Vigilante justice doesn’t have a good reputation anywhere. In the South it’s infused with a racial past highlighted by out-and-out murder.

It’s hard to read about the death of Ahmaud Arbery without thinking about that background.

On Feb. 23, Arbery, who is black, was shot to death during a confrontation with two white men in a Brunswick, Ga., suburb. Local police didn’t file charges against the men, a father and adult son named Gregory and Travis McMichael.

The McMichaels said Arbery looked like a man seen on a security camera video of a break-in. They grabbed guns and went to stop him. Arbery fought back and Travis McMichael shot him in self-defense, they said.

According to published reports, Gregory McMichael retired as an investigator for the Brunswick district attorney, so she recused herself. Her replacement, the DA from the adjacent circuit, said he didn’t see grounds for charges, citing the state’s laws on citizen’s arrest, open display of firearms and use of force for self-defense. He later recused himself too because his son has ties to Gregory McMichael.

The third DA on the case didn’t want to press charges either; instead he wanted to let a grand jury decide whether to charge the McMichaels. However, all state grand juries have been suspended due to the coronavirus. The judicial emergency was scheduled to end May 13, but earlier this month the state’s chief justice extended it until June 12.

Someone shot a video of the confrontation in which Arbery died. Last week, it made its way to a Brunswick radio station, who posted it to its website. A national outcry ensued. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was brought in, and its investigators very quickly charged the McMichaels with felony murder.

The fact that our state has citizen arrest laws isn’t a bad thing. They give a private citizen the authority to stop a crime as it happens when no police are nearby. But they have extraordinary potential to be abused.

Southern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Brad Shealy — whose jurisdiction includes Colquitt County — was interviewed by The Valdosta Daily Times after watching the video, and he agreed Arbery’s death did not appear justified.

“They were wanting to do a citizen’s arrest and I don’t know they had sufficient evidence to do a citizen’s arrest and he had the right to resist an illegal arrest,” Shealy said, “so to me, it doesn’t look like a justifiable shooting in this situation because, looking at the video, there’s no deadly force on the young man’s part.”

He added while a person can make a citizen’s arrest, there has to be probable cause the other person committed an offense. 

That’s the same criterion a responding police officer would use. 

Published reports haven’t been clear, but it appears the McMichaels called 911 before trying to stop Arbery. They could easily have driven along, keeping him in sight until officers arrived. They didn’t even have to interact with him.

Police need our help — they need information, they need witnesses who’ll testify, they need support from the community — but they don’t need anyone taking the law into their own hands.

Whether the suspect is black, white or any other color, that has a huge chance to end tragically.