When Americans talk about justice, we refer to a system where all are presumed innocent until proven guilty. It is a system that, in its only true form, serves everyone equally. When we start making exceptions to that rule, justice becomes a myth.
Our criminal justice system has been a patchwork of laws perhaps originally reserved for all of us, but these laws have been inconsistently applied and enforced since our nation’s constitution was written. We don’t blame our founding fathers for the lack of parity, whether real or perceived. The laws can and should change to meet our modern needs.
If our laws are enforced blindly, few problems should theoretically arise. Otherwise, we have a system where some are rewarded and granted greater privilege than others. This is a justice system that excludes Americans.
Thankfully we don’t observe large-scale violations of said justice. The system mostly works, but there are holes that need patched.
Last week, our nation witnessed the tragic shooting of a young black man named Ahmaud Arbery, who according to news was jogging through the neighborhood when a father-and-son duo suspected Arbery of committing a crime, confronted him, and shot him to death. After video showing these events was released to the public, the local authorities in Georgia arrested the two men and charged them with murder. The justice department is said to be considering hate crime charges in addition to the murder charges.
There is still a lot about this case that we don’t know. According to Georgia officials, the two men said they saw Arbery entering a home under construction in a nearby neighborhood so they followed him and blocked him in with their truck. At the height of the confrontation, Arbery is described as trying to take the shotgun from the one of the men, while the other shot him in the chest twice.
I believe this event warrants charges against the shooters. If they are truly innocent, our system is set up so that evidence shown in court can prove them innocent. The court of public opinion, of course, rarely exercises true justice because our own understanding of the events is tainted by personal and media bias. Normally, the charges would be filed and the men would be tried.
But these two men were only arrested two months after the incident took place because a video showing the event was released to the public. If our justice system were truly blind, the charges would have been filed immediately without regard to the color of their skin.
I’m not saying that racism was the motive for the killing, or even that the local officials were guilty of some form of racism when investigating the crime. At the very least, this tragedy exhibits the need for a Black Lives Matter movement. If justice were truly blind, Black Lives Matter would not and should not exist.
If the laws are at fault, they should be changed. This case seems plenty fuzzy, even when not corrupted by racial undertones. While certainly true that entering homes under construction is not perfectly legal, it is a law that is seldom enforced. If this account is true, it hardly seems like something over which a man deserved to be shot.
When I was young, I frequently entered construction sites without authorization in broad daylight. No neighbor ever confronted, followed, or shot me afterward. If these two men were black, we rightfully expect that they would have been incarcerated as flight risks immediately. Likewise, if the victim was white, we would demand that he or she be treated with the same justice we afford to those who killed him or her. Without the cloud of white privilege would this event have even taken place? We truly cannot answer that question for sure, and that is the miscarriage of justice at hand. If justice demands equality, we would have that certainty, white privilege or not.
I do not use the term ‘white privilege’ for exclusion or division. We have been conditioned to accept the truth that white people are afforded certain privileges in many facets of life. It is perfect acceptable to admit this truth if we are honest with ourselves. In our world, we are not presumed criminals when jogging down the street. We are not considered armed and dangerous when holding a cellular phone. We are considered for employment on our own merits. It is comfortable and familiar but not everyone enjoys the same fruit.
Many of us do not like the prospect of accepting that our lives have been made easier via some defect in the system. We like to believe that we made it on our own and everyone else should, too. But denying that privilege exists in the first place is yet another assumption we subconsciously allow to benefit ourselves.
We will soon learn what really happened leading up to the tragic death of Ahmaud Arbery. Hopefully, whether we agree or disagree with the verdict, we will have seen justice served equally for all parties involved.