OPINION | Is Ahmad Arbery a criminal? A Georgia deputy thinks so and resigned over it
FACTS FIRST | OPINION SECOND
FACTS FIRST | OPINION SECOND
FACTS:
A Georgia deputy has resigned over a comment he made about Ahmaud Arbery on a local TV station’s Facebook page.
Ahamud Arbery was shot and killed last February by Travis McMichael. His father Gregory and a family friend, William “Roddy” Bryan, were also present that day. All three men were convicted of multiple crimes and sentenced to life in prison. Their legal woes aren’t over as they all face federal hate crimes charges with an impending trial on February 7.
The country is divided over the outcome: some believe that Arbery was a victim of a hate crime while others believe he got what he deserved.
The now-former Georgia deputy, Paul Urhahn, is part of the latter group.
When WGXA posted the trial results on its Facebook page on Friday, January 7, Urhahn expressed his sentiment via a comment on that very same post: “That criminal arbery still got the death penalty though.”
Urhahn then deleted his comment, but not before it was screenshotted and sent to his superiors.
By Monday January 10, Urhahn was suspended from the Houston County Sheriff’s Office without pay and faced termination.
Sheriff Cullen Talton detailed a letter to Urhahn explaining the multiple policy violations that resulted in Urhahn’s suspension and looming termination. The violations are:
Page 5 (4A) - An officer must at all times, on and off duty, conduct him/herself in a manner which does not bring discredit to the department or county.
Page 5 (4B) - Conduct unbecoming of an officer shall include that conduct
(2) Which has a tendency to destroy public respect for employees and confidence in the department.
According to the letter, Urhahn had 10 days to appeal the decision lest his employment end on January 20, 2022, at 5pm.
Instead, he resigned.
Urhahn claims the post was made during his “off-duty time while exercising my Constitutional Right to Free Speech” and chose not to appeal. Though grateful for the opportunity to serve for 20 years, he stated that he can’t continue with the sheriff's office because "to do so would be against who I am and what I believe in."
He also said that the recent happenings are “a very unfortunate series of events” and he disagreed with the “manner in which they were handled.”
Now on to the fun part: my opinion!
OPINION: Is Ahamud Arbery a Criminal who got what he deserved or is Travis McMichael a Murderer?
Is Ahmaud actually a criminal? Did the McMichaels and their buddy really deserve what they got? Or were they simply victims of cancel culture, punished for their white skin?
I usually try not to weigh in on this sort of thing because there are so many nuances and variables. But this particular case I feel is actually straightforward.
We are only going to look at two pieces of evidence: the video evidence taken by William Bryan and Travis McMichael’s testimony.
That may seem contradictory to what I just said about intricacies, but stick with me here.