There have been more than 400 police killings of civilians this year and only three have resulted in charges. Thankfully, this week a grand jury indicted South Carolina former police officer Michael Slager on the murder charge of killing Walter Scott, a man who was stopped for a routine traffic stop. The incident escalated when Scott took off running and Slager than took off after him, shooting at him eight times and hitting him multiple times in the back. All this was caught on film by a passerby who made the video public.
Mr. Scott’s death became a rallying point for critics of police conduct after months of protests about the deaths of black men at the hands of officers in Ferguson, Mo., and on Staten Island. People staged peaceful demonstrations in North Charleston, a city of about 104,000 people, after Mr. Scott’s death. Mr. Slager, a former member of the Coast Guard, joined the North Charleston force in 2010. Before Mr. Scott’s death, Mr. Slager had been the subject of two formal complaints, including one for excessive force after he used his Taser while he pursued a burglary suspect.
If convicted, Slager could serve 30 years to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Team Blackness also discussed the drop US abortion rates, the sad case of Kalief Browder, and the pool party in McKinney, Texas, that went horribly wrong.
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Bill
I give very low odds that Officer Slager gets convicted in a South Carolina court.
But getting an indictment is better than Ferguson, so that’s something.
A depressingly small something.
Karen
“If convicted” is the magic phrase. In South Carolina? No faith in that.
Hal
It’s sad that I’m shocked he was even indicted. Shot in the back five times, and a conviction is far from a sure thing. A friend’s response to the shooting was to post one of those captioned meme photos that said something like “if you don’t want the police to bother you, don’t break the law.”
Not shoot and kill, not arrest but “bother” you. Shooting a fleeing person in the back only counts as bothering someone, and that attitude seems pretty common.
WaterGirl
I had to click the link to be sure I was remembering the correct murder. I was, but there are so many of these murders that it’s hard to keep them all straight. God/Dog help us all.
Edit: If only there was a way that our government could keep track of these for us. Oh, wait, participation in that program is optional.
slag
“Black children are never allowed to just be kids.” So so true.
Shakezula
And about a dozen other places before Scott was killed.
That piece also contains mention of Slager’s service in the CG, but not Scott’s (Hmmm). It also leaves out the fact Slager tried to plant evidence on Scott. But that’s why I think there’s a good chance he’ll be convicted. He’ll probably get something like house arrest, though.
MomSense
@slag:
That breaks my heart.
C.Wolf
There have been more than 400 police killings of civilians this year …
BZZZZzzzz. Correction:
There have been almost 500 police killings of civilians this year …
Actually, it’s more like four-hundred and ninty-something (49x.) as of today.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database#