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THERE IS
HOPE:
BUT WE
STILL
NEED A
VIDEO!
Op-Ed by
Rev.
Wendell
Anthony
 DETROIT
– “We
must
accept
finite
disappointment
but
never
lose
infinite
hope,”
Dr.
Martin
Luther
King,
Jr.
These
words
capture
the very
spirit
of this
moment
in
history.
A jury
of
eleven
whites
and one
black in
the
heart of
the “old
confederacy”
have
found
three
white
men
guilty
of
felony
murder
for the
heinous
killing
of a
Black
man
jogging
named
Ahmaud
Arbery
on
February
23,
2020. In
a
Brunswick
Georgia
courtroom,
the
verdict
comes
back
guilty,
guilty,
guilty
for all
three
men,
George
McMichael,
his son
Travis
McMichael,
and
William
“Roddie”
Bryan.
These
men used
as their
defense
an
antiquated,
outdated
“citizen’s
arrest
law”
codified
in 1863
when
Georgia
was a
part of
the
slaveholding
confederacy.
The ACLU
of
Georgia
has
indicated
that the
old law
was an
example
of
systemic
racism
and
empowered
mobs
that
lynched
more
than 500
Black
people
in cases
recorded
in
Georgia
between
1882 and
1968.
The
statute
was
recently
revoked
in May
2021.
Chris
Slobogin,
a law
professor
at
Vanderbilt
University
said,
“Citizen
arrest
laws put
dangerous
powers
in
untrained
hands.”
These
laws
were
originally
passed
to
enable
the
capture
of
Africans
who had
escaped
enslavement
in
America.
Even
Georgia
Governor
Brian
Kemp, no
real
advocate
for
civil
rights,
admitted
“Arbery
was a
victim
of
vigilante
style
violence
that has
no place
in
Georgia,
and that
statute
was ripe
for
abuse.”
Abuse it
was. The
first
Georgia
prosecutor
Jackie
Johnson
was
indicted
on
counts
of
obstruction
and
violation
of her
oath of
office
as she
attempted
to delay
the
arrests
of the
men in
this
case.
The
second
prosecutor
George
Barnhill
said,
“Arbery
was
guilty
of a
criminal
offense
and what
the men
did was
perfectly
legal.”
It was
only
after
the
release
of a
video by
convicted
murderer
William
Bryan of
this
tragic
death
that
things
begin to
happen.
The
Georgia
Bureau
of
Investigation
took
charge
of this
case,
and the
accused
murderers
were
arrested
and
charged.
A new
prosecutor
Linda
Dunikoski
and her
team
were
eventually
brought
in to
takeover
this
case.
One must
ask why
does it
take a
video to
bring
justice
in the
case of
the
death of
African
Americans?
It was a
video
that
pulled
back the
cover in
the
murder
of
Ahmaud
Arbery.
It was a
video
that
pulled
back the
cover of
the
murder
in the
case of
George
Floyd.
Emmett
Till had
no
video.
Sandra
Bland
had no
video.
Trayvon
Martin
had no
video.
Breonna
Taylor
had no
video.
Kevin
Strickland
who
served
43 years
in a
Missouri
correctional
center
for a
crime he
did not
commit,
had no
video.
Upon his
release
he said,
“I
didn’t
think
this day
would
come.”
Muhammad
Abdul
Aziz and
Khalil
Islam,
both
spent
more
than 20
years in
prison
for the
murder
of
Malcolm
X.
Exonerated
after 55
years
for a
crime
they did
not
commit
they had
no
video.
Have
Black
people
been
relegated
to video
justice?
Despite
this
reality,
it was a
praying
mother,
Wanda
Cooper-Jones,
and a
praying
father,
Marcus
Arbery,
who kept
the fire
of hope
burning
believing
their
son
would
get
justice.
It was a
praying
mother
who
thanked
all
those
who
prayed,
marched,
and
supported
her in
her
moments
of
desperation
and
humiliation
levied
against
her son.
It was a
praying
mother
who had
to leave
the
courtroom
when the
Defense
Attorney
Laura
Hogue
disgustingly
described
the
appearance
of Mr.
