(05-13-2020, 09:26 AM)jj82284 Wrote:

(05-13-2020, 08:59 AM)flsprtsgod Wrote: There was no evidence he had committed a crime. There were no burglaries reported in the area. They are going to jail just like Hannah Payne and for the same reason, they had no business tying to play cop.

I disagree.  I think that given the Way GA defines Burglary as "entering a dwelling with the intent to steal" then the act of him looking to make sure that there was no one around and then fleeing the scene would constitute evidence of intent to steal which in GA is a felony 1.  Also, McMichael reported that he personally had something stolen from his truck and he was involved in a previous incident with Arbery at that same residence and there is video evidence of someone matching his description entering the house on multiple occasions.  

Again, I think that we morally agree they acted stupidly.  I don't like the GA law as written.  But I think that given the fact pattern, it's going to be hard to prove criminal liability beyond a reasonable doubt.  IF they positively identify Arbery as the guy on the previous videos/find a pawn-scrap ticket for copper piping, tools, the missing gun etc. then this case should be abandoned and thrown out.  Now as far as civil liability, i think that's a different story.  Public opinion is going to go a lot longer way in that arena than arguing suspected felony intent to steal vs. simple trespassing in a citizens arrest defense.  This guy has a pension, he has assets, now they belong to the family.  Get him to plead to a lesser crime with little to no jail time to avoid a trial, rewrite the law to exclude petty property crimes from citizens arrest and only allow citizens to follow the suspect for the officials.

I keep wanting to ask this: how does a pawn ticket prove anything? It proves that Arbery had probably committed the previous crimes, yes, but the 911 calls here said that there was a black guy running down the street. And again, to the whole "fleeing" or "fighting" defense, they had guns out as they got out of the truck. They're not police. They're armed vigilantes ("hicks", yes) who are, as far as Arbery knew, attempting to rob, kidnap and/or kill him. That put him in fight or flight, and he chose fight. When an unarmed man--and if he wasn't unarmed, someone show me the gun that wasn't at the scene when the police arrived--is trying to get out of a situation where he's being robbed, kidnapped and/or killed, and he's unarmed, and there's no evidence that anyone involved saw anything other than "a black guy running down the street", where is the justification anywhere for the use of lethal force? Even if they saw him come out of the house, prove that they knew he was there to commit "a violent felony"--not just a felony. They had no proof that he's the one who'd been in there before, and unless he was walking out with stacks of copper pipe and wiring, they had no evidence of commission of a felony. Even if we go as favorably as we can towards the McDirtbags or whatever their names are, citizens arrest in the state of Georgia does not say anything about jumping out of a truck cowboy-style with shotguns at the ready. It does not say anything about lethal force, and no well-trained police officer would have opened fire, because all anyone articulated on the 911 calls was "a black guy running down the street."

With no copper pipe, no wire, no gun. Just a black guy running down the street after maybe/maybe not having been seen committing a misdemeanor. A police officer would not say, "Well he was thinking about committing a felony," and expect that explanation to stick. Arbery was murdered, end of story.

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