Calls Black Tenant "Walrus," Gets Life in Prison

Appeals Court Affirms Floyd-Era Double Standard, Dooms Georgia Family

Greg McMichael and grandson

“There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” So said Jesse Jackson in one of his rare honest moments.

Jackson entertained a thought that is forbidden to white people. This double standard becomes obvious in reading the decision by the 11th Circuit, US Court of Appeals, regarding the federal convictions of Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan. The three were involved in the 2020 shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a chronic thief with serious mental health issues, two undeniable truths the juries were not allowed to know.

In a Georgia state court, as I have written previously, the three defendants were convicted of murdering Arbery and given life sentences—for the McMichaels, life without parole. Not content with that perverse decision and hellish sentence, the Biden DOJ tried the three men again on federal charges. Both trials took place during the unhinged few years following George Floyd’s death.

At the heart of the federal charges was the allegation that these three men engaged in the kind of pattern recognition implicit in the Jackson quote above. In truth, however, they had much more evidence to suspect Arbery of criminal intent than Jackson did his anonymous stalkers. Jackson’s perception was purely race-based. The McMichaels had a history with Arbery.

Arbery takes a break from jogging to case a neighbor’s home under construction

Threat assessments become potentially criminal only if a white person assesses the intent of a black person. To make the case against a white defendant the FBI will go to great lengths to prove his racial animus. After the 2012 Florida shooting of Trayvon Martin, for instance, the FBI interviewed some 35 friends and neighbors of “white Hispanic” George Zimmerman hoping to catch him in some incorrect remark. The FBI does no such investigation if the accused is black..

The Feds did not succeed with Zimmerman, but in the wake of George Floyd’s death, they tried harder with Bryan and the McMichaels. Reportedly, they grilled one friend of Travis’s 17 times, reportedly threatening him with prison if he did not cooperate. Greg McMichael proved a tougher nut to crack than son Travis. At 64, he had a more limited social media history to ransack.

In the final analysis, the Feds did not care what Greg said or didn’t say. Hounded by the mobs, they just needed scalps. Lest I be accused of cherry picking, here is the complete appeals court summation of the racial history of Greg McMichael, a recently retired grandfather and a veteran with a 29-year career in law enforcement:

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“The government presented the following evidence of Gregory’s racial animus. In response to being told that a civil rights leader had died, Gregory stated, ‘I wish that guy had been in the ground years ago” and that “[a]ll these blacks are nothing but trouble; I wish they would all die.” He then proceeded to “rant against black people.’ Additionally, one of Gregory’s former neighbors testified that, during a conversation, Gregory referred to one of his former tenants as a “walrus” because she was “big and black.” He bragged that when she was late to pay rent, he would cut her air conditioning off, and when he did that “[y]ou should have seen how fast her big fat black ass came with the rent check.” Gregory also posted a meme on Facebook with a quote stating, “White Irish slaves were treated worse than any race in the US. When was the last time you heard an Irishman bitching about how the world owes them a living. You won’t. . . The Irish are not p[*]ssies looking for free shit. . .” (ellipses in original).”

“The government also presented posts and comments from Gregory’s Facebook account tending to show Gregory’s support for vigilantism. For example, Gregory shared two memes on his Facebook page. The first was a picture of a woman holding a shotgun and a baby, with a caption that said, ‘A gun in the hand is worth more than the entire police force on the phone.’ The second was a photo of a white man pointing a handgun with the following quote, “If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore, what he must be taught is to fear his victim.’ And Gregory commented on a post about a stolen surfboard, stating ‘Maybe I will catch the sorry SOB up here in Ga. We still hang horse and board thieves up here. Woe be unto the sticky-fingered bastard!’

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Travis and son in happier times

This was the sum of Greg’s thought crimes. He was not unhappy to learn about the death of a so-called “civil rights” leader, a pointless charge given the emptiness of the term “civil rights” in the Jackson-Sharpton era. He also stood accused of “ranting” about black people, calling a deadbeat black tenant a “walrus,” and lamenting the fate of Irish indentured servants. What the Feds did not do was offer any evidence that Greg used a racial slur or mistreated a person of color during his lengthy law enforcement career. If the Feds had such evidence, they surely would have used it.

As to vigilantism, the evidence argued for Greg’s innocence on the bias charges. None of the memes showed a black person or even implied as much. In the spirit of pattern recognition, he likely imagined the sticky-fingered surfboard thief to be white, surfing not being a thing in the hood. Then, too, at the time of Arbery’s death, a citizen’s arrest was perfectly legal in Georgia.

Of note, Greg was on the phone with a police dispatcher when Arbery attacked Travis, not exactly a vigilante move. He did not shoot Arbery or urge his son to do so. Nor did the two have any intention of holding Arbery. They merely wanted to delay his exit until the police arrived. In past incidents, Arbery had fled the scene on foot as soon as the neighbors spotted his mischief and before the police arrived. He was no more a “jogger” than John Wayne Gacy was a clown. Jogging was Arbery’s M.O.

Despite the fact that a local prosecutor chose not to press charges against any of the men and that Greg handed over the video shot by Bryan thinking it exculpatory, a federal judge sentenced Greg to life imprisonment plus seven years—this on top of his life without parole on state charges—and the appeals court affirmed.

“If a reasonable jury could have found [the defendant] guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, then we cannot overturn the jury’s determination,” opined the appeals court, citing a past decision. In racially charged cases during the years 2020-2024, there were no reasonable juries. Ask Derek Chauvin.

“Mob law does not become due process of law by securing the assent of a terrorized jury,” said famed jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes . Holmes was speaking of another Georgia case, the 1915 murder conviction of Jewish plant supervisor Leo Frank. Much had changed in Georgia over the century past, but human nature did not.