Dem Rep. Carter: There Wouldn’t Have Been ‘The Level of Deliberation’ in Arbery Case if Races Were Reversed

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Velshi,” Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA) argued that if the races in the Ahmaud Arbery case were reversed, “there wouldn’t have even been media about it. There would have been a conviction in the media and a conviction in the court and it probably would not have had the level of deliberation.”

Carter said, “[T]he reality is, if you had reversed the roles and that had been three African Americans chasing a white gentleman in a neighborhood and shot him because they thought he was doing something, even though he was unarmed, had no items that suggested that he’d stolen something, there wouldn’t have even been media about it. There would have been a conviction in the media and a conviction in the court and it probably would not have had the level of deliberation. Therein lies the real issue of why the racism and criminal justice reform needs to be fixed. There’s no question — and when I say outlandish, outlandish because this should have been something that was very easy. Yet, for many people, it wasn’t. And if the roles were reversed, it would have been a totally different day.”

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