I read the review for the soon to be released ‘Rodham’ in Time Magazine. 

Beyond the obvious that this fiction novel is very intriguing it depresses me no end that Hillary is the woman who should be sitting in the Oval Office right now.

Were it not for the Electoral College, the feverish Fox ‘Fake’ News crowd and the  MAGA storm troopers there would be a competent, shrewd and intelligent woman leading America during the Pandemic.

New York Times 5.16.2020

This play has always rattled around in my conscience.  When it was on stage in the 1960’s I heard about, was aware of its story line and wasn’t shocked by the subject matter.  The Vatican’s complicity with the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.

Governments, culturual institutions and various religions all turned a deaf ear to what was happening in Nazi Germany. It was only after the obliteration of Nazi Germany and the horrors the Hitler regime were fully known to the world that the collaboration and compliticty of people and institutions saw the light of day.

The Deputy is just one story amongst many chronicling abhorrent and inexplicable human behavior.

Deutsche Welle 5.14.2020

German playwright Rolf Hochhuth, who has died at the age of 89, became famous for his work addressing Pope Pius XII’s indifference to Hitler’s extermination of the Jews, which stirred up international controversy.

In The Deputy, Hochhuth looks into the inaction of the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII, (shown above) during the Holocaust. “A diplomat has to see and remain silent,” says the character of Pope Pius XII, the “deputy” of Christ on earth.

Born on April 1, 1931, Rolf Hochhuth had just turned 14 when the Americans invaded his hometown of Eschwege. It was a significant experience for the boy, who would later deal with National Socialism in his works.

In the 1960s, Hochhuth became one of Germany’s main representatives of so-called documentary theater — plays which combined facts from extensive research with fictional elements.

Rolf Hochhuth died on May 13, 2020

He was only 26 when he wrote the play that would make him famous: The Deputy, A Christian Tragedy. The publishing house, however, kept the play on hold for years before avant-garde theater director Erwin Piscator decided to stage it. It premiered on the Freie Volksbühne stage in West Berlin in February 1963, making the author world-famous.

Within the same year, the explosive play was produced again at different theaters in West Germany, as well as in Denmark, Finland, France, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, where it was performed in London by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Explosive accusations against the Vatican

In her essay from 1964, The Deputy: Guilt by Silence?, Hannah Arendt describes the play as “almost a report, closely documented on all sides, using actual events and real people, reinforced by 65 pages of ‘historical sidelights’ written by Hochhuth and anticipating nearly all arguments that have been raised against it.”

But many experts and Church authorities obviously didn’t agree with Hochhuth’s interpretation of the events, charging him of having written an anti-Catholic drama. It became the most controversial work of its time.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, for instance, underlines in its entry on the Holocaust that Hochhuth’s depiction of the Pope during World War II “lacks credible substantiation.”

It goes on to add: “Though Pius’ wartime public condemnations of racism and genocide were cloaked in generalities, he did not turn a blind eye to the suffering but chose to use diplomacy to aid the persecuted. It is impossible to know if a more forthright condemnation of the Holocaust would have proved more effective in saving lives, though it probably would have better assured his reputation.”

For Arendt, the facts presented in the play were not the elements in dispute, as it had been historically established that the Pope had indeed been informed of the deportation and “resettlement” of the Jews and that he did not raise his voice in protest. In her view, the controversial point at issue was rather: “Is it true, as Hochhuth clearly thinks, that the Vatican would not have been silent ‘had there been a better Pope’?”

Still a burning question

The Deputy has since been produced in theaters in more than 80 cities worldwide, and the play has been translated into more than 20 languages.

In 2002, Greek-French director Costa-Gavras based his film Amen on Hochhuth’s play. The film, starring Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Kassovitz and Ulrich Mühe, added more emphasis on the equally guilty passivity of the Allied powers, in particular the United States, through the character of the US ambassador to Italy who hid behind the passivity of the Vatican.

Why the Allies and the Catholic Church did so little to prevent the Holocaust even if world leaders knew about it remains an explosive question to this day.

Now researchers might come up a better understanding of Pius XII’s role during the Holocaust, as the Vatican opened its archives to historians last March.

Following the news of Hochhuth’s passing on Wednesday, Germany’s Central Council of Jews paid tribute to the author, stating that he had been a “courageous taboo-breaker” who “touched off an overdue debate in Germany” about the role of the Church during the Nazi period.

