White Police Officer Charged With Murder Of Black Man

rugcat

Lost in the Fog
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
16,339
Reaction score
4,110
Location
East O' The Sun & West O' The Moon
Website
www.jlevitt.com

Vince524

Are you gonna finish that bacon?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 8, 2010
Messages
15,903
Reaction score
4,652
Location
In a house
Website
vincentmorrone.com
That was actually scary. Between the lead up and then what actually happened and then the fact that whoever took it stayed there long enough to get the part where he threw the stun gun down. If I didn't know better, since we were watching it, I would have thought the cop was going to spot him and kill him too.
 

William Haskins

poet
Kind Benefactor
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
29,099
Reaction score
8,848
Age
58
Website
www.poisonpen.net
reprehensible and inhuman abuse of power. the justice system needs to do its job and put this animal away.
 

backslashbaby

~~~~*~~~~
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
12,635
Reaction score
1,603
Location
NC
Disgusting. It's why when there is no video I don't start with assuming anyone in a situation like that -- including the cops --- did things that had to make any damned sense.

Vince, I would be afraid of being shot by that cop, too, yeah. It's what I was thinking while watching that part as well.
 

Maze Runner

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
5,489
Reaction score
609
If I didn't know better, since we were watching it, I would have thought the cop was going to spot him and kill him too.

Disgusting. It's why when there is no video I don't start with assuming anyone in a situation like that -- including the cops --- did things that had to make any damned sense.

Vince, I would be afraid of being shot by that cop, too, yeah. It's what I was thinking while watching that part as well.

I was thinking the same thing. Leave no witnesses! That was murder, I just don't get it. What in the hell could he have been thinking? Hard not to call this racially motivated. Just like that one in Cleveland recently where a 12 year old boy was killed. That squad car sped into the park, saw a kid with what may have appeared to be a real gun, but asking no questions, just opened fire. Immediately. This cop didn't even bother to chase the guy down and tackle him. What? Had he eaten a big lunch? Did he not want to break a sweat? He drew his weapon and fired. Immediately. "Put your hands behind your back!" He's talking to a corpse. Life's getting cheap.

Also, it looked as though there was some doctoring of the scene. Looked like he dropped the stun gun next to the victim. Didn't they see the guy shooting the video, looked like, at close range? I have no idea what to make of this. Stupid, criminal, racist, immoral, one or all of the above.

Wow.
 

Celia Cyanide

Joker Groupie
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2005
Messages
15,479
Reaction score
2,295
Location
probably watching DARK KNIGHT
That was actually scary. Between the lead up and then what actually happened and then the fact that whoever took it stayed there long enough to get the part where he threw the stun gun down. If I didn't know better, since we were watching it, I would have thought the cop was going to spot him and kill him too.

I felt the same way while watching it. It wasn't like there was a crowd of people watching. The guy filming seems pretty brave to me, and it's very fortunate that he managed to catch that important detail.
 

raburrell

Treguna Makoidees Trecorum SadisDee
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
6,902
Reaction score
3,781
Age
50
Location
MA
Website
www.rebeccaburrell.com
If the rest of the video wasn't bad enough, the casual way he drops the stun gun is just plain chilling. It's like he doesn't even think about doing it, as if it was automatic.

Definitely a brave person to film this.
 

Michael Wolfe

Jambo Bwana
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
4,097
Reaction score
382
Maybe he meant to fire his taser and accidentally grabbed the gun.

Sadly, some people will believe anything, because they can't understand why a cop would commit a senseless murder. But senseless murders happen every day; there's no reason why a particular occupation is exempt, imo.

I do hope this kind of incident will, at the very least, make some more open to the idea that not every police shooting has a logical explanation behind it.
 

Maze Runner

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
5,489
Reaction score
609
Yeah, I noticed how casually he dropped the stun gun. Also how calm they all seemed to be about the entire incident. Just another day.
 

Chrissy

Bright and Early for the Daily Race
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
Messages
7,249
Reaction score
2,005
Location
Mad World
That's...wow.

I have to admit, watching this video makes me want to question every officer involved shooting as a matter of course.
Okay, I'm tired... are you being facetious? For as long as I can recall (and most likely due to own my experiences with officers) I've always questioned. Officers are just people.

Maybe he meant to fire his taser and accidentally grabbed the gun.

Sadly, some people will believe anything, because they can't understand why a cop would commit a senseless murder. But senseless murders happen every day; there's no reason why a particular occupation is exempt, imo.

There's no reason why a "particular occupation" is exempt from senseless murder, I agree. In fact there may be reasons why a "particular occupation" is prone to it.

Not lumping--I know there are awesome cops out there. But we have a problem.
 

Maze Runner

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
5,489
Reaction score
609
Maybe we're all stuck on this, shaking our heads. In some incidents there's some gray area. Without the video, would this guy even have been charged?
 

rugcat

Lost in the Fog
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
16,339
Reaction score
4,110
Location
East O' The Sun & West O' The Moon
Website
www.jlevitt.com
Maybe we're all stuck on this, shaking our heads. In some incidents there's some gray area. Without the video, would this guy even have been charged?
Certainly the video was responsible for the speed with which he was charged.

However, there were witnesses. Between the witnesses and forensics, which would have shown the victim was shot multiple times in the back which would have contradicted the officers account, it's possible he would have been eventually charged anyway.

But it would have depended not on what the police department believed had happened, but what they thought they would be able to prove in a court of law.
 

Vince524

Are you gonna finish that bacon?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 8, 2010
Messages
15,903
Reaction score
4,652
Location
In a house
Website
vincentmorrone.com
Take out the video for a moment.

Shots to the back would indicate the victim was running away. Not sure how many times he was hit, but if it was more than once, there's liable to be a blood trail away from the officer. Again, indicating flight. They dropped the stun gun, but did they put it in her hand?
 

