Biden, Abrams:

Charles Blow in the NYT

“It appears Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and Bryan Williams were following in ‘hot pursuit,’ a burglary suspect, with solid first hand probable cause, in their neighborhood, and asking/telling him to stop. It appears their intent was to stop and hold this criminal suspect until law enforcement arrived. Under Georgia law this is perfectly legal.”

The third and current prosecutor on the case said Tuesday that the case should be heard by a grand jury.

He cites the statute: “A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge.”

But there is a clear problem here: Arbery had committed no offense. His only offense, the thing that drew suspicion, was that he was black and male and running through these white men's neighborhood.

The recused prosecutor’s letter states: “Given the fact Arbery initiated the fight, at the point Arbery grabbed the shotgun, under Georgia law, McMichael was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself.”

The similarities here to the Trayvon Martin case are uncanny. These men stalked Arbery, projecting onto him a criminality of which he was not guilty, then used self-defense as justification to gun him down in an altercation that they provoked. Arbery was killed eight years to the month after Martin was killed, just about three hours north.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opinion/ahmaud-arbery-killing.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

The father in the shooting knew Arbery

Greg McMichael, who provided gun cover for his son as he fought and eventually shot a young black jogger, may have known the victim long before their encounter in a subdivision just south of Brunswick, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned. 

In his letter of recusal to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill wrote that his son, a prosecutor in the Brunswick DA’s office, and McMichael, then an investigator in that same office, “both helped with the previous prosecution of (Ahmaud) Arbery.”

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/brunswick-attorney-released-the-video-arbery-shooting/JkpbvTuJt9wfl3tkcLTTvO/

Trump laments ‘heart-breaking’ killing

@ BBC News, 4 hrs. ago

President Donald Trump has called the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man in the US state of Georgia, a "very disturbing situation".

Mr Arbery was jogging in February when Gregory McMichael and his son Travis, who are white, confronted him. They now face murder and assault charges.

"My heart goes out to the parents and the family and friends," Mr Trump told Fox News on Friday

[....]

What did Trump say?

Speaking on the Fox & Friends programme on Friday morning, the president said he had seen the footage, which he described as "troubling" to anyone who watched it.

Mr Trump said the state's governor and law enforcement would be looking at the case "very strongly".

When asked about the racial issues at play in the case, the president said "justice getting done is the thing that solves that problem".

"But it's a heart-breaking thing."

Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and a White House adviser, has also weighed in, asking in a tweet "why it seemingly took months, the release of a video and corresponding public outrage to catalyse action".

At a briefing later, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked whether the US Department of Justice would get involved in the case. Ms McEnany did not rule out the possibility.

The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

[....]