Read more: The ratlines: What did the Vatican know about Nazi escape routes?

https://www.dw.com/en/why-the-1963-holocaust-play-the-deputy-was-so-explosive/a-53437162

The two men accused of killing Ahmaud Abery in Georgia last February claim they were trying to complete a ‘Citzen’s Arrest.’  Now they are  charged with murder and aggravated assault.  The US Justice Department is investigating this cold blooded killing as a hate crime.

A ‘Citizen’s Arrest is equally as traumatic for the person who is subject to its abuse. Ahmaud Arbery lost his life. His family and friends will be grief stricken forever.

Wall Street Journal 5.13.2020

Defendants in Georgia case claim shooting happened during botched ‘citizen’s arrest,’ a concept that dates to the Middle Ages.

Accused murderers Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael

The uproar over the shooting death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia is focusing fresh attention on the powers and dangers of private citizens taking law enforcement into their own hands.

Attempting a citizen’s arrest can be risky and expose intervening arresters to civil liability—for false arrest or personal injuries—or criminal sanction.

Under the doctrine of citizen’s arrest, private citizens in limited circumstances are allowed to assume the role of police and detain suspected criminals until they can be committed to custody. The legal concept traces back to the Middle Ages in England when local constables acting in the name of the king would cry out for assistance in apprehending a malefactor.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, were taken into custody Thursday evening and charged with murder and aggravated assault of Mr. Arbery, a black man.

The arrests of the two white men came more than 10 weeks after the shooting, prompted by the release of a graphic video showing the fatal encounter. Civil-rights activists, lawmakers and the Georgia Attorney General have called for a federal investigation into the handling of the case, with the U.S. Justice Department weighing potential federal hate-crimes charges.

In the video, the McMichaels are seen waiting for Mr. Arbery in a white pickup as he runs along a two-laned street. The McMichaels are armed with a .357 Magnum and a shotgun. After Mr. Arbery runs around the truck, he is approached by Travis McMichael. A struggle ensues, gunshots are heard and Mr. Arbery falls to the ground.

Under the doctrine of citizen’s arrest, private citizens in limited circumstances are allowed to assume the role of police and detain suspected criminals until they can be committed to custody.

The McMichaels told police they pursued Mr. Arbery because he resembled a suspected burglar and that in the course of trying to detain him as part of a citizen’s arrest, Mr. Arbery had violently attacked the son, according to a police report. It couldn’t be determined whether the McMichaels have an attorney.

Attorneys for Mr. Arbery’s family have said he was out jogging in a residential neighborhood outside the city of Brunswick in Glynn County when he was confronted by the McMichaels. Surveillance footage from the day of the shooting appears to show Mr. Arbery wandering around a residential construction site. The attorneys said Mr. Arbery wasn’t armed and didn’t take part in any felony, calling the killing an unjustified murder.

Most states, including Georgia, have statutes codifying the scope of citizen’s arrest, while others base the right on common law.

Georgia’s law states that a private person may arrest an offender “if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge.” The rules are broader for felonies. For more serious crimes, a citizen doesn’t need to witness the offense to pursue and detain the suspect but must have at least reasonable and probable cause to believe that the offender committed a felony and is trying to escape from lawful detention.

In making a proper citizen’s arrest, a person can use lethal force if confronted with a deadly threat or if urgently necessary to prevent a forcible felony, such as an armed robbery or murder, according to Georgia judicial rulings.

Ira Robbins, a criminal law professor at American University Washington College of Law, said the facts that have come out so far suggest any justification for the shooting would most likely rely on a claim of self-defense in the course of a proper citizen’s arrest. As a “stand your ground” jurisdiction, Georgia allows someone threatened with great bodily harm to use deadly force to protect themselves against an aggressor without any obligation to retreat from the confrontation.

But if the attempted citizen’s arrest of Mr. Arbery was improper, then the defendants were the initial aggressors and “their self-defense claim would fall like a house of cards,” said Prof. Robbins.

The numbers of citizen’s arrests around the country aren’t known. The most common scenarios involve security guards and store owners detaining shoplifters, or police officers acting without a warrant outside their jurisdictions when in hot pursuit of suspects.

Courts in Georgia have heard numerous disputes involving claims against citizen arresters.

In 2005, for instance, the state’s highest court examined the case of a convenience store owner convicted of murdering a man outside a storage room previously targeted by thieves. On the night in question, the owner and another customer heard voices outside the store and the sound of breaking plywood. Armed with a pistol, the owner yelled halt. After a few minutes of silence, he fired three times, striking the victim in the head on the other side of a plywood covering.