Maze Runner

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
5,489
Reaction score
609
Certainly the video was responsible for the speed with which he was charged.

However, there were witnesses. Between the witnesses and forensics, which would have shown the victim was shot multiple times in the back which would have contradicted the officers account, it's possible he would have been eventually charged anyway.

But it would have depended not on what the police department believed had happened, but what they thought they would be able to prove in a court of law.

Right, at least one witness. Were there more than one? I know there was a second video shot, but that was after the shooting, I think.

Take out the video for a moment.

Shots to the back would indicate the victim was running away. Not sure how many times he was hit, but if it was more than once, there's liable to be a blood trail away from the officer. Again, indicating flight. They dropped the stun gun, but did they put it in her hand?

I think he was hit four or five times. Once in the ear, one entered his heart.

Anybody got a take on why we're seeing a rash of this kind of thing? Are there actually more incidents statistically, or is it that we are only aware of more of them, partly because everyone's carrying a video camera?
 

raburrell

Treguna Makoidees Trecorum SadisDee
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
6,902
Reaction score
3,781
Age
50
Location
MA
Website
www.rebeccaburrell.com
I think I read five of the eight shots struck Scott; two were fatal.

Another question I have - it appears another officer is there when the stun gun is dropped by Scott's body. If so, unless the second officer reported it, he should be facing some charges as well, IMO.

eta: This is another instance in which multiple officers stand around and watch the victim die rather than rendering aid (as with Tamir Rice, for example). While I can understand it might not always be safe or possible to do so, it's also a convenient way of making sure the guy you just shot can't challenge your story. Anyone know if there's a policy as to whether an ambulance is dispatched immediately to the scene of any officer-involved shooting?
 
Last edited:

rugcat

Lost in the Fog
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
16,339
Reaction score
4,110
Location
East O' The Sun & West O' The Moon
Website
www.jlevitt.com
Another question I have - it appears another officer is there when the stun gun is dropped by Scott's body. If so, unless the second officer reported it, he should be facing some charges as well, IMO.
It's hard to tell from the video, but it looks like he was holding the taser down alongside his leg and then casually dropped it as he approached the victims body. The other officer I would imagine was focused on the victim and quite possibly never noticed him doing that.
 

raburrell

Treguna Makoidees Trecorum SadisDee
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
6,902
Reaction score
3,781
Age
50
Location
MA
Website
www.rebeccaburrell.com
Wouldn't he hear it though? It falls a fair distance and those things aren't light.

eta: I watched it again, and I'd characterize it as a toss, not a drop - there's forward motion. That said, it's difficult to tell whether the other officer is facing in the same direction in that frame, but in the next one, he is, and doesn't appear to have turned.
 
Last edited:

Maze Runner

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
5,489
Reaction score
609
Anybody got a take on why we're seeing a rash of this kind of thing? Are there actually more incidents statistically, or is it that we are only aware of more of them, partly because everyone's carrying a video camera?

It seems inconclusive from the few articles I've scanned.

From Politifact: Here’s the biggest problem: There is no mandate that local law enforcement agencies report officer involved shootings to the FBI. While 18,000 city, university, county, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily participate in the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report, just a small fraction of them willingly provide data on deadly force and justifiable homicides within their departments.

The article: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...are-deaths-police-shootings-highest-20-years/

From the WSJ: About a dozen agencies said their police-homicides tallies didn’t match the FBI’s because of a quirk in the reporting requirements: Incidents are supposed to be reported by the jurisdiction where the event occurred, even if the officer involved was from elsewhere. For example, the California Highway Patrol said there were 16 instances in which one of its officers killed someone in a city or other local jurisdiction responsible for reporting the death to the FBI. In some instances reviewed by the Journal, an agency believed its officers’ justifiable homicides had been reported by other departments, but they hadn’t.

Also missing from the FBI data are killings involving federal officers.

Police in Washington, D.C., didn’t report to the FBI details about any homicides for an entire decade beginning with 1998—the year the Washington Post found the city had one of the highest rates of officer-involved killings in the country. In 2011, the agency reported five killings by police. In 2012, the year Mr. Payton was killed, there are again no records on homicides from the agency.

The article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/hundred...re-uncounted-in-federal-statistics-1417577504
 

clintl

Represent.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
7,611
Reaction score
603
Location
Davis, CA
Could also be that the other officer did report it to investigators, and that's part of the evidence against him. Maybe there's a deal in place - no charges in return for testifying.
 

raburrell

Treguna Makoidees Trecorum SadisDee
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
6,902
Reaction score
3,781
Age
50
Location
MA
Website
www.rebeccaburrell.com
Agreed - it's entirely possible the other officer did report it.

eta: it appears there may be some contradictions between the police report and the video:
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 is also not seen performing CPR.
 
Last edited:

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
I've seen stills from this video. They look like the cop was at the pistol range taking target practice. In any event, it's going to be hard for him to argue self-defense.

caw
 
Last edited:

Maze Runner

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
5,489
Reaction score
609
I've seen stills from this video. They look like the cop was at the pistol range taking target practice. In any event, it's going to be hard for him to argue self-defense.

caw

I think this is what hit me most. The nonchalance of firing on a guy who's fleeing from you. Not once, but eight times. Not even trying to take him down without shooting him in the back. Just, what the hell, why not? This guy, Walter Scott had four kids. I don't know if Officer Slager has any kids, but no doubt they'll be denied his presence as well. Lose/Lose.