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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 158-year old \u201ccitizen\u2019s arrest law.\u201d 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\u2019s arrest law, which dates back to the Civil War era, is being challenged as antiquated and subject to abuse.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t mince words about the ingrained bigotry that made Arbery\u2019s murder possible and writes, \u201cwe must own responsibility for Ahmaud\u2019s murder and it\u2019s cover-up as both an individual and collective sin that stains us all\u2026. We cannot bow our heads and call it \u2018tragic\u2019 and leave it to the authorities and the politicians who will never protect our neighbors unless we require it of them.\u201d *<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know Jim Barger, but I do know he is right!<\/p>\n
*See Jim Barger, Jr., "AHMAUD ARBERY Holds Us All Accountable," The Bitter Southerner<\/em>, May 14, 2020.<\/p>\n See also, New York Times<\/em>, "Before Breona Taylor and George Floyd, There Was Ahmaud Arbery," March 1, 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019s why his death has haunted me so much this past year when similar stories were reported in the press. It all seems so incongruous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n