for some reason. Why? I have no idea.
And once again I am not saying that what the [current] evidence shows that the McMichaels did was smart or prudent. I absolutely agree with everyone here who has said the exact opposite. And no,
I would certainly never do that. But was it a
criminal act? From the evidence so far, the answer would seem to be no. I look forward to any new\additional evidence.
.
They chased a man down the road. They then went past him and blocked his path, jumping out of the truck with a shotgun. If this is not a situation you would feel threatened, I can't think of any that would meet your qualification of being threatened. Personally, they would both have been shot if it were me being chased down the road. All of your arguments assume Arbery actually committed a felony. There is zero evidence he had any intention of burglary.