The defendant “did not attempt to restrain the victim; rather, he shot and killed him minutes after commanding him to halt,” stated the Georgia Supreme Court, affirming the conviction. A judge in a concurring opinion noted there was “no evidence from which one can infer that the intruder intended to steal more than $500 worth of beer and thereby commit felony theft.”

Some citizen’s arrests are less controversial. In 2015, a customer at a bank in Cobb County, Ga., noticed a man passing a demand note to a teller and walking out with money. The customer raced to his car, grabbed a handgun and caught up to the suspect before he could escape, ordering him to the ground until police could arrive, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other local reports. The customer was hailed as a good Samaritan.

Write to Jacob Gershman at jacob.gershman@wsj.com

Every Picture (Video) Tells a Story – Ongoing Series

I watched the clip of Trump storming off the lectern after being pointedly questioned by a CBS News reporter. See for yourself.

And this Moron is President??

Daily Beast 5.12.2020

Monday in a Rose Garden, flanked by a giant Bluth family-style banner that declared both that “AMERICA LEADS THE WORLD IN TESTING” and that nobody in the Trump administration knows anybody who is good at graphic design, President Trump took questions from the press on the ongoing disaster that has been his administration’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. CBS News’ Weijia Jiang, referencing the banner, asked “Why does that matter? Why is this a global competition to you if everyday Americans are still losing their lives and we’re still seeing more cases every day?”

The hamsters in the president’s brain huffed and puffed as they raced to their wheels and fired up his Comeback Generator. All of the blood rushed to his head at the same time. This was going to be a good one, as deep within the exhaust-folds of his face, the president’s beady little eyes lit up. “Why don’t you ask China?” he snapped.

Jiang lowered her face mask and followed up by asking why, specifically, Trump would ask her that question. Trump then called on another reporter, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who, in either a shocked or classy move, yielded the microphone to her fellow journalist. Jiang continued to follow up.

Collins then tried to ask her question, and Trump stormed out of the press conference like a real tough guy. It was refreshing to see White House press corps members stand up for each other, or at least give each other space to confront the president’s insistent unreality.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nasty-women-weijia-jiang-and-kaitlan-collins-talk-back-and-trump-runs-away?ref=scroll

Trump has unleashed the violent mob with his obscene attacks on his opponents and policies.  America is now reaping the whirlwind of this incompetent and dangerous man in the White House.

Recently I posted  the New York Federal Reserve Study which likened the Pandemic of 1918 to the current Coronavirus. The Study found ample evidence that the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1920′ and ’30s was a direct result of the 1918 Pandemic.

One could argue the same thing is happening here.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/05/fed-study-1918-pandemic-nazi-party-gains-236530

Fed Pandemic Study 5.5.2020

Detroit Metro Times 5.11.2020

Dozens of angry Michiganders, fueled by conspiracy theories and disinformation about the coronavirus, are promoting violence and mobilizing armed rallies against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Facebook, in violation of the social media company’s policies.

Metro Times gained access to four private Facebook groups that can only be seen by approved members. The pages, which have a combined 400,000 members, are filled with paranoid, sexist, and grammar-challenged rants, with members encouraging violence and flouting the governor’s social-distancing orders.

On Sunday, after being contacted by Metro Times, Facebook removed one of the groups, Michigan United for Liberty, and deleted posts on others for violating the company’s policy against inciting violence. Facebook announced last month that it will remove groups and events that encourage people to defy social-distancing measures. Facebook also is investigating the other groups.

“We removed one group for violating our policies and will remove any other violations as we continue our review,“ a Facebook spokesperson tells Metro Times.

Assassinating Michigan Governor GretchenWhitmer is a common theme among members of the groups. Dozens of people have called for her to be hanged.

“We need a good old fashioned lynch mob to storm the Capitol, drag her tyrannical ass out onto the street and string her up as our forefathers would have,” John Campbell Sr. wrote in a group called “People of Michigan vs. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer,” which had nearly 9,000 members as of Monday morning.

Steve Doxsie had the same idea: “Drag that tyrant governor out to the front lawn. Fit her for a noose.”

“Either President Trump sends in the troops or there is going to be a midnight lynching in Lansing soon,” Michael Smith chimed in.

Others suggested she be shot, beaten, or beheaded.

