So #CandaceOwens went from calling Arbery a "repeat burglar" (burglary is a felony) known to be such—with proof—to the men who hunted and killed him to calling him a onetime trespasser (a noncriminal violation without posted signage) in seconds flat.
The Devil's advocate indeed.
The Devil's advocate indeed.
PS/ Having tried felonies for years, one thing I know is that politics should stay far away from criminal justice—any case, any time—until all the evidence is in and a verdict rendered. *Unless* intervention is needed to demand a full and fair investigation in the first instance.
PS2/ @RealCandaceO is a performer—so there'll always be a kernel of value in whatever she turns into a turd sandwich. Here she ignores that outrage was needed to demand an investigation in favor of focusing on the fact that too many non-experts comment on criminal cases pretrial.
PS3/ The one thing Owens said that is true for *all* criminal cases—not this one more or less than any other—is that *anyone* (especially non-experts) commenting conclusively on a criminal case pretrial is almost guaranteed to get a million critical facts wrong and look foolish.
PS4/ But because Owens' cultural role is essentially to be a pilot boat for racists hoping to enter public discourse, she ignores that in cross-racial cases in the South there's *often* a need for public moral outrage just to get law enforcement to conduct a *real* investigation.
PS5/ If Owens were aiming at being a public intellectual rather then a fig leaf for racists, there'd have been a means and a time and a place and a context for her to make a broader point about how we politicize crime in America. This wasn't the means or time or place or context.
