Letters: Arbery verdict still not justice, merely accountability

Florida Times-Union
·1 min read

The Ahmaud Arbery trial is over, the guilty verdicts are in and everyone is pleased that justice has been served. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy too. But it’s actually not justice — it’s merely accountability.

What might justice look like?

  • Three white men NOT assuming a black man in their neighborhood is a criminal.

  • Three white men NOT thinking it is their right to hunt him down and kill him.

  • The police and the district attorney NOT taking three white men’s stories as truth without investigating the murder when it happened.

  • NOT taking almost three months before anyone was arrested and only after incessant pressure from Arbery’s family and friends, the press, the release of the video footage to the public and the involvement of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Thus, we shouldn’t be patting ourselves on the back just yet; justice for people of color in this country is still a long way off.

Heather Montanye, Atlantic Beach

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Letters: Arbery verdict still not justice, merely accountability