“Plain and simple she needs to eat lead and send a statement to the rest of the democrats that they are next,” James Greena, of Fennville, wrote.

Chris Rozman said, “She needs her ass beat. Most of these politicians need a good ass whooping. Just. Punch there lights out.”

When someone suggested the guillotine, Thomas Michael Lamphere responded, “Good ol’ fashioned bullets work better, but I like the enthusiasm.”

“Wonder how long till she’s hit with a shotgun blast,” Chris Parrish wrote.

Matthew Woodruff had another idea: “Can we please just take up a collection for an assassin to put that woman from Michigan down,” he asked.

The comments are especially disturbing because some of those calling for violence are planning to attend an armed rally at the Capitol building in Lansing on Thursday. On April 30, hundreds of protesters, some of them heavily armed, descended on the state Capitol during the “American Patriot Rally,” and there were armed protesters as part of “Operation Lansing” on April 15. A two-day rally is also planned for the weekend.

“We could’ve taken over the capital last time if we wanted,” Chris Coffey said. “This was just a display. Next time won’t be!”

“If she thinks the last protest was bad she hasn’t seen anything yet,” DonnaCookie Grady warned.

“We haven’t had any bloodshed yet, but the populous is counting to three, and the other day was two,” Dave Meisenheimer wrote in Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine, which has more than 385,000 members. “Next comes watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants.”

Gordon Chapman says he’s going to the Thursday rally and hopes demonstrators are “armed to the teeth.”

“Voting is too late we need to act now,” Chapman said.

The potential for violence prompted some public officials, including Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, to promote banning firearms from the Capitol building.

“There are legislators who are wearing bulletproof vests to go to work,” Whitmer told ABC News last week. “No one should be intimidated by someone who’s bringing in an assault rifle into their workplace.”

https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/05/11/whitmer-becomes-target-of-dozens-of-threats-on-private-facebook-groups-ahead-of-armed-rally-in-lansing?utm_source=feature&utm_medium=home&utm_campaign=hpfeatures&utm_content=HomeTopFeature

Marijuana is now being studied for its potential to resist Covid-19. A subtext of the following story involves the Sisters of the Valley, a group of “Nuns” who don’t belong to any Order of the Catholic Church.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.10.2020

Cannabis researchers in Canada say the plant-based drug may provide resistance to SARS-CoV-2. Their preliminary findings are part of broader research into the use of medicinal cannabis in treating cancer.

And, now, preliminary research is emerging out of Canada that certain strains of the psychoactive drug cannabis may also increase resistance to the coronavirus. If the study, which is not yet peer reviewed, can be verified, it would appear that cannabis works in a similar way to nicotine.

“The results on COVID-19 came from our studies on arthritis, Crohn’s disease, cancer and others,” says Dr. Igor Kovalchuck, a professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Lethbridge, in an email to DW.

Based near the town of Merced in California’s Central Valley, which produces over half of the fruit, vegetables and nuts grown in the United States, the Sisters of the Valley grow and harvest their own plants – cannabis plants.

Despite the moniker, the nuns don’t belong to any order of the Catholic Church. “We’re against religion, so we’re not a religion. We consider ourselves Beguine revivalists, and we reach back to pre-Christian practices,” says Sister Kate, who founded the sisterhood in 2014.

Sister Kate adopted the nun persona after she took part in an Occupy Wall Street protest in 2011 dressed as a Catholic nun, a look that led her to be known by protesters as “Sister Occupy.”

Members turn the hemp into cannabis-based balms and ointments, which they say have the power to improve health and well-being. Sister Kate reports that the group had roughly $750,000 (€700,000) in sales last year, the most since it started selling products in January 2015.

More than two dozen US states have legalized some form of marijuana for medical or recreational use, but the drug remains illegal at the federal level. California legalized recreational use of marijuana in November 2016. “We’ve gotten a few hate calls but, by and far, the Catholics understand what we’re doing,” Sister Kate says.

“The thing Trump has done for us is put a fire under our butts to get launched in another country,” says Sister Kate. “Our response to Trump is Canada.” The group makes online sales to Canada, and hopes to launch an operation there in two months.

https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-the-tide-is-coming-for-medicinal-cannabis/a-53371342

Ignoring the fact that nearly 80,000 Americans have perished from the Covid-19 these people, who can charitably be described as Lunkheads and Luddites, rallied at San Francisco City Hall demanding that Shelter in Place cease, business places reopen and life return to normal. Whatever that may be.

