Ahmaud Arbery: Is this a strike against Citizen's Arrest, Gun Control, The Legal System, or All?

[Dreiko]

Where are you getting the fishing gear info? And why would he store $2,500 worth of fishing gear at a property with no doors?

Here, it's a few paragraphs down.

‘It’s Murder’: This Shooting of an Unarmed Black Man Is Roiling Georgia

Ahmaud Arbery was chased down by a white father and son, one of them a former cop, and shot. As lockdown eases, an aggrieved community is demanding answers.

www.thedailybeast.com

Also apparently someone had also stolen a gun from the truck of the depitized vigilantes, which'd prolly make them even more trigger-happy.

Doesn't matter, does it?



I did a quick Google search and this fishing gear stuff seems popular on white supremacist boards (of course it is). The aim here is to merely throw as much shit at the wall in the hope some of it sticks.

Is the daily beast a white supremacist board now? Or does your google have some kind of reason to link you to those kinds of boards as opposed to news sites?


Anyhow, the point here is that the guy lied when he said nobody had stolen anything from his property because he got death threats (or is lying now I guess) and that like I said earlier isn't trustworthy.


And investigating a murky situation that you want to be black and white for political reasons isn't throwing shit at the wall, it's trying to find out the truth of what actually happened there lol.

 

[Chimpzy]

Also apparently someone had also stolen a gun from the truck of the depitized vigilantes, which'd prolly make them even more trigger-happy.

Pshah, that's squarely on the owner of that gun. The article mentions that truck was unlocked. He should've taken more due precautions if he didn't want his property stolen.

Also, don't call the vigilantes deputized, because that implies they acted on behalf of someone with legal authority, which they weren't.

This game is fun.

 

[Dreiko]

Pshah, that's squarely on the owner of that gun. The article mentions that truck was unlocked. He should've taken more due precautions if he didn't want his property stolen.

Also, don't call the vigilanted deputized, because that implies they acted on behalf of someone with legal authority, which they weren't.

This game is fun.

The cops told the homeowner to call them when their cameras got action. The lawyer for the family of the dead called them deputized, so I sure can do so as well lol. (article with this info is in the last page)


Oh and is this "steal things you want if they're left in an unlocked vehicle" thing also part of Southern Hospitality? I would assume that it'd not be if you have a culture where people are just free to enter eachother's yards like it's normal since presumably nothing would be stolen during those entries.


Either you have this setting, which would also make it fine to leave your gun in an unlocked truck, or you don't have it, which it'd make it their fault as you say but also make it more sketchy to enter the property.

Both things can't be true at the same time.

 

[Agema]

Is the daily beast a white supremacist board now? Or does your google have some kind of reason to link you to those kinds of boards as opposed to news sites?

That's because when you Google things like "Arbery fishing gear", you tend to get a selection of the sites containing those or similar terms. The story has enthusiastically been repeated by white supremacists, because white supremacists are the people most keen on trying to convince people that black people are uncivilised criminals who deserve to be shot by white people, so it pulls those sites up as hits. This is search engine 101.

And investigating a murky situation that you want to be black and white for political reasons isn't throwing shit at the wall, it's trying to find out the truth of what actually happened there lol.

No, I think all that's going on is that you just decided Arbery was a thief for whatever arbitrary reasons (which hopefully are different from those of the white supremacists), and refuse to accept you leapt to conclusions.

Fishing gear that may or may not have been stolen at some unspecified point in the past by a completely unknown individual is actually just a massive nothingburger. As stands it is basically irrelevant... unless of course you're latching onto anything you can to imply Arbery was a thief because you refuse to admit error. Even better, seeing as you're convincing no-one at all and just digging a hole even deeper for yourself, the sensible thing is just to admit you made a hasty assumption, or as most people do and just go away quietly and wait for things to move on.

Also, repeatedly adding "lol" to your posts does not make it seem like you're amused, it makes it look like you're pretending to be amused.

