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It’s happened again, this time down here in South Carolina.
Last Saturday morning, Michael Slager, a North Charleston police officer, pulled over Walter Scott for having a broken taillight. Slager says Scott became belligerent so he used his taser on the man; that started a struggle, and Slager, saying he feared for his life, took out his gun and shot and killed Walter Scott.
Another black man shot to death by a white police officer … what a horrible story … except that isn’t what happened, and there is proof that it didn’t happen.
A video, recorded by an unidentified passerby, and sent to investigators and to Walter Scott’s family, shows Walter Scott running away from Officer Slager, and then shows Officer Slager shooting him in the back; Slager fired eight shots at Walter Scott though it’s how many hit the man. As Scott lay on the ground, dead or dying, Michael handcuffed him. Two- and-a-half minutes later, as other officers respond to the scene, the video shows Slager putting his hand on Scott's neck, apparently checking his pulse.
Michael Slager is facing murder charges. State Law Enforcement Division agents announced the charges yesterday, and at a conference about the charges, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey called Slager's actions a "bad decision."
I’m sorry; a “bad decision” to shoot an unarmed man in the back as he ran away? There was no other recourse?
Now, let me be clear: not all police officers are bad, and not all black men are good, but we seem to have a series of white police officers shooting black men, choking black men, to death on our streets, and something needs to be done about it.
No one should be killed because they ran away from a police officer who stopped them for having a broken taillight.
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The video can be seen at WLTX
Walter Scott photo via NBC News
Sorry this happened in South Carolina. Sorry it had to happen at all.
ReplyDeleteEven though we've got a General Election campaign running, this story has been headline news on some of our bulletins here.
ReplyDeleteI bet there are more than a few, both black and white, now nervously awaiting the trial and the verdict, not to mention the sentence - that is IF he's found guilty, mind you.
Let's hope it turns out to have been a 'watershed' moment, bringing about real, constructive change in attitudes.
Well, you can only push so much....what goes around comes around. ..the backlash is coming.
ReplyDeleteSaw this on the Beeb and was horrified; a broken taillight is worth shooting someone for? The tasering was a bad decision; the shooting was murder!
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