Probably the most unsettling, racist thing I have seen in a long time.

In practice, yes prosecutors are reluctant to try cases they are afraid they can't win, but that is not what is going on here. The kind of case you are talking about is something where they think the defense might be able to create enough reasonable doubt. It's not that, "this place is so racist that we can't win a case if the victim is a black man." No place is that racist anymore, because if there are black people who can be victims, it means there are black people who can sit on the jury. Do your job and use the voir dire to try to sit some fair-minded people on the jury. Even if they are afraid they may lose a trial because the case itself has holes, it's not like they don't arrest and charge in a case where there is a body and they can link a person and a weapon to it. They arrest, don't show their hand and try to get a plea to something smaller to avoid the trial, on the hope that the defendants don't want to risk a trial and a longer sentence.

In this case, it was the prosecutor, not the facts of the case that were preventing a fair and just system. The NY Times reported that the original prosecutor sat on the case for weeks before recusing himself over what he said was a conflict of interest. Reading not too far between the lines, the father in the truck had worked as an investigator for the DA's office, so they knew him and were more interested in getting him off than in pursuing justice. The prosecutor told the police there was insufficient probable cause to arrest the two, citing a mishmash of reasons, including that they were carrying their weapons legally under Georgia law, there is a citizen's arrest statute and there is a self-defense statute. In short, they had a murder and had no interest in pursuing justice. A new prosecutor came in, and rather than indicting an obvious case, tried to use a grand jury to make it go away.

I am glad that the whole thing got a ton of attention, and the two were finally arrested and charged. Now they deserve due process, the right to defend themselves, a fair trial, etc., just like anyone else. But the fact that it took that long, and was that difficult, exposed a corrupt system of justice. It's sad.

 

I doubt they were riding around brandishing guns. They likely had the guns in the pickup, like lots of overweight men with scraggly beards in that part of the country do, and they probably didn't pull them out until right before the incident.

In any case, there are more details coming out. I am not sure what is true and what isn't. Apparently the dad already knew Arbery because he had investigated him when he was working for the DA. When Arbery was in high school he was sentenced to five years’ probation for carrying a weapon on campus, and several counts of obstructing a law enforcement officer. I am assuming that was the case the dad was involved in, but Arbery was also convicted of a probation violation 2 years ago after he was charged with shoplifting. The reports don't say which of those things the dad was involved in investigating.

Again, this is me reading between the lines, so I may not be correct, but piecing it all together in my head, I am guessing the dad saw Arbery running in his neighborhood and recognized him, and it wasa , "What is that criminal [add racial slur, possibly] doing in my neighborhood?" and that was the impetus for whatever stupidity led to them confronting and shooting him dead. He neglected to tell the cops that he knew Arbery, although I guess there is a possibility that he didn't remember. But I am also guessing the "burglary" story was them shitting their pants over having made a dead body and putting together a story.

If I am correct about that, the thing that bothers me the most about it (on top of the murder) is the DA being complicit in it.

 

Glynn County commissioners say DA blocked arrests after fatal shooting

The lede is all you really need to read.

BRUNSWICK — Two Glynn County commissioners say District Attorney Jackie Johnson’s office refused to allow the Glynn County Police Department to make arrests immediately after the Feb. 23 shooting death of Ahmaud Abery.