 

[Dreiko]

That's because when you Google things like "Arbery fishing gear", you tend to get a selection of the sites containing those or similar terms. The story has enthusiastically been repeated by white supremacists, because white supremacists are the people most keen on trying to convince people that black people are uncivilised criminals who deserve to be shot by white people, so it pulls those sites up as hits. This is search engine 101.



No, I think all that's going on is that you just decided Arbery was a thief for whatever arbitrary reasons (which hopefully are different from those of the white supremacists), and refuse to accept you leapt to conclusions.

Fishing gear that may or may not have been stolen at some unspecified point in the past by a completely unknown individual is actually just a massive nothingburger. As stands it is basically irrelevant... unless of course you're latching onto anything you can to imply Arbery was a thief because you refuse to admit error. Even better, seeing as you're convincing no-one at all and just digging a hole even deeper for yourself, the sensible thing is just to admit you made a hasty assumption, or as most people do and just go away quietly and wait for things to move on.

Also, repeatedly adding "lol" to your posts does not make it seem like you're amused, it makes it look like you're pretending to be amused.

You're not extending this consideration to the killers who are also being accused of something. The white supremacists want to paint black folks as uncivilized thiefs, you want to paint the killers as KKK-adjacent rednecks who just like killing innocent black people.

Both of those are wrong.


I, since the very first post I made, have always been against their action, for their arrest, and supporting of their conviction. That I bring up all this info despite my condemnation of them is indeed a show of what I speak of, trying to find the truth of the matter. It's not like I ever said they shouldn't be punished. What I said that people didn't like is that there's no good people here. If that sounds the same to you as if I had said that they did a good thing in taking out this dude and that I think they should go free and get a medal from Trump, that's on you.

The fishing gear points out a lie told by the homeowner, which people earlier were incensed I was impugning the integrity of. It's evidence that indeed the death-threatened homeowner did in fact lie about this either to the daily beast or to the cops. If their integrity was that significant then the lie ought to be more than a nothingburger.

And the lols are a habit from 3 years of playing ffxi and typing quickly, not there to indicate amusement as much as just something that points out the absurdity inherent in a notion. I barely notice I type it out at this point.

 

[Chimpzy]

The cops told the homeowner to call them when their cameras got action. The lawyer for the family of the dead called them deputized, so I sure can do so as well lol. (article with this info is in the last page)


Oh and is this "steal things you want if they're left in an unlocked vehicle" thing also part of Southern Hospitality? I would assume that it'd not be if you have a culture where people are just free to enter eachother's yards like it's normal since presumably nothing would be stolen during those entries.


Either you have this setting, which would also make it fine to leave your gun in an unlocked truck, or you don't have it, which it'd make it their fault as you say but also make it more sketchy to enter the property.

Both things can't be true at the same time.

I don't give a shit whether that's part of southern hospitality, but I do know that in cases of murky crimes people often like to do this thing where they point out flaws and inconsistencies that are oft debatably relevant to the wider case in order to distract, call into questions someone's character, good ol' victim blaming, or even better, combinations thereof. Kind of like in rape cases, you know the ones, where the usually female victim is not actually a victim because she was wearing suggestive clothing at the time, so she was asking for it? Applying that same logic to the stolen gun, then the owner is to blame for leaving it unguarded in an unlocked vehicle. He is guilty of provoking the theft. In essence, the rule is then that everyone is responsible for preventing crimes from happening to them. By extension, this also means there is actually no such thing as victimhood. Only guilt. Unless it's more convenient to ignore that rule because of personal bias or political reasons.

Anyway, I really don't have any point to make here. I'm grasping at straws, reaching for any possible justification I can find to shift blame where I think it belongs i.e. the white trash. But like I said, it's a fun game to play. I can see why people do it.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

If only the guy was alive to defend himself through the already highly flawed justice system. Like how white people get to do. But no. As per usual it's the mighty whities left alive and being defended for killing black people who are never given a chance for defense. I ain't giving those pasty murderous gung ho shits any benefit of the doubt. They never allowed the same for Arbery.

