Post: #1

Quote:WASHINGTON — A white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged with murder on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing him shooting and killing an apparently unarmed black man in the back while he ran away.

The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, had said he feared for his life because the man took his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man — Walter L. Scott, 50 — fled.

The North Charleston mayor announced the state charges at a news conference Tuesday evening.

The shooting comes on the heels of high-profile incidents of police officers using lethal force in New York, Cleveland, Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere around the country. The deaths have sparked a national debate over whether the police are too quick to use force, particularly in cases involving black men.

A White House task force has recommended a host of changes to the nation’s police policies, and President Obama dispatched Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., to cities around the country to try to improve police relations with minority neighborhoods.


North Charleston is the state’s third-largest city with a population of about 100,000. African-Americans make up about 47 percent of residents, and whites account for about 37 percent. The city police department is about 80 percent white, according to data collected by the Justice Department in 2007, the most recent period available.

“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong,” Mayor Keith Summey said of the shooting during the news conference. “And if you make a bad decision, don’t care if you’re behind the shield or just a citizen on the street, you have to live by that decision.”

The shooting unfolded after Officer Slager stopped the driver of a Mercedes-Benz with a broken taillight, according to police reports. Mr. Scott ran away, and Officer Slager chased him into a grassy lot that abuts a muffler shop. He fired his Taser, an electronic stun gun, but it did not stop Mr. Scott, according to police reports.

Moments after the struggle, Officer Slager reported on his radio, “Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser,” according to police reports.

But the video, which was taken by a bystander and provided to The New York Times by the Scott family’s lawyer, presents a different account. The video begins in the vacant lot, apparently moments after Officer Slager fired his Taser. Wires, which carry the electrical current from the stun gun, appear to be extending from Mr. Scott’s body as the two men tussle and Mr. Scott turns to run.

Something — it is not clear whether it is the stun gun — is either tossed or knocked to the ground behind the two men and Officer Slager draws his gun, the video shows. When the officer fires, Mr. Scott appears to be 15 to 20 feet away and fleeing. He falls after the last of eight shots.

The officer then runs back toward where the initial scuffle occurred and picks something off the ground. Moments later, he drops an object near Mr. Scott’s body, the video shows.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the state’s criminal investigative body, has begun an inquiry into the shooting. The F.B.I. and the Justice Department, which has opened a string of civil rights investigations into police departments under Mr. Holder, is also investigating.

The Supreme Court has held that an officer may use deadly force against a fleeing suspect only when there is probable cause that he “poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”

Officer Slager served in the Coast Guard before joining the force five years ago, his lawyer said. The police chief of North Charleston did not return repeated calls. Because police departments are not required to release data on how often officers use force, it was not immediately clear how often police shootings occur in North Charleston, a working-class community adjacent to the tourist destination of Charleston.


Mr. Scott had been arrested about 10 times, mostly for failing to pay child support or show up for court hearings, according to The Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston. He was arrested in 1987 on an assault and battery charge, and convicted in 1991 of possession of a bludgeon, the newspaper reported. Mr. Scott’s brother, Anthony, said he believed Mr. Scott fled from police on Saturday because he owed child support.

”He has four children; he doesn’t have some type of big violent past or arrest record,” said Chris Stewart, a lawyer for Mr. Scott’s family. “He had a job; he was engaged. He had back child support and didn’t want to go to jail for back child support.”

Mr. Stewart said the coroner told him that Mr. Scott was struck five times — three times in the back, once in the upper buttocks and once in the ear — with at least one bullet entering his heart. It is not clear whether Mr. Scott died immediately. (The coroner’s office declined to make the report available to The Times.)

Police reports say that officers performed CPR and delivered first aid to Mr. Scott. The video shows that for several minutes after the shooting, Mr. Scott remained face down with his hands cuffed behind his back. A second officer arrives, puts on blue medical gloves and attends to Mr. Scott, but is not shown performing CPR. As sirens wail in the background, a third officer later arrives, apparently with a medical kit, but also not seen performing CPR.

