I have a saying, “What do you expect, it’s Georgia?”, to reflect upon the hundreds of years of racial injustice in that redneck southern state.
Today, something remarkable happened which begins to restore my faith in humanity: a Georgia jury, composed almost entirely of White people, found three White bullies guilty of the unprovoked murder of a Black man who was jogging down a street.
Will wonders never cease!
Absent video evidence of the crime, the three racist goons (one of whom is an ex-law enforcement officer, and another his son) would have surely “walked”, in my opinion. The three perps would have undoubtedly used the Kyle Rittenhouse excuse (“self defense” while creating a confrontation and shooting someone who was unarmed). Who could prove it didn’t happen that way?
In the Rittenhouse matter, the Wisconsin jury winked at the ruse and exonerated the killings, intent on sending a political message. In Georgia, twelve citizens of the Bible Belt did “what Jesus would have done”…honestly called a spade a spade.
Thank goodness for those upstanding folks, whose Georgian ancestors probably discriminated against Black people and silently approved lynchings. Let’s be real: today’s verdict would never have happened 50 years ago, 25 years ago, or maybe even 10 years ago.
As Bob Dylan said, “The times, they are a changin’”.
Change is not swift, but it is inevitable, particularly since there are video cameras in everyone’s pocket, surveillance cameras in stores and on city streets, and the younger generation is more color blind than previous ones. Stupid people commit crimes and it is now easier to determine “who done it”.
I wonder how those Wisconsin jury members feel today, knowing that they have been shamed by their Georgian peers…that they didn’t have the balls to do the right thing. I wonder how they will feel when Rittenhouse, or a wannabe, kills someone else, expecting a free pass for their homicidal urges.
“What do you expect, it’s Wisconsin?”