 

[Dreiko]

I don't give a shit whether that's part of southern hospitality, but I do know that in cases of murky crimes people often like to do this thing where they point out flaws and inconsistencies that are oft debatably relevant to the wider case in order to distract, call into questions someone's character, good ol' victim blaming, or even better, combinations thereof. Kind of like in rape cases, you know the ones, where the usually female victim is not actually a victim because she was wearing suggestive clothing at the time, so she was asking for it? Applying that same logic to the stolen gun, then the owner is to blame for leaving it unguarded in an unlocked vehicle. He is guilty of provoking the theft. In essence, the rule is then that everyone is responsible for preventing crimes from happening to them. By extension, this also means there is actually no such thing as victimhood. Only guilt. Unless it's more convenient to ignore that rule because of personal bias or political reasons.

Anyway, I really don't have any point to make here. I'm grasping at straws, reaching for any possible justification I can find to shift blame where I think it belongs i.e. the white trash. But like I said, it's a fun game to play. I can see why people do it.

You should give a shit, because people used the southern hospitality explanation to justify why it was normal and fine for the guy to enter the construction site. If we are under this system, certain things have to follow.

Also, if your principle in a vacuum is against this victim blaming thing, then standing on this principle you should be against it here too. I generally speaking wouldn't be against it, but in this context you may have had the system of southern hospitality with an exploitable vulnerability to blame for why the guy thought it was fine to leave his truck unlocked. If this had happened in a place without the southern hospitality culture, sure, fault's entirely on the guy who didn't lock his car (and also, it's not cool to enter construction sites you don't own or know the owner of, both things are consistent here).


Finally, I doubt anyone will call you any sort of supremacist for shifting the blame where you feel it belongs based on non-fact reasons, which is kinda a side-point here. I think people can just participate without needing to feel threatened by such a potential blemish put on them.

 

[Agema]

You're not extending this consideration to the killers who are also being accused of something. The white supremacists want to paint black folks as uncivilized thiefs, you want to paint the killers as KKK-adjacent rednecks who just like killing innocent black people.

I'd be careful with the definition of "you" there.

Put at face value, deciding to stop and interrogate a black man on the basis of him jogging along the street, chasing him down the road in a truck and trying to stop him whilst armed suggests a certain mentality that doesn't seem too pretty in at least some way.

What I said that people didn't like is that there's no good people here.

It doesn't really matter what sort of person Arbery was in the bigger picture. He was a man apparently doing nothing wrong in the events that led to his death.

You want to make him out to be not a good person. Why unnecessarily demean a crime victim? Why is it important to you that you'd pursue it for days, repeatedly latching onto very weak evidence to try to prove the point? Does that not strike you as something other people might find strange?

 

[Dreiko]

I'd be careful with the definition of "you" there.

Put at face value, deciding to stop and interrogate a black man on the basis of him jogging along the street, chasing him down the road in a truck and trying to stop him whilst armed suggests a certain mentality that doesn't seem too pretty in at least some way.



It doesn't really matter what sort of person Arbery was in the bigger picture. He was a man apparently doing nothing wrong in the events that led to his death.

You want to make him out to be not a good person. Why unnecessarily demean a crime victim? Why is it important to you that you'd pursue it for days, repeatedly latching onto very weak evidence to try to prove the point? Does that not strike you as something other people might find strange?

You seem to be ignoring the fact that the police asked the homeowner to tell them them to intervene when there was action in their security system. If you think that doesn't change how this looks you're terribly biased. More so than I am for thinking it bizzare to just waltz up in someone's property you have no business at, due to being unfamiliar with the arcane and politically convenient rules of southern hospitality (and not any other nefarious reason people may be inclined to hint at because it's more convenient to see critical thought in a malevolent light lol).

 

[Buyetyen]

"No one is innocent," is just an excuse not to care about injustice.

 

[Agema]

If you think that doesn't change how this looks you're terribly biased.

