Newly-released bodycam footage shows Ahmaud Arbery getting arrested in 2017 for trying to steal a 65inch TV from a Walmart - which led to five years of probation

Newly released bodycam footage shows the December 2017 arrest of Ahmaud Arbery for shoplifting a TV from a Georgia Walmart.  
Police released video Tuesday of Arbery's December 1, 2017, arrest outside a Brunswick Walmart store on shoplifting charges. 
The video shows Arbery being stopped with three friends and being ordered to sit on the ground. 
Arbery goes to stand up whilst being quizzed by police and is then ordered to lie face-down and is handcuffed and arrested.  


In the newly released footage, the officer can be heard asking the group about a 65-inch TV.  
'TV? What? We don't have any TV,' Arbery states.
'What about the 65-inch TV?' the cop says.
'Sixty-five-inch TV?' Arbery says.
After getting the age of the group, the officer asks them to all sit down.  
'Take a seat for what?' Arbery responds. 'I don't know nothing about no TV. … I don't steal no TV.'
A man then approaches the group and suggest that Arbery attempted to wheel the large television out of the store.  
'What TV?' Arbery asks, before motioning toward the store. 'The TV is in there.' 
Arbery attempts to get up, telling the officer that he has a receipt for the purchases he made. But officers instead detain Arbery and place him in a squad car. 
The group are then taken back to the Walmart as the clip comes to a close. 
Court records show Arbery pleaded guilty to trying to steal a television and was sentenced to five years on probation. 
The slain jogger's family have said that his previous charges are unrelated to his death. 
The footage was shared online on Tuesday and the Associated Press reported that it had been released by police.  
The footage comes a day after police bodycam footage was released showing officers in Georgia trying to use a taser on Ahmaud Arbery while his hands were up and he was unarmed in 2017 however the Taser did not work.  
Three years before Arbery, 25, was shot dead by a white former cop and his son while jogging in February, he had a tense encounter with police officers in Glynn County, Georgia.
In November 2017, Officer Micheal Kanago reportedly approached Arbery after he suspected him of using marijuana and questioned why he was sitting alone in his car.
Footage obtained by The Guardian  and released Monday shows Kanago questioning Arbery, who explained that he was relaxing inside his vehicle and rapping over instrumental beats. 
Arbery adds that it's his day off from working at Blue Beacon Truck Wash.  
'You want to know why I'm f****** with you?' Kanago asks, before instructing Arbery to remove his hands from his pocket.
Kanago later claimed to have felt threatened by Arbery and later wrote that 'veins were popping from [Arbery's] chest, which made me feel that he was becoming enraged and may turn physically violent towards me.'
At the time, Kanago requested help from an additional officer.   
'You're bothering me for nothing,' Arbery says to Kanago in bodycam footage. 


Arbery continues to question the officer, who soon admits that the area is well known for drug use and criminal activity.
'Criminal activity? I'm in a f****** park. I work,' Arbery says. 
David Haney, the second officer at the scene, arrives minutes later and yells at Arbery to remove his hands from his pockets, which he did.
That's when Haney tries to use a taser on Arbery. However the taser did not work. 
'I get one day off a week…I'm up early in the morning trying to chill,' Arbery told the officers.
'I'm just so aggravated because I work hard, six days a week.' 
Arbery is eventually released by the officers, but barred from driving his car because his license is expired. 
Lawyers for Arbery's family said the video suggests that the 25-year-old underwent harassment from Glynn County authorities. 
'The same reason that Ahmaud Arbery was killed was the same reason he was stopped in that park. It was the criminalization of blackness itself,' said the family's lawyer Lee Merritt at a press conference Tuesday, WSB-TV reports. 
'This is the standard practice in Georgia,' added Gerald Griggs with Atlanta NAACP. 
Lawyers with Arbery's family had earlier described the incident as 'a situation where Ahmaud was harassed by Glynn county police officers.'
They told The Guardian that there was 'no justifiable reason' for Arbery to be confronted with a taser. 
Additionally, they suggested that the video is proof that Glynn County police have unfairly targeted Arbery in the past.  
'This appears to be just a glimpse into the kind of scrutiny Ahmaud Arbery faced not only by this police department, but ultimately regular citizens like the McMichaels and their posse, pretending to be police officers,' a statement read. 
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Arbery was placed on probation in 2013 for having a gun while at a high school basket ball game. 
Officer Brandon Kondo, a Glynn County police spokesman, said the department 'is not issuing any statements regarding the Ahmaud Arbery case, or previous interactions.' 
He referred any questions to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the shooting investigation. 
Arbery was killed in February by Travis McMichael, 34, and his 64-year-old father, Greg McMichael.  
Gregory and Travis have been jailed on murder charges since May 7.
The elder McMichael, a former police officer, told police he suspected Arbery was responsible for recent break-ins in the neighborhood.
He also said Arbery attacked his son before he was shot.
Arbery's mother has said she believes her son was merely out jogging. 
Newly-released bodycam footage shows Ahmaud Arbery getting arrested in 2017 for trying to steal a 65inch TV from a Walmart - which led to five years of probation Newly-released bodycam footage shows Ahmaud Arbery getting arrested in 2017 for trying to steal a 65inch TV from a Walmart - which led to five years of probation Reviewed by Your Destination on May 20, 2020 Rating: 5

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