"A white North Charleston police officer was arrested on a murder charge and the FBI opened a civil rights investigation Tuesday after video surfaced of the lawman shooting eight times at a 50-year-old black man as he ran away.
Walter L. Scott, a Navy veteran and father, died Saturday after Patrolman 1st Class Michael T. Slager, 33, shot him several times in the back.
The video footage, which The Post and Courier obtained Tuesday from a source who asked to remain anonymous, shows the end of the confrontation between the two on Saturday after Scott ran from a traffic stop. It was the first piece of evidence contradicting an account Slager gave earlier this week through his attorney."
The rest of the post at Bearing Arms sums up the legal analysis so well it would be redundant to offer it again.
ReplyDeleteBad shoot. Good charges.
Was it racism? May well be. Could just as easily be the increasingly common police attitude that they are the law and if you don't do what they say, you're asking for it.
Did you see what I posted today about Geraldo Rivera's idea that murder is the wrong charge - it should be manslaughter?
DeleteSo without clear evidence like this do you think all police shootings (killings) are justified? Do all police tell the truth, or lie to cover their comrades?
ReplyDeleteJack,
DeleteIf I'm going to look at a case and form an opinion on it I look at all the evidence available. It's great when you have film like in this case, but sometimes you have to look at less definitive evidence in officer and witness reports. Some officers tell the truth, some lie for themselves or their buddies. Same with other witnesses. Sometimes you have to wait for investigations, reports on forensic findings, etc.
If you're wanting to know more about my views, here's a nutshell. As a general principle, I think we have a lot of structural problems that lead to police abuses--some departments' cultures (be they racist or merely "the thin blue line is superior to everyone"), sovereign immunity (an evil holdover from monarchies that is antithetical to our system of government), limited immunity for officers not being limited enough, corruption, etc. I want to see all these things corrected.
At the same time, when it comes to individuals, I want to see due process, and in discussions I try to take a default position of innocent until proven guilty, whether the accused is a cop or a common person, and will thus occasionally try to point out potential defenses and how plausible I see them being (or not being) if I see people crying guilty without seeming to have taken these possibilities into account.
Always good to here anyone's opinion SJ.
Delete"from ssgmarkcr: "gonna be hard to explain this one."
It was that comment from SS that makes me believe some hope that police get away with murder. Many believe it's OK for police to kill these "folks" because they are a blight on society. Sovereign immunity is not what makes bad cops mistreat people, but it is what they fall back on, to get away with it. Judges believe what cops say until the cop is proven wrong, to bad those same judges don't give that benefit of the doubt to suspects.
Ok, that looks pretty bad. The Michael Brown case had the whole problem with him attacking the officer, and the Eric Garner case was unjustified but probably not an attempt to kill him. This one, though, looks real bad. I noticed how the officer was arrested- because, well… evidence not just narrative.
ReplyDeleteThe really scary part is that had this not been caught on camera--the cop would have gotten away with it.
ReplyDeleteI'm also struck by how slow Mr. Scott was. It's like the officer was too lazy to break into a brief trot in pursuit.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if a little "boy who cried 'wolf'" factor will come into play, as this is the case that should get the attention that Ferguson got.
It sure seems to be getting less attention than Ferguson.
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