You are the last person to preach to us about seeking the truth and not being biased in this thread.

You came into this thread complaining that the video of Arbery's shooting was inconsistent with the reports, which is clearly because you hadn't read much about what occurred. Then you just assumed Arbery was stealing stuff from the construction property because he was reported entering, and the later video just shows him harmlessly looking round. You say there's a video of Arbery entering at night, but there was no proof that was Arbery and the owner said otherwise. You seem to demonstrate no awareness of repeatedly being shown wrong.

As for bias, you just assumed Arbery is a thief, continued to pursue that even when video evidence shows otherwise, started calling the owner of the CCTV footage untrustworthy for basically no other reason than he gave opinions that defied your assumptions. Your only argument why Arbery would not look round the site for curiosity is "I wouldn't do that", which is no worthwhile argument at all because you and Arbery are different people.

You seem to be ignoring the fact that the police asked the homeowner to tell them them to intervene when there was action in their security system.

No, I'm not - I think it's pretty much irrelevant. As far as we know, the CCTV owner didn't phone the McMichaels on the day - he says he didn't even see the CCTV until after the shooting. As far as we know, the McMichaels just got in their pick-up and chased Arbery when he ran past their house.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Racism is people looking desperately for excuses as to why an unarmed man deserved to be shot dead by armed vigilantes.

If being called a racist makes you uncomfortable, don't do that.

If you do that, you're a racist. Anyone who wishes to can call you a racist, because it is an accurate description. Live with it, die miserable about it, leave a world that will be better without you.

 

[ObsidianJones]

So, more information.

Homeowner Larry English has confirmed through the release of surveillance videos that multiple people had trespassed at his home which was under construction. Arbery was the only one killed.

CNN obtained 11 surveillance clips spanning from October 25, 2019 to February 23, 2020 from Attorney J. Elizabeth Graddy, representing English, on Saturday. Two of those videos were obtained by CNN prior to this week and six others were sent on Friday.

Three new videos show a man and woman entering the property, children entering the property, and an unidentified male entering the property on separate occasions.
Some of the videos provided were dated October 25, 2019, November 18, 2019 December 17, 2019, February 11, 2020 and February 23, 2020. The videos with dates were sent to CNN by Graddy with the dates as their titles.

Eight clips were dated and three clips, two showing children entering the home and one clip showing a man and a woman entering, were not dated.
Georgia attorney general requests DOJ investigation into the handling of the Ahmaud Arbery case

On October 25, nighttime video shows a black adult male walking around the house, which is under construction and down to the studs.

Within a month, a black adult male is seen in the house on two separate videos taken November 18. The man is shirtless and walks around the home.

The next month, on December 17, three separate clips show a black adult male walking around the home at night before jogging off empty handed.

On February 11, video shows a cars headlights drive by the home at night before a black adult male is seen walking around the house.

The last video, which is the only video that has been confirmed to be Arbery, was taken during the day on February 23. It shows him walking around the home which is still under construction.

It is a common, common thing that not only happens in construction in general, but this person's house.

If one is comfortable with this armed response to Arbery, be as comfortable as if someone else grabbed firearms and chased those children entering the property.

They could have stole something, you know. By their own actions, their life would be forfeit.

 

[Buyetyen]

They could have stole something, you know. By their own actions, their life would be forfeit.

And even if they didn't steal anything, let's face it, they were no angels. You only have to feel bad about death when it happens to angels.

 

[ObsidianJones]

Things continue to get worse.

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

William Bryan told investigators he heard Travis McMichael use a racial epithet after fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified Thursday at a preliminary hearing.

The hearing lasted about seven hours, with the judge ruling all three defendants -- McMichael; his father, Gregory McMichael; and William "Roddie" Bryan -- would stand trial on all charges.

The details of Arbery's last moments emerged amid a week of nationwide protests over another killing -- that of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis -- and demonstrators have also called for justice in Arbery's case.

GBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Dial testified that Bryan told police Travis McMichael said "f***ing n***er" after three blasts from his shotgun left Arbery dead in the street in the Satilla Shores neighborhood in February. Body camera footage also showed a Confederate flag sticker on the toolbox of McMichael's truck, he said.

On cross-examination, Dial testified Bryan mentioned the slur in a May 13 GBI interview, and to Dial's knowledge, Bryan had not previously made the allegation, including during a May 11 interview.

However, the agent said, there were "numerous times" on social media and via messaging services that McMichael used the same slur, once messaging someone that he loved his job because there "weren't any N-words anywhere."

In another instance sometime before the shooting, he replied in an Instagram message that things would be better if someone had "blown that N-word's head off," Dial testified. Dial did not say to whom McMichael was referring. Dial was not asked for more context.

...

The allegations came as Dial outlined events that led to Arbery's death and said that before Arbery was shot, the three men charged in his murder engaged in an elaborate chase, hitting the 25-year-old jogger with a truck as he tried to escape them.

Asked whether he believed McMichael could've been acting in self-defense, Dial said the opposite was true.

"I believe Mr. Arbery was being pursued, and he ran till he couldn't run anymore, and it was turn his back to a man with a shotgun or fight with his bare hands against the man with the shotgun. He chose to fight," he said. "I believe Mr. Arbery's decision was to just try to get away, and when he felt like he could not escape he chose to fight."

Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan, Jr. faces charges in Arbery's killing.

As Travis and Gregory McMichael attempted to head him off, Arbery turned and ran past the truck of Bryan, who recorded the killing, and Bryan struck Arbery with the side of his truck, Dial said.

Bryan told police that at one point he thought Arbery was trying to enter his truck, Dial said, adding that he didn't know whether that was true but he felt Arbery was trying to escape.

Investigators found a swipe from a palm print on the rear door of Bryan's truck, cotton fibers near the truck bed that "we attribute to contact with Mr. Arbery" and a dent below the fibers, he said.

This is the perfectly legal, above board action that the DA signed off on while he was recusing himself. Between how we're gunned down by citizens and killed by the police, I think the restraint the black community has exercised is legendary.

 

[happyninja42]

So, more information.



It is a common, common thing that not only happens in construction in general, but this person's house.

If one is comfortable with this armed response to Arbery, be as comfortable as if someone else grabbed firearms and chased those children entering the property.

They could have stole something, you know. By their own actions, their life would be forfeit.

Hell I'VE prowled around open construction properties before when I was a teenager, early 20s'. I never stole or vandalized anything, but I sure as hell trespassed at like 2am, when I was suffering from insomnia and walking my neighborhood to wear myself down.

I used to find ways to climb onto as many public schools in my area as I could. Because I could climb really well when I was young, and enjoyed the thrill of it. Hell when I was like 15 or so, me and friends, when we would sneak out of the house, just to sneak out, we'd take baseball bats with us. Not to actively do anything, but in our heads, to protect ourselves from some potential threat. Because you know, suburbia AM hours, in the 90s was SUUUPER dangerous *sarcastic*.

Young people do stupid shit, it's kind of a trait of being young.

And NONE of that, justifies killing somebody over fucking property. It's just STUFF, none of it fucking matters, and can be easily replaced. Hell that shit was very likely insured, so there wasn't any real loss to anyone.

I've lived my whole life in Alabama, and I work with veteran's in my area, so the majority of the people I've seen around me, are pretty much the poster children of the stereotypical white southern racist. And it's frankly pretty fucking accurate. I've lost count over the years, of the number of redneck assholes that just casually spout bigoted hate speech, and just say it like it's perfectly fucking fine. I've heard guys for years, talk, with a level of almost sexual glee about killing people for trespassing on their property. How they seem to just WANT it to happen, so they can live out some fantasy of being Rambo or some such macho bullshit.

