What I see in the Arbery case is that when presented with overwhelming evidence of injustice, most Americans will come down on the side of justice no matter the issue of race. But the issue of race clouds what evidence of injustice Americans end up seeing.
I have seen the issue of sexism cloud what evidence of injustice is seen too many times. Another recurrent and often related frustration has been the rapidity people jump to assumptions of guilt without first gathering the facts.
Very interesting story! In memory of Trayvon Martin 17 years old, walking in a Florida neighborhood to Ahmaud Arbery jogging in a Georgia neighborhood, the 'I heard' mentality of our jury system comes into play, in that citizens of Georgia learned from the Florida jury trial of Trayvon Martin and used that knowledge to demand Justice by determining a guilty verdict in the Ahmaud Arbery trial. In both trials there was a lot of gossip about what the two young black men were doing during a night out. The essence of one was fighting and one was running. Both trials exposed suspicion and outrage in an unjust legal system. Both trials received guilty verdicts, one defendant in Florida on July 13, 2013 and three defendants in Georgia on November 24, 2021. In 8 years our jury system has shown improvement. What does racism mean today!
In a seemingly 'crooked' American court system, full of questionable racially charged cases, I'm relieved to hear a straight forward response to straight forward evidence. Thank you Dan and company for this story.
Moma made the case by connecting all the dots to prevail for her beloved son. She put the pieces together and gathered all the players and handed it over for the lawyers to do their job. The newspaper journalists broke the news of this case to the world and the eyes of the citizens became the witness. The world focused on America and Americans way of justice and brothers and sisters wanted to bare witness on how this racism would play out. Today we pause to Ahmaud Aubrey. RIP Moma got this! She got you, babe. RIP
I applaud those jury members, many of them have probably recieved threats to kill them, mostly by MAGA, racist, bullies. With SCOTUS stacked in favor with these treorists, I pray for peace. GOP certainly does't agree with me. They still stand for a former Pres. who, in my opinion, is guilty of treason.
I am a ex cop. I’m also strongly on the side of the defendant in trials. It is the job of the prosecutor to overcome the defense and if they can’t do so the defendant deserves to walk.
Therefore I watched most of the trial with an eye to the performance of both legal teams.
The prosecutor, Linda Dunikaski, both educated the jury in the meaning of the statutory language and how it is interpreted, but also highlighted the weaknesses in the defendant’s stories to police and to the court.
She did what a good prosecutor does. She went unerringly to the truth.
The defense was dealt a poor hand and resorted to cheap card tricks.
As a teacher I know that classroom conversation is the fastest way to learn whether or not a student truly understands the concepts under discussion. As long as the conversation remains positive, non judgemental and never humiliating, students can test their ideas and get instant feedback. Waiting for a test to read and evaluate a student's progress is too late. What is true of the classroom is also true of public discussions. People need to express their ideas without dramatic response from listeners and before a crisis. In this civil discourse, exchange of ideas can lead to an understanding of different viewpoints and possibly change. To work toward a generation capable of equality, we need to model the behavior in schools, homes, neighborhoods, and in the media.
Dan, thank you for stating the issue so perfectly- wishing for an antidote to hatred. I am praying for a swelling of pure patrioism come next election-the elimination of conspiracy theories- the end of Q-Anon-and a rejuvenation of traditional Republucan party. Further- fire under the Dems to pass BBB, and pasage of the voting rights bills x 2--and as long as I am asking for miracles, rasising the debt ceiling w/o a peep from republicans, and Fox News to go off the air!
I, like so many I know, felt a huge sigh of relief when the verdicts came in. I hadn't realized the degree to which I was (figuratively) holding my breath. After seeing too many miscarriages of justice in my life (I'm one of the early baby boomers), I had begun to give up hope that the facts of a case - any case - would be enough to bring the perpetrators of crimes to justice if race were a factor in a case. The verdicts matter, of course, though as you identify correctly in this posting to STEADY, the case might never have come to trial. It's THAT that is so frightening still, in my opinion. Vigilantism, so recently supported by the "not guilty" verdict in the Rittenhouse trial, is an increasing problem in our country. It's as dangerous as Covid-19, and it's time for our elected officials to do something to curb easy access to assault rifles, and to any automatic gun or rifle. If an ordinary citizen is going to try to kill anyone, let that citizen have to get closer to the intended victim, have to reload a gun. Murder oughtn't be that easy.
Something that stays with me is that they were likely only convicted because of the video. And the video was only shown because one of the murderers insisted and the defense was so sure that simply seeing a black man running through a white neighborhood would obviously be seen by jurors as sufficient provocation for the attack and murder. The next defendants may be more cautious.
Just an excellent piece. You hit it dead on when you said "we don't grapple honestly enough with issues of race in America." It really bothered me when the defense lawyer came out of the court house after the verdict was read and said that the 3 men "thought they were doing the right thing". Whether the lawyer was relaying the truth or just laying the ground work for an appeal it was just unbelievable to me to think that the 3 men believed they were in the right.
We have a terrible black stain here in Canada when looking back at how our Indigenous women and children have been treated. It must all be exposed and reconciliation attained. Everybody must work hard to find paths of healing through education, support networks, funding and honest caring leadership. We have a long way to go with this.
Considering the justice represented by the Arbery verdict, I cannot help but compare it to the absence of justice in the Rittenhouse case. It was just as racially loaded, even though there were no Black people on either side. "If Rittenhouse had been Black ..." We definitely have a ways to go, boulders and potholes to navigate along the way. Ambushes too I suppose.
I have seen the issue of sexism cloud what evidence of injustice is seen too many times. Another recurrent and often related frustration has been the rapidity people jump to assumptions of guilt without first gathering the facts.