The debate over police use of force has been propelled in part by videos like the one in South Carolina. In January, prosecutors in Albuquerque charged two police officers with murder for shooting a homeless man in a confrontation that was captured by an officer’s body camera. Federal prosecutors are investigating the death of Eric Garner, who died last year in Staten Island after a police officer put him in a chokehold, an incident that a bystander captured on video. A video taken in Cleveland shows the police shooting a 12-year-old boy, Tamir Rice, who was carrying a fake gun in a park. A White House policing panel recommended that police departments put more video cameras on their officers.


Mr. Scott’s brother said that his mother called him on Saturday, telling him that his brother had been shot by a Taser after a traffic stop. “You may need to go over there and see what’s going on,” Anthony Scott said his mother told him. When he arrived at the scene of the shooting, officers told him that his brother was dead, but he said they had no explanation for why. “This just doesn’t sound right,” he said in an interview. “How do you lose your life at a traffic stop?”

Anthony Scott said he last saw his brother three weeks ago at a family oyster roast. “We hadn’t hung out like that in such a long time,” Mr. Scott said. “He kept on saying over and over again how great it was.”

At the roast, Mr. Scott got to do two of the things he enjoyed most: tell jokes and dance. When one of Mr. Scott’s favorite songs was played, he got excited. “He jumped up and said, ‘That’s my song,’ and he danced like never before,” his brother said.

The video is in the link right here
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/sou...death.html

Post: #2

Fucking tired of seeing and hearing about these situations. I dont care what color you are if you don't want to get shot by a cop dont fight them and or run from them... its that fucking simple.

Post: #3

Perfect victim, perfect villain, happened in the South to appeal to confirmation bias, supports the narrative. Expect to hear a lot about this.

Post: #4

Quote:The shooting unfolded after Officer Slager stopped the driver of a Mercedes-Benz with a broken taillight, according to police reports. Mr. Scott ran away, and Officer Slager chased him into a grassy lot that abuts a muffler shop.

I drive a Benz, I still get pulled over but that's because they say my tints are too dark, but like Kanye said, even if you're in a Benz, you're still a nigga in a coupe.

The person who recorded this video should be given a reward for helping catch a murderer, otherwise there would have been no way to disprove the cop's story, he thought he was slick dropping that taser next to a dead man's body, then they wonder why nobody sheds any tears when they get popped like kernels.

Post: #5

(04-07-2015 07:42 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  Fucking tired of seeing and hearing about these situations. I dont care what color you are if you don't want to get shot by a cop dont fight them and or run from them... its that fucking simple.

Your rationalization doesn't work when the police are being dishonest with their accounts and attempting to plant incriminating evidence.

Stop associating the police with being right just because they're the police and people being wrong just because the police are after them.

If there's more to the story, we'll find out, but for now this police officer has been charged with murder, enough said.

Post: #6

(04-07-2015 07:47 PM)jariel Wrote:  

(04-07-2015 07:42 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  Fucking tired of seeing and hearing about these situations. I dont care what color you are if you don't want to get shot by a cop dont fight them and or run from them... its that fucking simple.

Your rationalization doesn't work when the police are being dishonest with their accounts and attempting to plant incriminating evidence.

Stop associating the police with being right just because they're the police and people being wrong just because the police are after them.

If there's more to the story, we'll find out, but for now this police officer has been charged with murder, enough said.

I see what you are saying.... and I'm not claming this cop is right or a angel or anything to that matter. I'm saying if the dead fellow didn't run from the police... he wouldnt be dead

Post: #7

(04-07-2015 07:42 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  Fucking tired of seeing and hearing about these situations. I dont care what color you are if you don't want to get shot by a cop dont fight them and or run from them... its that fucking simple.

I agree that fighting cops is basically suicide and should never be done but what justification is there to shoot someone running away from you dead?

Post: #8

Those two guys have had a stunning bad-luck (no pun intended about the 'stun-gun' teaser that the Black guy grabbed)...

Firstly, the Black guy is very unlucky to enter a fight with the wrong kind of cop (a vindictive one, it seems)... a regular cop I think would have let him flee on foot, or at least would not have shot him in the back...

Then the White cop is incredibly unlucky that, just at the very moment he fires his gun, someone pointed a cell phone camera at him... I mean, if he had fired his gun 2 seconds before, he was in the clear, no hard-proof...

But one thing also I noted: maybe there is editing (tampering) in this video : at the 16 second mark, there is a rupture, a break in the filming, in the video... why?

But anyway... See, after firing, the cop turns his head and notices the witness filming the scene, and then, I guess the cop should have done something to save his family and future life (he should have forcefully taken the cell phone, under some legal pretext). Now he is fucked big time.

So, 2 lives go down the drain because : the Black guy lost his temper and fled his car and fought the cop - the White cop lost his temper and fired at him fleeing... Sad story indeed!

Post: #9

(04-07-2015 07:56 PM)TheSlayer Wrote:  

(04-07-2015 07:42 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  Fucking tired of seeing and hearing about these situations. I dont care what color you are if you don't want to get shot by a cop dont fight them and or run from them... its that fucking simple.

I agree that fighting cops is basically suicide and should never be done but what justification is there to shoot someone running away from you dead?

That's not what he's saying.

In my interactions with the Police - and I'm profiled by my looks and have stereotypical assumptions made about my honesty and intelligence - I'm always fully-aware that I'm dealing with a petty-authoritarian with the power to destroy my life and whom might be a dishonest fucking psycho.

If you don't want to die, suck it up. Be polite, be patient, and endure, even when they're trying to fuck you over. If it comes to going to court, so be it.

They can be looking for any excuse. Don't give them one.

Post: #10

The child support angle is going to get buried underneath this. It's probably a routine stop if that detail is out of the picture.

Post: #11

(04-07-2015 08:00 PM)AnonymousBosch Wrote:  

(04-07-2015 07:56 PM)TheSlayer Wrote:  

(04-07-2015 07:42 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  Fucking tired of seeing and hearing about these situations. I dont care what color you are if you don't want to get shot by a cop dont fight them and or run from them... its that fucking simple.

I agree that fighting cops is basically suicide and should never be done but what justification is there to shoot someone running away from you dead?

That's not what he's saying.

In my interactions with the Police - and I'm profiled by my looks and have stereotypical assumptions made about my honesty and intelligence - I'm always fully-aware that I'm dealing with a petty-authoritarian with the power to destroy my life and whom might be a dishonest fucking psycho.

If you don't want to die, suck it up. Be polite, be patient, and endure, even when they're trying to fuck you over. If it comes to going to court, so be it.

They can be looking for any excuse. Don't give them one.

I 100% agree with this, AB. My point is that if someone is stupid enough to run away from cops he or she certainly does not deserve to die. I would recommend what you just said to anybody every dealing with the cops but I also can't justify these cops killing people if people are running away from them. When an idiot (of any color) is trying to fight them I can understand why they would feel threatened but that still doesn't excuse killing a man running away from them.

Post: #12

I'm glad that piece of shit was charged with murder, that was an execution. Is this what cops are for?

Post: #13

Around 1:10 the cop goes back to pick something up. Around 1:33 looks like he drops something by the body.

Post: #14

What are the odds that the very first time this happened someone caught it on video? Fuck that cop.

Post: #15

The cop's "Put your hands behind your back!" was staged, the man was likely already dead or near death, that's why the killer had to physically put the man's hands behind his back, he couldn't do it himself.

Post: #16

This is murder.

That being said, people need to be taught how to act around police. If you're stopped by a cop you should do everything they say because you have no idea who the hell you're dealing with. A lot of them will use any justification they can to jump up the use of force matrix, so fighting or struggling with them is a terrible idea.

Post: #17

Props to the cameraman. I'd have been thinking I was next.

