This post was originally meant to deal with two stories. For the moment, I can only recall one.
How did Julian Conley get in this situation?
After Rayshard Brooks died at a certain Wendy’s in Atlanta — an event about which the just-said is the sum total of all I know — armed men; let’s face it, armed black men; took control of an area nearby, and have essentially camped there ever since. Other than seethe hostility toward the entire world, their goals and activities are unknown to me. Nor do I know the size or shape of the area they’ve occupied. The parking lot to be mentioned shortly is a half mile from that Wendy’s.
Eight-year-old Secoriea Turner was a passenger in a car that attempted to pull into a parking lot that had been barricaded. As the car approached the barricade, one or more people fired one or more guns, and the child was shot and killed.
Police obtained surveillance video of events at or near the time and place of the killing. One portion of one video showed 19-year-old Julian Conley nearby carrying a gun. When he turned himself in, he said through his lawyer that he would not cooperate with authorities; and so, the lawyer said, he was charged with felony murder.
His story is that he did not fire his gun, but rather four men, whom he either can’t or won’t identify, did fire at the car.
The attorney said “Conley was armed that day because he has a constitutional right to carry a weapon in public.” Well, he certainly has that right, but that doesn’t answer the question.
He’s in a situation now substantially of his own creation.
He chose to go there — he had no need to — to a place full of armed, hostile strangers where no life-affirming activity is taking place.
He went armed — he had no need to.
He is defiant toward the authorities. Well, I guess, that’s his choice.
They’re all his choices.
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