Feidin Santana, the man who recorded the shooting death of Walter Scott, 50, in North Charleston, S.C., by a police officer, said, “Mr. Scott didn’t deserve this.” The death of Mr. Scott, who is black, came after a traffic stop.
The police officer, Michael T. Slager, who is white, has been charged with murder. Both men had served in the Coast Guard.
Dating Jesus 
On the same day Slager was charged, another SC law enforcement officer was charged with killing an unarmed black man in 2014. Coverage here. There’s video, but it hasn’t been released.
The same newspaper reports only a “handful” of SC police have not been exonerated in 209 officer involved shootings over the last 5 years. A few have gone to trial. No convictions.
Slager reportedly fears retribution. Apparently…that didn’t occur to him at the time.
Well he was in the right, wasn’t he? Didn’t that scary black man with a broken tail light “make him fear for his life?” And why was he running away if he wasn’t guilty of …. SOMEthing?
Sorry — sarcasm probably doesn’t belong here. But put a gun in the hand of some people and they think they have to use it.
I remember the Westerns of my youth. The white hats always were such good shots that they simply “winged” the black hats. A lot of us grew up thinking that was possible. But now, one shot is never enough.
Ms. DJ and I had a conversation recently wherein she said that most cops are good guys. But it seems like an awful lot of people are going into law enforcement because it gives them an outlet to vent their rage, to “prove” themselves the superior being, to keep down people they think inferior. Did you see the video of the cop screaming at the Uber driver?
But what makes the news is always the aberrations — the people who step outside what we think is “normal” behavior. I know there are bad cops out there. There are bad judges, bad senators, bad writers, bad ministers, bad journalists. But I don’t think they define the norm and I don’t think I’m being a Pollyanna, either.
Sensationalism can be a problem. But it can also serve a purpose.
We need more transparency and accountability from law enforcement. Upgraded, standardized, and mandatory data reporting. Good police should not have a problem with that.
Ezekial Edwards of the ACLU on the Current State of Policing in America Today.
I don’t think you’re being a Pollyanna — you know people in many more walks of life than I do, and you’re far less Cynical/pessimistic than I am. But the aberrations seem to point to a culture that’s too accepting of bad behavior.
I just read Ariel Levy’s “The Price of A Life” in the latest New Yorker, about people wrongly convicted and imprisoned, and in so many of the cases the convictions were based on fully illegal behavior by law enforcement. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/13/the-price-of-a-life
I was never one to call cops “pigs,” I grew up when “the police were our friends,” I don’t come to this table with a traditionally bad attitude about law enforcement. And if we were just talking about cops getting a free apple here and there, well, many of us get little perks from time to time due to our occupations. But these incidents involve robbing people of their lives, literally and figuratively. It’s a corruption that needs changing.
And I don’t think you’re being a Pollyanna, either.
Just wanted to be clear on that.
While I will agree that “most cops are good guys”…depending on where you live…it’s clear data like what’s reported in that second State article above reflects a severe…and growing… problem with use of excessive force by segments of the law enforcement profession nationwide.
I think there’s a number of factors that could be contributing to the severity of the problem…a problem that’s certainly not new to any community, State or region. Poor or improper screening of applicants and poor training could certainly be counted among those factors. Consistent demonization and dehumanization in the media of certain segments of society obviously plays a role.
I think, though, that the single biggest problem we have right now is accountability. Slager didn’t fear retribution until his actions were made public. That’s a real problem, in my book. It’s not the only problem, but it’s one that, over the last few years, appears to be close to the core of the problem.
I didn’t see the that particular video.