Good luck with that. This is a Pandemic folks and because of the Moron currently occupying the White House the situation in America will not improve any time soon.

Rather than parade the flag, sing the national anthem and rant their nonsense these people should be marching on Washington to demand the Federal government grow up, stop encouraging dangerous conspiracy theories and do its job.

The photo above shows one of these folks encouraging people to check out http://www.infowars.com. An absolutely scrurrilous website which anyone with an iota of intelligence should disregard.

San Francisco Chronicle 5.9.2020

Supporters of the movement to reopen California by abandoning restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus rallied Saturday in front of San Francisco City Hall, but their numbers were modest and their actions as mellow as the noontime sunshine.

Signs being waved included “SF never even had a curve to flatten” and “We reject your new normal.” They listened to live and recorded versions of the national anthem, cheered when cars driving by honked their horns, and chanted: “USA, USA.”

That stood in stark contrast to recent rallies in Michigan, where some showed up with rifles — and in Sacramento on Saturday, where a cluster of anti-shutdown demonstrations included dozens of people in camouflage uniforms standing in silent protest while California Highway Patrol officers blocked access to the Capitol grounds. The Sacramento Bee reported the group said its members were unarmed and identified themselves as the 2nd Regiment of the California State Militia.

Last week in Sacramento, hundreds of anti-shutdown demonstrators defied a CHP order against state Capitol protests, resulting in 32 arrests and placement of a steel fence around the Capitol grounds.

Despite the growing pressure on Gov. Gavin Newsom to ease restrictions closing most businesses and shutting down public gatherings, though, the movement hasn’t developed a firm foothold in the Bay Area.

Only about 60 people, some from as far away as Sonoma and Santa Cruz, gathered Saturday on Polk Street for a peaceful “Fully Open California” rally sponsored by a conservative group called We Have Rights.

Across Polk Street, about 20 police officers and sheriff’s deputies stood watch.

Some of the demonstrators said they believe the coronavirus is a threat, but that nearly two months of shutdown is enough and that people should be allowed to return to jobs and reopen businesses.

“I think everyone knows it’s a risk and they could get sick,” said Jeff Thomas, who said he works in education in Silicon Valley. “But they should be allowed to make the decision on whether to take that risk themselves.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Dozens-rally-at-City-Hall-to-get-coronavirus-15259299.php#photo-19395612

Germany was a leader in locking down the country and only loosening restrictions when the number of Covid-19 cases dropped dramatically.

Now, just days after loosening the restrictions, the number of newly reported cases of Covid-19 has jumped. Will the German authorities take swift action to reimpose strict Shelter in Place measures?

If the German reaction to the initial Covid-19 outbreak is indicative, look for another round of Shelter in Place. This will not go down well with the Germans, like those who took to the streets on Saturday, demanding a further loosening of Shelter in Place.

Stay tuned.

Deutsche Welle 5.9.2020

Thousands of protesters slam isolation measures

Demonstrators gathered in Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart and other German cities to decry coronavirus-triggered restrictions imposed by the government. A right-wing protester attacked a team of reporters in Dortmund.

Over 3,000 people rallied in Munich and thousands more gathered in Stuttgart and across Germany on Saturday to demand the lifting of restrictions ordered by the German authorities. Many of the protesters defied the guidelines which call for a limited number of participants and for social distancing to be maintained during such events.

The protesters accuse politicians and medical workers of spreading panic and infringing on the population’s rights with the prolonged lockdown. Some of the rallies included anti-vaccination activists.

Germany has been slowly easing restrictions introduced in mid-March, with states opening various businesses and public sites starting this Monday. However, a new report by the country’s official Robert Koch Institute indicated a steep rise in infection rates on Saturday, possibly prompting the politicians to respond with even more caution.

In Munich, police used loudspeakers to urge the protesters to minimize the infection risk. While the participants failed to heed the instructions, the police decided not to disperse the gathering “on the grounds of proportionality” as the participants were not violent. However, the authorities dispersed a separate right-wing demonstration which gathered around 25 people in the same city, according to the Germany’s public broadcaster ARD.

The Stuttgart event also saw thousands of participants take part. Most of them respected the distancing rules, according to the police. Two separate protests were recorded in Berlin, including a smaller one in front of Germany’s parliament that ended with the security forces detaining around 30 protesters in order to determine their identity. The larger one saw hundreds of people gather at the Alexanderplatz, in spite of the order which limits the maximum of 50 protesters per rally.