I remember a kid who I wouldn't call a friend, but was someone I grew up with, and knew for years, who had this poster of a zombie confederate soldier, rising up like the cover of a death metal album, holding a confederate flag, with the caption "The South Will Rise Again." And the border of this poster, was ANOTHER confederate flag. I remember my classmates in highschool, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day would come around, would make a point to wear confederate inspired clothing and tshirts to school, as a "counter point" to the holiday, and fly flags from their pickup trucks in the school parking lot. Because you know, Southern Pride. I've worked with people in production plants, who just casually toss racial slurs about blacks, hispanics, middle easterners, asians, everyone, and its just....fine. Nobody gives a shit. And when you call them on it, even to just say "dude, that's not fucking cool." They act shocked, SHOCKED I say, that you think it's not cool for them to call a hispanic a bean** or a black person the N word. And it's been like that, for DECADES.

A lot of southerners will try and defend southern life as some kind of "cultural pride", but it's a load of shit. As a white guy, who's lived his entire life in the middle of it, it's just generational racism, with a coat of paint on it, to try and make it look less like racism. And they keep convincing themselves that it's not racism, all the while clearly behaving in ways that clearly indicate it is.

So I don't really find it shocking AT ALL, that they used a racial slur at Ahmaud's still warm corpse, after they ran him down like an animal and shot him dead in the street. I'm surprised they only heard it the one time during the entire altercation. And I don't find it at all surprising that this dude acted like he's fucking John Wayne, or Dirty Harry, just itching to hunt someone down. And I don't find it surprising that his son is exactly the same mentality as him.

The level of disregard for life, and people they deem as "different" to themselves, from the southern white community, is unending. There is no bottom to their depravity, and casual devaluing of life. I know, because I've lived around them, and heard them talking for decades, when they think it's just a room of "the boys."

I've heard guys plan out a floorplan in their house, so that no matter where they are standing in their house, there is a gun within arms reach. And they were serious about this. They are a cult of gun worshipping, death addicts, and they've convinced themselves that their are not only in the right, but that it's a DIVINE right too. And anyone that disagrees with them, is an enemy of their country and their god. And I'm frankly sick of it, after hearing it for 30 odd years.

 

[lil devils x]

Hell I'VE prowled around open construction properties before when I was a teenager, early 20s'. I never stole or vandalized anything, but I sure as hell trespassed at like 2am, when I was suffering from insomnia and walking my neighborhood to wear myself down.

I used to find ways to climb onto as many public schools in my area as I could. Because I could climb really well when I was young, and enjoyed the thrill of it. Hell when I was like 15 or so, me and friends, when we would sneak out of the house, just to sneak out, we'd take baseball bats with us. Not to actively do anything, but in our heads, to protect ourselves from some potential threat. Because you know, suburbia AM hours, in the 90s was SUUUPER dangerous *sarcastic*.

Young people do stupid shit, it's kind of a trait of being young.

And NONE of that, justifies killing somebody over fucking property. It's just STUFF, none of it fucking matters, and can be easily replaced. Hell that shit was very likely insured, so there wasn't any real loss to anyone.

I've lived my whole life in Alabama, and I work with veteran's in my area, so the majority of the people I've seen around me, are pretty much the poster children of the stereotypical white southern racist. And it's frankly pretty fucking accurate. I've lost count over the years, of the number of redneck assholes that just casually spout bigoted hate speech, and just say it like it's perfectly fucking fine. I've heard guys for years, talk, with a level of almost sexual glee about killing people for trespassing on their property. How they seem to just WANT it to happen, so they can live out some fantasy of being Rambo or some such macho bullshit.

I remember a kid who I wouldn't call a friend, but was someone I grew up with, and knew for years, who had this poster of a zombie confederate soldier, rising up like the cover of a death metal album, holding a confederate flag, with the caption "The South Will Rise Again." And the border of this poster, was ANOTHER confederate flag. I remember my classmates in highschool, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day would come around, would make a point to wear confederate inspired clothing and tshirts to school, as a "counter point" to the holiday, and fly flags from their pickup trucks in the school parking lot. Because you know, Southern Pride. I've worked with people in production plants, who just casually toss racial slurs about blacks, hispanics, middle easterners, asians, everyone, and its just....fine. Nobody gives a shit. And when you call them on it, even to just say "dude, that's not fucking cool." They act shocked, SHOCKED I say, that you think it's not cool for them to call a hispanic a bean** or a black person the N word. And it's been like that, for DECADES.

A lot of southerners will try and defend southern life as some kind of "cultural pride", but it's a load of shit. As a white guy, who's lived his entire life in the middle of it, it's just generational racism, with a coat of paint on it, to try and make it look less like racism. And they keep convincing themselves that it's not racism, all the while clearly behaving in ways that clearly indicate it is.

So I don't really find it shocking AT ALL, that they used a racial slur at Ahmaud's still warm corpse, after they ran him down like an animal and shot him dead in the street. I'm surprised they only heard it the one time during the entire altercation. And I don't find it at all surprising that this dude acted like he's fucking John Wayne, or Dirty Harry, just itching to hunt someone down. And I don't find it surprising that his son is exactly the same mentality as him.

The level of disregard for life, and people they deem as "different" to themselves, from the southern white community, is unending. There is no bottom to their depravity, and casual devaluing of life. I know, because I've lived around them, and heard them talking for decades, when they think it's just a room of "the boys."

I've heard guys plan out a floorplan in their house, so that no matter where they are standing in their house, there is a gun within arms reach. And they were serious about this. They are a cult of gun worshipping, death addicts, and they've convinced themselves that their are not only in the right, but that it's a DIVINE right too. And anyone that disagrees with them, is an enemy of their country and their god. And I'm frankly sick of it, after hearing it for 30 odd years.

UGH you sound like you grew up around some of the same people I did. Many here in Texas are the EXACT same way. I remember trying to help this guy who was dragged from a pickup truck by a bunch of "good 'ol Boys" down a gravel road. I asked him if he wanted me to call him an ambulance or the police and that I was willing to testify as a witness . He told me," No, Don't call them it will only make it worse next time." How many times have they done this to that poor guy? It is messed up that people just realize that the whole system is so screwed up, that they already know calling the cops makes it worse. I also remember the football team tormenting a guy by putting trash bags over his head and beating him and kicking him and then put him in a barrel trashcan and rolled him down a hill. When he got out of the hospital, he brought a gun to school during a pep rally and was going to shoot them all but was tackled by a football coach. He wound up being locked away in a mental hospital and had his life ruined, and the guys from the football team never were charged with anything and completely got away with it, EVEN though Coaches, the school cop, teachers all saw what they did to him prior to that. Though everyone saw the girl being gang raped in the parkinglot too, but nothing ever happened over that either. Justice cannot exist as long as the "Good 'ol boys" call the shots. They ensure corruption on every level so there is no where to turn really.

 

[happyninja42]

UGH you sound like you grew up around some of the same people I did. Many here in Texas are the EXACT same way. I remember trying to help this guy who was dragged from a pickup truck by a bunch of "good 'ol Boys" down a gravel road. I asked him if he wanted me to call him an ambulance or the police and that I was willing to testify as a witness . He told me," No, Don't call them it will only make it worse next time." How many times have they done this to that poor guy? It is messed up that people just realize that the whole system is so screwed up, that they already know calling the cops makes it worse. I also remember the football team tormenting a guy by putting trash bags over his head and beating him and kicking him and then put him in a barrel trashcan and rolled him down a hill. When he got out of the hospital, he brought a gun to school during a pep rally and was going to shoot them all but was tackled by a football coach. He wound up being locked away in a mental hospital and had his life ruined, and the guys from the football team never were charged with anything and completely got away with it, EVEN though Coaches, the school cop, teachers all saw what they did to him prior to that. Though everyone saw the girl being gang raped in the parkinglot too, but nothing ever happened over that either. Justice cannot exist as long as the "Good 'ol boys" call the shots. They ensure corruption on every level so there is no where to turn really.

