United States: three white men on trial for murder of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery
A protester outside Clynn County Court of Justice, where Ahmaud Arbery's death trial opens, in Brunswick, Ga., October 18, 2021. © Octavio Jones, Reuters
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2 min
One of the cases which initiated the Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice in 2020 returns to the forefront: three white Americans are on trial from this Monday, October 18 for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young Afro- American shot dead in February 2020 while jogging.
Local justice had tried to cover up the case for months, until the video of the drama was widely relayed on social networks.
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With our correspondent in New York,
Loubna Anaki
His portrait had been brandished alongside those of Breonna Taylor and
Georges Floyd, his name chanted by thousands of demonstrators
across the United States: Ahmaud Arbery was 25 years old.
On February 23, 2020, while doing his usual jog in Brunswick, Georgia, the young man was chased by a white pickup and shot dead by one of the occupants.
Travis McMichael and his father, a former police officer, claim to have taken the young man for a burglar active at the time in the neighborhood.
For two months, the police did not make any arrests, until the broadcast, by the Arbery family lawyer, of a video of the tragedy filmed by a third man.
The images then create controversy and provoke demonstrations.
Under pressure, the police eventually arrest Travis McMichael, his father Gregory
, who had long worked for the local prosecutor, as well as the man accompanying them who filmed the altercation.
One year before the midterm elections
The trial which opens on Monday risks being under high tension in this
southern
state
still grappling with its racist past
.
Especially since it begins one year before the mid-term elections.
Democratic President Joe Biden has so far failed to make significant progress on systemic racial violence, including police violence.
This despite having supported the Black Lives Matter movement on numerous occasions, as explained by Corentin Sellin, a specialist in American politics and a columnist for
Les Jours.fr
.
USA: The "bipartisan negotiations" make "no significant progress" in "the field of police violence", explains the specialist Corentin Sellin
Marion Cazanove
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