And when you look at the video, it harkens back to yesteryears, things we thought we had overcome in America. I mean, it looks like it's a lynch mob chasing a young Black man. And when they kill him, there is no accountability. They go home and sleep in their beds at night.
And it takes 74 days before there is an arrest. And the arrest was not because the police or the law enforcement individuals saw the video, because they had it on day one, in February. It's because we saw the video, Amy. That's why we got an arrest, finally, after all these days, even though these men chased him with a shotgun and a .357 Magnum, and they executed Ahmaud Arbery in broad daylight.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, this is just an astounding story. Maud, as he was known, his nickname, was a well-known jogger in the community, ran almost every day. And can you then explain this was a Sunday afternoon, in broad daylight. And then, take us on that journey, as you understand it at this point. Not only are we following Maud jogging in the middle of the road, coming upon this pickup truck with the retired White police officer in the back you wouldn't know he was a police officer, of course and his son holding the shotgun next to it. But the question of the man who is following Arbery, filming this.
BENJAMIN CRUMP: Yes. William Bryan, who we believe is an accomplice to this murder, he should be charged with aiding and abetting the McMichaels in their execution of Ahmaud Arbery.
And it's just unbelievable, Amy, that they would want to film this. And, you know, it shocks the conscience. You just can't believe it. But it's real, in 2020. We're not talking about 1920. We're talking about in 2020. They can do this, there could be ocular proof on that video, but yet the law enforcement officials who came out to investigate this matter let them leave and go home and sleep in their beds at night.
That's why it's so outrageous to us, people in communities of color, because we know if the shoe was on the other foot and it was Ahmaud and his father Marcus in that pickup truck, and they had a shotgun and a .357 Magnum and they chased Greg McMichael's son in broad daylight and end up killing him, they know they would have been arrested from day one, and they know they would not have been given a bond. Nobody would have had to justify anything.
So why the two justice systems in America, one for Black America and one for White America? We're the United States of America. And even though us Black people understand the Constitution wasn't written for us, as my hero Thurgood Marshall said, we're going to make the Constitution ours anyway, because we are Americans.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to a piece that talks about, "Shortly after the shooting, the prosecutor for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, Jackie Johnson, recused herself because Gregory McMichael had worked in her office. The case was [then] sent to George Barnhill, the district attorney in Waycross, Ga., who later recused himself from the case after Mr. Arbery's mother argued that he had a conflict because his son also works for the Brunswick district attorney. But before he relinquished the case, " Barnhill wrote a letter to the Glynn County Police Department. In the letter, which was obtained by The Times, he argued that there was not sufficient probable cause to arrest ... Arbery's pursuers." This is an astounding story. Explain the conflicts here. Again, McMichael, a retired police officer, an investigator.
BENJAMIN CRUMP: Yes, ma'am, Amy. He was a police officer and an investigator for the District Attorney's Office and had worked for them for over 30 years. So we are very distrustful of any legal or law enforcement agencies in that southeastern part of Georgia, because we feel they all know the McMichaels, and they are going to be biased in favor of the McMichaels because of those relationships.
And even the current prosecutor, we don't have trust for him, because he has revealed his perspective. He had that video. He could have issued an arrest warrant based on just the video, like the Georgia Bureau of Investigations finally did when they took over the investigation, because it was probable cause in the video. You didn't have to do I mean, it's probable cause. Black people are arrested on far less in America every day. But they actually have a video, and they still said there was not enough evidence just to arrest them.
And that's why we want a special prosecutor appointed, and we want to make sure that if these are individuals who currently work at the law enforcement agencies there in and around Brunswick, Georgia, who failed to arrest them either because of incompetence or intentional, they should not have anything at all to do with the prosecution of this case.
AMY GOODMAN: Ben Crump, what forced the release of this video this week? I mean, and it comes at the same time that Georgia has lifted its lock-down, so there was immediate protest. I mean, it's clear it's the protesters and the outcry across the country that have led to this to the arrests of the McMichaels. Talk about what forced this video release. And it also was just released on a local website.
BENJAMIN CRUMP: Yes, ma'am. Apparently, a lawyer or a former lawyer associated with the McMichaels, the murderous father and son duo who executed Ahmaud Arbery, released the video. And apparently he said he released it because he felt that it would somehow exonerate these killers. And it makes no sense to me. It's asinine how they feel this hunting party, this hunting posse, chasing this unarmed, young African American throughout that community was something that would exonerate them.
Amy, they teach us in first year law school about malice of forethought. That is, you know, what is in the mind of the killer. And we believe when they got in that truck with all that firepower going to confront this young Black man, that they had evil intent, that you can look at their intentions and conclude that they should be held liable for murder, because we know, again, if the shoe was on the other foot and it was two African American men who got in their trucks with this kind of firepower and killed an unarmed, young White man in broad daylight, that they would be charged and convicted with murder, day one.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you have, at the time of this broadcast, in a little bit, the Georgia Department of Investigation is going to hold a news conference. Then a major protest is going to be held. If you can explain what the Georgia Department of Investigation had to say? Now the Georgia governor says there will be justice. And also, you represented Trayvon Martin's family. Trayvon Martin would have been the same age of Ahmaud if he had lived and not been killed by George Zimmerman. And again, today is Ahmaud's 26th birthday. So, if you can talk about what this means, that the Georgia Department of Investigation is involved, and your comparisons?
BENJAMIN CRUMP: Certainly. The similarities between Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery are eerie. Both of them were killed in the month of February -- Trayvon on February 26, 2012, and Ahmaud on February 23rd, 2020. And then both of them were accused of burglary, you know, Trayvon in the gated community and then Ahmaud in the Satilla Shores community. And then, both of the killers, who were armed, claimed that they had to kill these young unarmed, Black men because they were in fear of their lives. And then, both of the killers, after they killed these two unarmed, young Black men, Trayvon and Ahmaud, they both got to go home and sleep in their beds at night.
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