@partyof5 Handcuffing is police protocol, even if the victim has been badly wounded. While I see the safety in handcuffing the suspects, what should most definitely come right after is attending to the victim. Not fiddling with your belt and looking off into distance.
Thank goodness for the witness who recorded this. This guy deserves the most severe punishment possible. He will likely run into some other individuals in prison with whom he has a prior history. I imagine he will have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life, wondering when or if he will be the recipient of revenge violence. He may need to be in solitary confinement in prison just for his own safety. Karma.
I think what this policeman did is absolutely horrible and he deserves the worst punishment available. He has been fired and arrested for murder. So what are the protesters protesting? They say they are demanding justice. Isn’t firing him and prosecuting him for murder justice?
Protesters are protesting the realities of police crime against unarmed black men. The SC incident is not an isolated one, and it’s symptomatic of enormous racial problems in police forces nationwide.
Too bad there are some in high places who couldn’t disagree more. Wait. Scratch that. They disagree so completely that they actually passed a law, making it illegal to record police activity:
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/illinois-felony-citizens-record-police-media-silent/
I’ll bet it’s illegal to film the police in mainland China too. You can’t have repressive government without the ability to effectively silence and blindfold your citizenry. Is that an option Illinois would like to have on the table?
Claps to the witness who recorded this. I just read the news, and I am both saddened and angry because there are certainly good-natured cops out there, but these immoral and abusive cops had to tarnish the whole cops.
Is it only me who thinks that cops have too much power? Also, I have no idea why am ambiguous description like “I feared XXX” can be used as an excuse.
As Katliamom said, I don’t believe they are protesting the handling of this particular incident. They are citing this one as an example of an all-too-common phenomenon in law enforcement encounters: one in which police officers have abused their authority and actually assaulted (and in some cases, murdered) citizens in their capacity as government officials. Minorities have complained about these types of incidences for decades, but it has only been with the advent of cell phones capable of high quality video recording that evidence corroborating these complaints has begun to surface.
This particular video is so damning, and so contradicts Officer Slager’s account of events that South Charleston officials had no choice but to react swiftly and decisively. Had there not been the video evidence, however, the chances of this officer remaining on the force would be exponentially higher.
3bm103, justice is being done only because someone filmed what happened. Absent that video, does anyone seriously doubt that the police authorities would be supporting the officer’s false version of events?
The police would be supporting the officer’s false version, just like they do all the time when forensics contradict their story. The forensics say that the guy was shot in the back from long range, and the officer says “He was reaching for my gun” and no punishment. Over and over. How many times do officers get prosecuted for killing suspects when there is no video? Never.
Exactly, Donna and Cardinal Fang. This phenomenon is particularly troubling from the viewpoint of minority communities, because they know that in any police encounter, officers are automatically conferred halos and those they encounter, horns. A black man knows he will never be afforded the benefit of the doubt in a police encounter unless video such as this one comes to light.
I’ve been keeping my eyes on police officers when I see them because the nuance between them and criminals is beginning to disappear.
However, there are plenty of police officers who are not like this and should not be discriminated against.
The same day that Walter Scott was killed, another SC law officer was charged in the death of a 68-year-old AA man.
Unfortunately, he was only charged with “discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle” and I don’t believe the video, from his police cruiser dash cam, has been released.
It’s just awful. That Walter Scott was fired at 8 times for running away, and not terribly fast. 8 times for a traffic stop? What are these cops thinking they should do with a gun?
Appears he’s being charged with exactly what he did.
That the video was instrumental goes without saying but… anyone who believes a medical examiner (yea, even if only prodded by the justice department) wouldn’t have picked up on the forensic evidence of the in-the-back shooting, is maybe wishing some past high-profile cases away.
I’m counting on the fact that the majority of police officers (hopefully, the vast majority) are “good people”, meaning they entered law enforcement in order to serve the communities in which they live, and that despite the fact that they daily witness society’s underbelly, they manage to keep in mind that most people are good and law abiding, even in high crime areas. It’s a perspective I think most police officers would need to consciously maintain if they are to be any good at what they do. They must remain vigilant to the knowledge that they wield no small amount of power (not the least of that being over life and death), and therefore must not compromise the integrity incumbent upon a public servant to whom such power is granted. The biggest problem has not been discrimination against police officers by the community they police, but rather the opposite: too many officers of the law assume that anyone living in a high crime area, and anyone resembling the criminal element (racially, socio-economically) they encounter is automatically suspect, and likely to be a criminal themselves. That’s where de-humanization comes in, along with a propensity to see a community as little more than a collective of rabid animals only fit for putting down. That’s a view some denizens of CC at times seem barely able to disguise, but it’s not one that makes for fair treatment in law enforcement.
Neat hook at the end, poet - disagree with any portion of the entire post and you’re a self-selector for the rogue’s gallery.
That socio-economic factors (poor and who most often is) correlate to criminality isn’t debatable. That cops tend to start looking at everyone like a criminal is something we’ve been told nearly forever. That criminals occasionally fill police jobs is indicative of human failing and the human condition.
That there’s a current day epidemic of willful murders of black men by police officers is one of those things you don’t have to be a hater to doubt.
As a young black male I NEVER trust cops. It is truly unfortunate. If there is an emergency and someone tells me to call the cops I say YEET and point to someone else and get the hell outta there. God forbid my mama sees me on the news like these fallen brothas. It’s come to the point where the stereotype of cops and police brutality is immensely justified and i’m not tryna die young.
I have every reason to discriminate against all cops because they are working for a damaged institution and are not calling for change. I am justified in discriminating because my LIFE is at risk. Sure, there are A LOT of nice cops but there are also many bad ones. I’m not taking any chances but I will always remain respectful to law enforcement (to say the least).
I’m sure forensic evidence would have incontrovertibly shown that Mr. Scott had been shot in the back as he was fleeing, but that fact alone may not have been viewed as supportive enough in charging the officer with murder. There are always those who immediately think that there had to have been mitigating circumstances that justified the shooting, such as the idea that Scott had been such a threatening element that his escape would have posed a danger to the officer or community at large. The police report stating that Scott “went for my taser” would probably have been afforded face-value credibility in the absence of the video, as well as the same report’s attempt to humanize the officer’s immediate response to the downed “suspect” (ie., CPR was performed in an attempt to save the same).
The disregard for human life is what is expected of a criminal, not a police officer. This police officer displayed lack of respect for human life from his first shot in this particular situation, to firing multiple shots, to his lack of any care for the downed victim.
Feel free to disagree with “the hook”, catahoula. I don’t expect a lot of people to agree with my observation, not even those whom I don’t view as belonging on that list of CC denizens (hint: you are not among them, and thankfully, the list is pretty short).
The fact that the poor are more likely to commit certain crimes is no more correlative than that most banking/investment fraud (bloodless crimes though they may be) are more likely committed by banking and investment insiders, such as many of those responsible for the mortgage/banking meltdown that nearly destroyed the American economy less than a decade ago. All too often, the correlation of racial minority status and poor economic class is viewed as causative in and of themselves, such that too many believe criminality is endemic to anyone fitting that criteria (ie., “it’s only a matter of time before they break the law”). That’s a particularly destructive view for law enforcement to act upon in the capacity of policing such communities. What would happen if every banking/securities/investment professional were viewed as likely to commit financial industry crimes?
By the way, he hasn’t been convicted yet. There are already people raising money for his defense – and people justifying the shooting with “well, he shouldn’t have run,” and bringing up the fact that he owed child support (as if death is the appropriate punishment for either) – and I’m sorry to say that I will be disappointed, but not the least bit surprised, if a South Carolina jury refuses to convict him.