had this segment back then. the new york times even kind of called mike brown, when was still in ferguson a thug. we re saying that ahmad was murdered, these are killers. i have hope in that. i think people should remember the march towards justice in america in the world isn t a specific point on the map you re going to reach, eight daily practice. every day i do see more and more people showing up for black life, in fighting for justice. i think the arbery family spoke about that a lot at the end of the trial, that people did show up for them. that s where i find hope that we do see people showing up and naming it. in the arbery case this was a lynching in many ways and now that justice has been found, it s great for america. i made the point on twitter earlier in the week when i saw the verdict wondering how many ahmaud arberys that were out
fault lines particularly around race. i want to play some of the arguments made by laura hogue, the defense attorney for one of the mcmichaels. watch this moment. turning ahmaud arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought ahmaud arbery to the shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails. so a very disturbing moment there. she was clearly playing on racist tropes. what do those type of ignorant comments say about the state of our criminal justice system? was that a dog whistle message to the mostly white jury? was she thinking that if she played this racist stereotype and played on these racist tropes she could perhaps invoke something out of this white
it was a fool s errand to watch it. i did watch the closing arguments. again, we re seeing a case that is incredibly bipartisan that really is its own dog whistle to the world to say we as white people that don t believe that black lives matter can be protected and that this is our right but black people don t have the right to breathe or walk down the street or jog. so the rittenhouse case in conversation with the ahmaud case is the moment to look at the symbolism to tell us about this american moment right now. speaking of where and how we began this, can you believe it s been nearly ten years since the killing of trayvon martin that we mentioned at the top of the segment? you can say that was the beginning of the black lives matter movement. what message do you have for people after the rittenhouse verdict and arbery s killers? are you finding any reasons for optimism? you know, i am honestly. i know we re having conversations like this. ten years ago we would not have
case. charges were filed against the original district attorney in charge of the investigation of arbery s death. a grand jury indicted former brunswick d.a. jacky johnson on a felony charge of violating her oath of office. the indictment alleges that she used her position to discourage the police from making arrests in arbery s killing. so don t let this verdict fool you into thinking that we ve somehow reached the end point of the criminal justice reform movement in this country. there is still so much work to be done. joining me now is opinion columnist zach stafford. it s great to see you. great to have you with us. let s talk a little bit about this verdict. what was your reaction to the guilty verdicts for arbery s killers, even with all the video evidence that emerged. did the verdict surprise you and did they bring you a sense of relief, as they did for me? yeah, you are know, it surprised me because we never see verdicts like this. we rarely see these verdicts they re very,
charges were filed against the original district attorney in charge of ahmaud arbery s death on the charge of violating her oath of office. the charge was that she discouraged arrest of the three men who killed arbery. there is still so much work left to be done. let s talk about this verdict. what was your reaction to the guilty verdicts for arbery s killers? did the verdict surprise you and bring you a sense of release, as they did for me? it surprised me because we never see verdi like this.