Very interesting story! In memory of Trayvon Martin 17 years old, walking in a Florida neighborhood to Ahmaud Arbery jogging in a Georgia neighborhood, the 'I heard' mentality of our jury system comes into play, in that citizens of Georgia learned from the Florida jury trial of Trayvon Martin and used that knowledge to demand Justice by determining a guilty verdict in the Ahmaud Arbery trial. In both trials there was a lot of gossip about what the two young black men were doing during a night out. The essence of one was fighting and one was running. Both trials exposed suspicion and outrage in an unjust legal system. Both trials received guilty verdicts, one defendant in Florida on July 13, 2013 and three defendants in Georgia on November 24, 2021. In 8 years our jury system has shown improvement. What does racism mean today!
In a seemingly 'crooked' American court system, full of questionable racially charged cases, I'm relieved to hear a straight forward response to straight forward evidence. Thank you Dan and company for this story.
Now maybe we can work on making this kind of verdict the expectation instead of the exception. Hooray!
Moma made the case by connecting all the dots to prevail for her beloved son. She put the pieces together and gathered all the players and handed it over for the lawyers to do their job. The newspaper journalists broke the news of this case to the world and the eyes of the citizens became the witness. The world focused on America and Americans way of justice and brothers and sisters wanted to bare witness on how this racism would play out. Today we pause to Ahmaud Aubrey. RIP Moma got this! She got you, babe. RIP
@DanRather #DanRather 💜💜💜A highly intuitive article by an extremely intuitive writer 👏Thank you, Dan and Steady Team❣Great Newsletter 🦄🤠
I applaud those jury members, many of them have probably recieved threats to kill them, mostly by MAGA, racist, bullies. With SCOTUS stacked in favor with these treorists, I pray for peace. GOP certainly does't agree with me. They still stand for a former Pres. who, in my opinion, is guilty of treason.
My second comment.
I am a ex cop. I’m also strongly on the side of the defendant in trials. It is the job of the prosecutor to overcome the defense and if they can’t do so the defendant deserves to walk.
Therefore I watched most of the trial with an eye to the performance of both legal teams.
The prosecutor, Linda Dunikaski, both educated the jury in the meaning of the statutory language and how it is interpreted, but also highlighted the weaknesses in the defendant’s stories to police and to the court.
She did what a good prosecutor does. She went unerringly to the truth.
The defense was dealt a poor hand and resorted to cheap card tricks.
As a teacher I know that classroom conversation is the fastest way to learn whether or not a student truly understands the concepts under discussion. As long as the conversation remains positive, non judgemental and never humiliating, students can test their ideas and get instant feedback. Waiting for a test to read and evaluate a student's progress is too late. What is true of the classroom is also true of public discussions. People need to express their ideas without dramatic response from listeners and before a crisis. In this civil discourse, exchange of ideas can lead to an understanding of different viewpoints and possibly change. To work toward a generation capable of equality, we need to model the behavior in schools, homes, neighborhoods, and in the media.
Dan, thank you for stating the issue so perfectly- wishing for an antidote to hatred. I am praying for a swelling of pure patrioism come next election-the elimination of conspiracy theories- the end of Q-Anon-and a rejuvenation of traditional Republucan party. Further- fire under the Dems to pass BBB, and pasage of the voting rights bills x 2--and as long as I am asking for miracles, rasising the debt ceiling w/o a peep from republicans, and Fox News to go off the air!
I, like so many I know, felt a huge sigh of relief when the verdicts came in. I hadn't realized the degree to which I was (figuratively) holding my breath. After seeing too many miscarriages of justice in my life (I'm one of the early baby boomers), I had begun to give up hope that the facts of a case - any case - would be enough to bring the perpetrators of crimes to justice if race were a factor in a case. The verdicts matter, of course, though as you identify correctly in this posting to STEADY, the case might never have come to trial. It's THAT that is so frightening still, in my opinion. Vigilantism, so recently supported by the "not guilty" verdict in the Rittenhouse trial, is an increasing problem in our country. It's as dangerous as Covid-19, and it's time for our elected officials to do something to curb easy access to assault rifles, and to any automatic gun or rifle. If an ordinary citizen is going to try to kill anyone, let that citizen have to get closer to the intended victim, have to reload a gun. Murder oughtn't be that easy.
Thank you Dan! I thank GOD for you and pray often that He blesses you to live a Lllooooonnnnnnggg life! 👏🏿👏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🤗🥰😇
Something that stays with me is that they were likely only convicted because of the video. And the video was only shown because one of the murderers insisted and the defense was so sure that simply seeing a black man running through a white neighborhood would obviously be seen by jurors as sufficient provocation for the attack and murder. The next defendants may be more cautious.
Just an excellent piece. You hit it dead on when you said "we don't grapple honestly enough with issues of race in America." It really bothered me when the defense lawyer came out of the court house after the verdict was read and said that the 3 men "thought they were doing the right thing". Whether the lawyer was relaying the truth or just laying the ground work for an appeal it was just unbelievable to me to think that the 3 men believed they were in the right.
We have a terrible black stain here in Canada when looking back at how our Indigenous women and children have been treated. It must all be exposed and reconciliation attained. Everybody must work hard to find paths of healing through education, support networks, funding and honest caring leadership. We have a long way to go with this.
Thanks Steady team.
Considering the justice represented by the Arbery verdict, I cannot help but compare it to the absence of justice in the Rittenhouse case. It was just as racially loaded, even though there were no Black people on either side. "If Rittenhouse had been Black ..." We definitely have a ways to go, boulders and potholes to navigate along the way. Ambushes too I suppose.
We no longer argue about issues. In the age of Fox News we have to argue over the definition of the word ‘fact’ first.