Arbery
as
wearing
“Khaki
shorts
with no
socks to
cover
his
long,
dirty
toenails.”
It was a
praying
father
who had
to
contain
his
emotions
as he
listened
to
Defense
Attorney
Kevin
Gough
say, “We
don’t
want any
more
Black
pastors
in here.
And what
if we
had a
bunch of
folks
coming
in here
dressed
like
Colonel
Sanders
with
white
masks
sitting
in the
back?”
The
reference
was
obvious
to the
mascot
for
Kentucky
Fried
Chicken.
These
strategic
metaphors,
racist
in
content,
overtly
offensive
in their
intent,
were
designed
to
unleash
the
stereotypical
emotions
and
prejudices
of the
jury. On
the
Wednesday
before
Thanksgiving
2021, we
now can
give
thanks
that it
did not
work.
This
case in
which a
prosecutor
gave a
textbook
explanation
of law
and how
it
should
be
applied,
regardless
of
color,
location,
or
vocation,
is
indeed
one for
the
books.
Prosecutor
Linda
Dunikoski
in her
prosecution
of this
case
demonstrated
that
there is
still a
reason
for
hope.
Judge
Timothy
Wamsley
did not
exclude
anyone
from the
courtroom.
He did
not make
himself
a
spectacle
of
jurisprudence
in the
courtroom
like
Judge
Bruce
Schroeder
did in
the
trial of
Kyle
Rittenhouse.
Mr.
Rittenhouse
was the
accused
defendant
in a
case of
a double
killing
and the
wounding
of
another
victim
in
Kenosha
Wisconsin.
We can
embrace
the
finding
of
justice
in this
case. We
must not
forget
the
countless
other
cases
where
there is
no video
or the
full
measure
of
justice
is not
applied
equally.
Our
nation
still
has not
adopted
the
George
Floyd
Justice
in
Policing
Act. We
must
elect
and
appoint
good,
fair,
and
impartial
judges
to state
and
federal
courts
across
the
land. We
cannot
rest
because
the
spirit
of those
who cry
out for
justice
is still
not at
rest.
We do
not have
to
agonize
over the
question
of
ultimate
justice.
We must
continuously
organize
and
demand
equal
justice
under
law.
African
Americans
and
other
people
of color
should
not have
to
depend
upon a
video in
order to
receive
justice.
We
should
depend
upon the
rule of
law as
every
other
American
in the
realization
that
justice
and
liberty
is for
all.
Today
the door
leading
to hope
has been
cracked
open a
little
wider.
We can
see
through
the
crack
that
there is
justice
in the
house.
It is up
to those
who
believe
in the
system
of
justice
to
continue
to push
against
the door
until it
is all
the way
open.
Until
our
nation
no
longer
has to
hear a
Black
mother
utter
the
words in
the
unnecessary
and
treacherous
death of
her
child,
“It’s
been a
long
fight.
It’s
been a
hard
fight.
But God
is good.
To tell
you the
truth I
never
saw this
day back
in 2020.
I never
thought
this day
would
come.”
We must
still
fight.
Until an
African
American
father
no
longer
has to
sit in
the
courtroom
for the
same
reasons
and
wonder
if
justice
is going
to be
served,
the door
is not
yet
completely
open.
Unable
to
contain
his
emotions,
Mr.
Arbery
lets out
a groan,
a sigh
of
relief,
a
moaning
of
spiritual
fulfilment,
saying
outside,
“It’s
been a
long
time
coming.
Love
everybody.
No
father,
I don’t
want any
daddy to
go
through
what
I’ve
been
through.
Black or
white,
all
human
beings
need to
be
treated
equally.
All
lives
matter.
Today is
a good
day.” We
must
still
fight.
Today is
a good
day for
hope.
James
Weldon
Johnson
speaks
to us of
hope,
“Stony
the road
we trod:
Bitter
the
chastening
rod,
Felt in
the days
when
hope
unborn
had
died.
Yet with
a steady
beat,
Have not
our
weary
feet,
Come to
the
place
for
which
our
fathers
sighed?”
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