It has been a little over a year since the terrible murder of young Ahmaud Arbery, just a few short miles from where I am now writing these words. Maybe that’s why his death has haunted me so much this past year when similar stories were reported in the press. It all seems so incongruous as I look out the window at what appears to be a benignly beautiful and affluent community. I keep asking myself how such a horrible thing could happen.
Since then the alleged assailants have been in custody in the Glynn County jail just across the causeway from St. Simons. Their defense apparently rests on the state’s 158-year old “citizen’s arrest law.” The defendants contend that they had reasonable cause to chase down and shoot Arbery whom they suspected of break-ins. Emotions on both sides are still raw. In the interim, the citizen’s arrest law, which dates back to the Civil War era, is being challenged as antiquated and subject to abuse.
Jim Barger, Jr., an attorney here on St. Simons, has written eloquently on the Arbery case, citing historical antecedents and describing his experience as a local growing up in coastal Georgia. He doesn’t mince words about the ingrained bigotry that made Arbery’s murder possible and writes, “we must own responsibility for Ahmaud’s murder and it’s cover-up as both an individual and collective sin that stains us all…. We cannot bow our heads and call it ‘tragic’ and leave it to the authorities and the politicians who will never protect our neighbors unless we require it of them.” *
I don’t know Jim Barger, but I do know he is right!
*See Jim Barger, Jr., "AHMAUD ARBERY Holds Us All Accountable," The Bitter Southerner, May 14, 2020.
See also, New York Times, "Before Breona Taylor and George Floyd, There Was Ahmaud Arbery," March 1, 2021.
I share in your disgust in the loss of this young mans life. When I see his photograph often displayed on the news, my heart aches for his mother and his family. Usually in this story, the faces of the three men being held for Ahmaud’s murder are shown. I am sickened by this trio. As with other senseless killings I have no words. I also agree with your sentiment at how close this crime was to our beloved SSI. Crossing the FJ Torres Causeway in no way protects us or anyone from the hate that still exists in our society. God be with all who have lost loved ones to law enforcement and further lost a loved one to three self appointed maniacs.
Thanks for your comments. This sort of atrocity is too often forgotten because most of us are not affected by it. It happened and then goes away out of our lives. Until we think about it more often and speak out about how awful this bigotry is, it will continue to fester and continue to happen.