Yeah, I've had bosses who were ex-military, and then ex-cops, casually talking about how when they had a difficult person, he'd say things like...and I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember exactly how he put it, but like "..look, the law says this, so you need to do this" *talking to the suspect* "...but I'm authorized to hold you for 24 hours for no reason, and me and the boys can easily just rough you up and nothing will come of it...so why don't you do what we are telling you, so you don't force us to beat you up and detain you for 24 hours? " And he said it like it was the most polite thing ever. Like he was doing the guy a FAVOR, by threatening him with unsanctioned police brutality in lieu of proper procedure, as long as the guy complied with his instructions. It's just....the mental disconnect in the "Othering" of fellow human beings, and how casually it's endorsed, just always baffles me.

Another thing that I find disturbing about all of this, is how often, when working with my veteran clients, who very often go into law enforcement as a secondary profession after service, will describe them having PTSD, but they refuse to get it diagnosed. Because if they got a high disability rating for it, it would exclude them from police work. I've literally had cops IN UNIFORM, sitting across my desk, tell me this, when we were discussing VA benefits for them.

Think about that. To these guys, it seems LOGICAL, to HIDE a mental illness that primarily effects a persons emotional control and anger impulses when it is triggered, and it's often triggered by stressful situations....and they are pretending it doesn't exist...so they can continue to work a job where they are authorized to fire weapons in the city streets, based on their judgement. And they think that's the appropriate behavior. And they would even say it like that. I mean you can probably hear the tone In what I'm about to type. "I mean, come on man, I've been on the force for X years, if I talk about this, they'll take me off the street. And I don't want to seem like I'm complaining about my problems, there are guys out there with much worse issues than me. I just deal with it and it's fine." Except it's NOT fine, that's the fucking problem. You have a GUN, that you wear all the time. You openly think that admitting your illness is a sign of weakness (another depressingly common idea from ex-military/cops that I've seen over the years), so you refuse and avoid any treatment or therapy. And yet it's clearly a problem for you, you even TELL me about having night terrors, and anxiety, and your demeanor sitting across my desk is clearly of someone who is emotionally agitated. Because if they don't report it, it doesn't exist. And this isn't exclusive to cops, active duty military do similar things, to maintain things like Flight Status in the Air Force. They will just hide shit, because the culture of the military is one of "suck it up, walk it off, don't be a pussy", if you go on Sick Call for a problem, you are letting your unit down, so don't fucking do it. When coming back from deployment, and they are processing the troops, and are required to talk to them about possible mental problems (like PTSD because they were in a war zone), they are all sitting in a facility, waiting to be sent home. This is the last hurdle to being home. But if someone does say "yeah, I'm not doing well, some shit happened and I am not managing it" then it's several hours of talk and counseling by the staff...which holds up all the other troops in their unit from getting home. So they don't report it, they're not going to be the asshole who "whines" about his problems to the shrink, and keeps his buddies from going home. So "no doctor, I'm fine, no mental issues or problems to report." I've literally lost count of how many times I've heard this story from veterans, when they are trying to (years later) file for PTSD as a service disability, but there is no medical record of the problems, because they refused to report it.

You should NOT be a cop like that. Nobody drafted you to be a cop. YOU chose that job, and that job requires you to behave in a certain way. And I'm sorry, I appreciate that the job you do is dangerous, but if being in that job, means that the way you "deal" with it, is to lose control and become a threat to the people you are supposed to be protecting, then you SHOULDN'T HAVE THAT JOB ANYMORE. Your job provides you with a level of sanctioned lethality, that if you can't properly manage that responsibility, you shouldn't have it anymore.

 

[Cicada 5]

The McMichaels have been indicted by a Grand Jury.

Three Men Suspected of Killing Ahmaud Arbery Indicted on Murder Charges

The three men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot to death as he was jogging in South Georgia in February, have been indicted by a grand jury.

jezebel.com