Journalists attacked — again

About 150 people, including a group of known right wing extremists, also gathered in the western city of Dortmund, according to the DPA news agency. One of the right-wingers insulted and subsequently attacked a team of reporters, lightly injuring one of them, according to the police. The 23-year-old was arrested. This assault follows an attack of on a crew working for the satirical Heute-Show at a similar protest on May 1 in Berlin, and a separate attack on another team of journalists on May 6 in the same city.

Brandenburg Gate before the Pandemic May 2017 – Photo Liz Heidhues

Over two-thirds of German residents support the need for social distancing, according to the latest research published by the official BfR Institute. However, this still marks a sharp drop from the numbers reported in March, when 92% supported the restrictions.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-thousands-of-protesters-slam-isolation-measures/a-53382891

This latest story of racist violence in America is only just now getting attention.

On February 23, 2020 an ex-cop and his son gunned down a 25 – year old black man in the American State of Georgia.

It was only when a graphic video of the cold blooded murder surfaced that State law enforcement authorities stepped in and arrested the father and son.

In custody: Gregory McMichael above and son Travis below.

Excerpted from Daily Mail UK – 5.7.2020

A four-vehicle convoy from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation pulled up outside the home of Gregory and Travis McMichael at 7.50pm Thursday to take the men into custody on charges of murder and aggravated assault.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a statement shortly after the swoops saying the two men were arrested on suspicion of murder and aggravated assault.

And in a fresh twist, the agency said it was also investigating threats made towards its officers and people involved in the investigation.

The dramatic arrests come days after leaked cellphone video of the McMichaels’ fatal confrontation with Ahmaud Arbery on February 23 made headlines nationwide, sparking fevered outrage and demands for justice.

Mr. Arbery would have been 26 on May 8, 2020

The shocking footage showed the two men ‘ambushing’ Arbery as he tried to run past their pickup truck, the younger McMichael getting into a physical fight with Arbery before shooting him with a shotgun.

The father and son were initially not arrested after they claimed they thought Arbery was a burglar after a spate of thefts in their area, and that he attacked them when they tried to make a citizen’s arrest.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation on Tuesday after a graphic video of the murder emerged.

Two days later, around a dozen GBI officers equipped with bulletproof vests and assault rifles descended on the McMichaels’ two-bedroom property in suburban Brunswick to execute arrest warrants.

They entered the house just before 8pm and emerged minutes later with Gregory McMichael, 64, in handcuffs.

Wearing a scruffy black shirt, cap and jeans the retired cop stared straight ahead and ignored questions from DailyMail.com as he was placed in a police car.

His son Travis, 34, emerged moments later without a struggle, wearing a checked shirt, cap and jeans.

He said nothing as he was led to a vehicle in handcuffs.

Locals emerged from their homes to watch the dramatic swoop, with two people verbally abusing a DailyMail.com photojournalist, calling him ‘scum’ and ordering him to leave.

Investigators were at the house for about ten minutes before the left as abruptly as they had arrived.

A middle-aged woman carrying a young child walked out of the $280,000 family house, looked up and down the street, before going to a neighbor’s home.

Attorney S. Lee Merritt, who is representing Arbery’s parents Wanda Jones Cooper and Marcus Arbery Sr, told DailyMail.com they had no advance warning about the dramatic arrests Thursday night.

Citizens march demanding Justice

‘They heard about it on the news like everyone else,’ he said.

‘Wanda was extremely relieved but she remains very stoic as she has been since this all started.

‘It’s a huge, huge step but it’s only a first step on a very long road to justice.’

Merritt said he was heartened by the fact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had stepped up after the original team of police and prosecutors assigned to the case ‘failed in their duty’ to make arrests.

‘A case like this breeds mistrust within the community. It hurts the people involved, it hurts the law enforcement community, the prosecutorial community, the black community, everyone,’ he added.

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she believes her son, a former football player, was just jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood before he was killed on a Sunday afternoon.

Gregory McMichael told police he suspected the runner was the same man filmed by a security camera committing a break-in. He and his grown son, Travis, grabbed guns and began a pursuit in the truck.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8299259/Two-white-men-shot-killed-unarmed-black-jogger-Ahmaud-Arbery-charged-MURDER.html?ito=push-notification&ci=14685&si=7511025