Ahmaud Arbery's Killers Fear For Lives As Hate Crime Conviction Upheld

Save the kkkrocadile tears!

Source: KEREM YUCEL / Getty

Once again, cowardly wannabe klansmen can dish out the violence, but they can’t take it. Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William “Roddy” Bryan is still trying to weasel their way out of consequences for the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery. The three men were sentenced to life in prison for the murder in January. TMZ reports a federal judge upheld their February hate crime conviction. Now Travis McMichael is seeking leniency with the complexion for protection catchphrase: he fears for his life.

Where have we heard that line before? Travis and his father, Gregory, weren’t scared when they formed a lynch mob with their neighbor. The McMichaels grabbed their guns and hopped in their pickup truck to hunt down Arbery. Bryan joined in on the bloodthirsty good ol’ boy behavior, recording the chase and fatal shooting on his cell phone.

Suddenly, life behind bars reminded them that they’re softer than white bread. Why else would they be so threatened by a Black man just going for a run? U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood had no sympathy for the cold-blooded killers. She denied their motion to overturn the hate crime verdict, citing their long history of racist jokes and violent rants on social media.

“All these blacks are nothing but trouble; I wish they would all die,” Gregory McMichael previously posted online.

Scared Straight Too Late

Those words and that tragic day in 2020 are returning to haunt the men. According to CNN, Travis McMichael’s attorney Amy Lee Copeland filed a petition for her client to stay in federal custody. After pulling the trigger, he’s the one scared of being hunted down in the Georgia state prison system.

He claims he received thatreats that people “are ‘waiting for him,’ that he should not go into the yard, and that correctional officers have promised a willingness (whether for pay or for free) to keep certain doors unlocked and backs turned to allow inmates to harm him.”

The memo says over 800 threats against McMichael flooded in by January 2022, when he stopped counting.

“His concern is that he will promptly be killed upon delivery to the state prison system for service of that sentence: He has received numerous threats of death that are credible in light of all circumstances, and the government has a pending investigation into the Georgia DOC’s ability to keep inmates safe in a system where murder rates have tripled,” according to the filing.

Copping Pleas Like The Cops

The apple doesn’t fall far from the rotten racist tree. Greg filed a similar plea for leniency on Monday. Not only did the 66-year-old request to stay in federal custody for fear of violence in Georgia prisons. The AP also reports he compared himself to racist killer cops to justify a shorter sentence.

“It involved the gruesome and altogether avoidable death of a young man whose last moments are preserved forever in haunting video. It showcased repugnant text messages and postings that displayed a racist bent that, even after decades of societal progress, still clings to some,” attorney A.J. Balbo wrote.

Balbo argued that McMichael’s blatantly racist fantasies and deadly violence are no worse than a cop’s. The filing asserts McMichael deserves no more time for a hate crime than Derek Chauvin. The former cop who killed George Floyd pleaded guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights in exchange for a 21-year-sentence.

Balbo doubled down on the cop comparison, claiming that McMichael “never received any complaints in his personnel file for racism, harassment, or police brutality” in his 30 years of working with law enforcement. Maybe that’s because other corrupt racists covered his tracks like Jackie Johnson. The former Glynn County district attorney was charged with obstruction of justice for refusing to arrest the three killers.

“Granting these men their preferred choice of confinement would defeat me. It gives them one last chance to spit in my face,” said Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother.