UPDATE: Ahmaud Arbery's 3 murderers all found guilty. Sentenced to LIFE in prison.

Ahmaud Arbery was hit with a truck before he died, and his killer allegedly used a racial slur, investigator testifies - CNN

 

Just read this during lunch. It is unfathomable to most of us that people like this exist.

 

Hence the point of the protests.

 

The protest are about the police. We can change the police.
I don't know how you change people like this.

 

They are really about general racism with an aside on the police.

 

First, for racial minorities in this country, it's not unfathomable that people like this exist. The minorities are the targets of these people daily.

Second, we cannot change the hearts and minds of people, but we can, at the very least, get justice for people like Arbery and Floyd. Arrest, convict, and lock away the people who committed the crimes and maybe, hopefully, the next time, someone will think twice knowing that if they kill an innocent black man, they are not getting away with it. Herein lies the systemic racism that again, ethnic minorities face on a daily basis. Fixing the system won't change the people, but it may change the outcome.

Last, as with anything, education is the key. We've done a better job with things like Affirmative Action, but it's not enough. Too many African Americans still don't have access to a proper education, as seen by the current COVID-19 pandemic response, where upper-middle class kids could easily switch to online classes, whereas inner-city kids didn't have access to the technology. And if they did, didn't always have the technical capability to use it.

 

AHMAUD ARBERY HEARINGS UNDERWAY: A preliminary hearing is underway for Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William Bryan regarding the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Arbery was jogging through his neighborhood on February 23 when he was shot and killed. Video footage appears to show Arbery being attacked by Gregory McMichael and his son Travis, who then fired three shots and killed Arbery in the street. The McMichaels were arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault, and Bryan, who filmed the widespread video showing Arbery’s death, was charged with felony murder.


Video:

 

Well, if you and others are learning that people like this do exist when you previously found it unfathomable, that's a change that can do a lot to help with racial issues in this country.

 

Thus the reason I said "most of us".

 

Of course we knew they exist. A better statement from me would have been, "It is unfathomable to most of us how people like this come to exist."

It is hard to fathom because we cannot begin to understand the hatred that it takes to hit someone with your car and then shoot them in the street in broad daylight while yelling a slur.

 

Keep in mind, the first two prosecutors assigned to this cases didn’t think the rednecks committed a crime ... so there is a link here to the bias law enforcement, here. This case didn’t move forward until the video leaked, there was outrage, and a third prosecutor was assigned.

 

Good point. I hadn't thought about that.

 

Yep. See above.

 

Suspected, yes. This makes a conviction much easier.

 

There's potentially more than one type of bias in play here. In addition to racial, which is what I assume you are talking about, there is also the type of bias you may get in a small town where the prosecutor probably knows the suspect. Sometimes there may be overlaps between those biases.

 

All of us should reconsider our reactions, biases, and assumptions. Racism in this country is a plague that is institutionalized and widespread. It should not have taken a man being murdered before our eyes to see it, but it did for many. For those who deny it now, there is little hope.

 

My mom grew up in Brunswick & for my grandma, uncles, aunts & my mom, the N word was the go to - my grandma called black kids picaninnies. She taught first grade in Brunswick for 29 years. She's a gator too. got a masters in education at UF.