Post: #18

(04-07-2015 08:24 PM)TornadoByProxy Wrote:  Props to the cameraman. I'd have been thinking I was next.

The news saying he (the camera phone person) didn't trust the police and brought it to the family and then it got to a newspaper.

I am not from SC, so I have no idea how SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) is regarded there. But with the right evidence it seems they have made the right call to charge him with murder.

Post: #19

Agree that it's outright murder shooting someone in the back while they are running away. It looks like he was about 20 feet away when it happened too no way was the officer in danger. If the perp had an actual gun it would at least be justifiable.

However, let's also be real about why the mainstream media loves stuff like this and will drive this topic into the ground. Incidents like this can be spun in any number of ways into broader race politic discussion and also drives ad revenue through controversy. White liberals and minority victimologists love shit like this. Instead of treating this as a bad apples event in a poorly trained police department in a hick state it's going to get blown into a nationwide outcry about race...again.

Ferguson was a media bonanza last time so they are going to try to recreate that as many times as possible until they can cycle into something else that sells just as well. Maybe back to the kidnapped white woman formula for awhile.

Post: #20

Maybe this time the Social Justice Warrior broken clock's hand will finally land on its much-sought-after Great White Defendant.

Every time black men make poor decisions* (the guy ran, at the very least) that lead to their deaths in interactions with possibly overreacting white policemen (this time the white policeman does look like he shot a fleeing suspect, but one does wonder what transpired prior to the start of the video), we have to go through the whole "racism" song and dance with the media and public discourse,** as if white men just casually and callously gun down black men on a whim and get away with it all the time.

Unmentioned is the fact that 2.32 black-on-white homicides occur for every 1 white-on-black homicide (and this is likely with the FBI's habit of lumping latinos in with whites for crime statistics, so the 2.32:1.00 ratio is likely understated for whites per se).

I suppose that would be a "hate fact," and the messenger of this fact would be shot with accusations of racism.

* Obligatory Chris Rock:




**When the over-stepping of law enforcement is the actual, underlying issue. Why else would we need videos like this:

Post: #21

Does not look good. Could be a much better spark for race war than Ferguson or Trayvon Martin.

Post: #22

(04-07-2015 08:16 PM)Grange Wrote:  What are the odds that the very first time this happened someone caught it on video? Fuck that cop.

Without the video, the cop would have been able to lie his way out of this situation since it's likely that misconduct couldn't have been proven.

Now think about how many times an incident like this has gone down without there being video evidence to support or refute a self-serving narrative.

We're talking about murderers masking as public servants getting off scot-free.

Again, just because you give a person a badge and a uniform doesn't mean they're always going to be right.

Post: #23

(04-07-2015 08:03 PM)TheSlayer Wrote:  I 100% agree with this, AB. My point is that if someone is stupid enough to run away from cops he or she certainly does not deserve to die. I would recommend what you just said to anybody every dealing with the cops but I also can't justify these cops killing people if people are running away from them. When an idiot (of any color) is trying to fight them I can understand why they would feel threatened but that still doesn't excuse killing a man running away from them.

No, you're right. No one DESERVES to die for doing something silly that harms no one else. Same as a woman doesn't deserve to get raped for walking around at night, or as a homeowner doesn't deserve to get robbed for insufficiently securing his house.

People who talk like that are fucking retards who fellate authority and power for breakfast. They're usually pseudo-macho chickenshits to boot. Do not mistake an absence of compassion for strength of character. But that's what these pseudo-tough guys want you to do.

Post: #24

(04-07-2015 08:38 PM)RawGod Wrote:  Does not look good. Could be a much better spark for race war than Ferguson or Trayvon Martin.

Possibly, however there is (will be) condemnation from everybody except for the Police Unions. Part of the energy of the other two was the divisiveness of opinion with some, on both sides, fueling the fire with racial animus. That should be lacking here.

I know it's a big wish, but I would like the news to start addressing the militarization of local police forces as much as they cover the racism angle.

Post: #25

meanwhile...no one talks about the 147 kenyas