I haven't said much about the Ahmaud Arbery shooting. It's odd because, among libertarians, I'm disproportionately sympathetic toward police. Obviously, in this case, none of the alleged perpetrators were active police officers. The closest was George McMichael, who is a retired cop.
Let's say you're broken down by the side of the road and 3 guys (say they're black, but it doesn't matter) approach you with guns drawn and visible.
You also have a gun.
You certainly shouldn't fire first, but I don't think anyone would argue that you had no reason to fear for your life -- even if the guys' actual motive is to help you fix your flat.
On the other side, if I'm a part of the group of 3 guys who are actually coming to help you with your car, and my buddies all have guns visible, I'm going to tell them to put their guns away because it's sending entirely the wrong message. I'm also going to be very careful how I approach you, knowing that you're in a vulnerable spot and as a group of 3 guys coming up on you in the dark, you might be suspicious and on high alert.
I'd maintain open body language, make sure my face was visible, and announced myself from across the street in a friendly way -- "Hey man, need a hand?"
This is mostly a "don't be a moron" kind of point.
The context of any interaction changes the way people respond to it. This isn't exactly a groundbreaking position.
So let's bring this back to Arbery.
Let's say you were out for a walk or a jog and you saw a new building under construction and decided to poke around a minute and then continue on. Now let's say the next thing you know, there are a group of guys in a truck visibly carrying firearms, and they're clearly there for you. You're not sure exactly what they want or why they're attacking you, but it sure seems like an attack.
Then one of them gets out of the car and has a shotgun.
At that point, what's most likely is that your amygdala is going to hijack your decision-making process and you're going to go into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Arbery fought. A ton of people would have done the same.
For the McMichaels, that whole thing could have been avoided by approaching him in an entirely different way. Instead of aggressively following him in a vehicle holding firearms, put the guns down, approach him in a more friendly manner, maybe have your buddy film the encounter. Try to get his name. Ask him what he was doing in the area, etc.
Following somebody on foot in your vehicle with guns out is a really good way to get somebody killed... which is what happened.
I can't find any justification for the shooting.
If uniformed police officers had stopped Arbery, then yes, the proper thing to do is to follow instructions, let them take you to jail, and live to see the next day. If you're innocent, it sucks to be wrongfully arrested; but, it's better than dying.
The McMichaels weren't in police uniforms. All Arbery saw was two men stopping him and brandishing guns. I would have tried to fight them off myself. You probably would, too.
Moreover, the McMichaels' best defense is that they were making a citizen's arrest. The problem is that, legally, you can only make a citizen's arrest if you're seeing the crime in progress. The McMichaels clearly didn't see a crime in progress.