Everyone loves to go jogging in construction sites. Who knew?
“Men love to do that.” Ok. I do find construction zones interesting in a way, but I don’t know if I go out of my way to look at one. On private property.
The apparent secret fetish of millions has been revealed because of the tragic case of Ahmaud Arbery.
The mainstream media narrative is that Ahmaud Arbery was gunned down by 2 white supremacist while he was minding his own business jogging.
Lebron James parroted some of the themes:
That may be a bit of hyperbole. “Hunted down everyday/everytime we step outside our homes”?
Is that true? No is the short answer.
Longer answer: To put it in context, white people are about 12x more likely to be murdered by a black person than the other way around. And despite black people being about 1/5 the population of white people in America, black people commit more total murders. So if Black people are being “hunted down everyday and everytime they step outside their doors”, then what is 12x that? Because that’s what white people experience at the hands of black people.
So LeBron has it totally backwards. He’s shooting in the wrong hoop if he actually cares about murders.
LeBron James is the victim of fake news. “Are you saying Ahmaud Arbery didn’t happen!?”
No. Of course it did. It’s tragic. But the Ahmaud Arbery case and other cases like it are blown up by the media. They love a white on black violence racial angle. It’s one of their favorite narratives. Black on white murders they don’t cover. So gullible people like LeBron James think it doesn’t happen as much, when it happens 12x as much per person.
But as it relates to the Ahmaud Arbery case, let’s look into some of the facts of the case the media is rarely reporting:
1. Ahmaud Arbery had a criminal history. He Illegally brought a gun to a high school basketball game. He had several counts of obstructing a police officer. And he had been caught shoplifting.
2. There had been a string of burglaries in the neighborhood Ahmaud was in.
3. On the day of the shooting, there were several 911 calls reporting a man matching Arbery’s description.
4. Arbery was supposedly out jogging. But he was 11 miles from his home. That is a 22 mile job, very long and rare that a jogger would run that far.
5. Arbery looked to be wearing cargo shorts. Also not normal jogging attire.
6. The shoes Arbery was wearing do not appear to be running shoes, although is hard to tell from the grainy footage of the shooting and the construction site surveillance video.
7. On the day of the incident, Arbery was caught on construction site surveillance video.
8. The same construction site surveillance video caught other individuals trespassing on the property as well, sometimes at night. It is unclear from the footage whether Arbery was caught on video, but the site had experienced theft in the past, this is why they installed surveillance video.
8. One of the 3 men involved in the incident with Arbery was Gregory McMichael, a former long time criminal investigator.
9. Gregory McMichael had previously helped investigate Ahmaud Arbery for prior crimes. So Gregory McMichael was familiar with Arbery.
10. Gregory McMichael called 911 to report Arbery before the incident.
11. Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and a 3rd man were attempting a hold Arbery in place until police arrived.
12. The 3 men were legally openly carrying guns.
13. If the 3 men wanted to kill Arbery, they could have done it easily from a distance. They didn’t. Ahmaud Arbery charged and attacked Travis McMichael who was holding a shotgun. Arbery punched McMichael several times and grabbed for his gun. The gun went off killing Arbery. We do not know if this was intentional or happened accidentally during the scuffle.
So Gregory McMichael knew of Ahmaud Arbery’s criminal past, he knew Arbery had been snooping around this construction site that had experienced theft. So the motives appear most likely to be wanting to stop crime. If the motive was to “murder a black person”, why would Gregory McMichael have called 911 before the incident? And why would the 3 men not shoot Arbery from a distance? Instead waiting to get attacked? That narrative doesn’t make sense.
Did Arbery deserve to die? Of course not. But that’s not a valid way to frame it.
Does a person deserve to die for ignorantly eating a poison berry in the woods? No. If they eat a poison berry and get sick but don’t die, will authorities swoop in and recommend the electric chair for their ignorant decision? No, because under the law they don’t deserve that.
If Ahmad Arbery scuffled with Travis McMichael, but instead was subdued without being shot and killed, would he then deserve the electric chair? For attacking someone and possibly theft? No, he would not deserve that of course.
It’s not a matter of deserve. It’s a matter of natural consequences. Eating poison berries can have terrible natural consequences. Attacking a man with a gun may have terrible outcomes too.
Did Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and a 3rd man do the right thing attempting to stop Arbery? That’s up for debate. The evidence seems to indicate they were attempting to stop crime in their area. Was their method good? Also hard to say. If these 3 men were police and the same thing happened, would the method have been good? Yes. Police must be allowed to do their jobs.
The 3 men not being official police officers may have thrown off Arbery. It’s possible. Although it appears Arbery probably knew who Gregory McMichael was. Maybe he didn’t know McMichael’s intent and got scared and attacked. Maybe a lot of things.
But there is no indication that this was racially motivated. Anything to that effect is assumptions based on the race of the people involved. That itself is racism. Which the media frequently engages in.
It is a tragic situation. Hopefully America can see through the media sensationalizing and manipulation. That’s what Candace Owens calls for in her excellent commentary about the situation: