A Running Start

Rumination on what counts as activism

On Sunday I ran with Maud.

Maud is Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old black man who was shot to death on February 23rd while he was out for a run in a suburban neighborhood in Glynn County, Ga. According to the police report, Arbery jogged past a white man who was standing in his front yard. The man, Gregory McMichael, called out to his son, Travis. They then grabbed their weapons, a .357 magnum revolver and a shotgun, jumped into a truck, and began following Mr. Arbery. Moments later, after a struggle over the shotgun, Mr. Arbery was killed, shot at least twice. Gregory McMichael told the police he thought Mr. Arbery looked like a man suspected in several break-ins in the area.

On May 7th, Gregory McMichael and his son were arrested in connection with the shooting, two days after graphic footage of the incident became public and more than two months after the killing. Both men were charged with murder and aggravated assault.

Additional video has since surfaced from a surveillance camera in the area showing a man, whom a prosecutor identifies as Arbery, briefly entering a home under construction, walking around and leaving shortly before he was shot and killed. Lawyers for Arbery’s family said in a statement that the video “is consistent with the evidence already known to us.”

“[Arbery] stopped by a property under construction where he engaged in no illegal activity and remained for only a brief period,” said a statement…