Bill Torpy missing the point by a mile on race and history. He writes that calling Arbery& #39;s killing a lynching is "hyperbole," since lynchings are "purposeful act[s] of a mob tracking down and killing a victim." That& #39;s not only inaccurate, but harmful. https://www.ajc.com/news/local/opinion-lynching-but-arbery-case-certainly-raises-those-ghosts/K846lGdrNUmBFG3zZskYFO/">https://www.ajc.com/news/loca...

As the work done by @buriedtruthspod /Emory& #39;s Georgia Cold Cases ( https://coldcases.emory.edu/ )">https://coldcases.emory.edu/">... shows, racially motivated killings don& #39;t always look like the stereotype of the angry mob—though there are certainly many that do. But emphasizing that stereotype elides much of history.

Take the case of Clarence Pickett, a Black preacher killed in Columbus, Ga. in 1957. FBI documents show that he was beaten in jail by one police officer after "talking back;" he died from his injuries days later. https://coldcases.emory.edu/baby-they-done-killed-me-the-troubled-life-and-brutal-death-of-clarence-pickett/">https://coldcases.emory.edu/baby-they...

Other officers chose not to intervene, or provide Pickett medical attention. (When Pickett later went to a doctor, his symptoms were ignored.) One police officer beat him, and a system of white supremacy, with multiple actors, led to his death—not a mob with pitchforks.

Torpy writes: "The incident wasn’t a lynching...But it seems to be a remnant of that—ham-handed stupidity and aggression probably driven by race and a man who wanted to be a neighborhood hero." Read lynching history, and you might see "stupidity" and "aggression" in many cases.

It doesn& #39;t change the context—that extrajudicial killings such as these occur within a legacy and system of white supremacy. What else might we call this lineage?