Michael Slager indicted for the killing of Walter Scott
This was the case that virtually no one was defending: that of a policeman who killed a fleeing suspect by shooting him in the back. Now the South Carolina policeman (who is no longer with the force), Michael Slager, has been indicted by a grand jury for murder.
This is one of the cases in which a trial is probably the right way to go. Although Slager has a defense argument, the killing appeared egregious and unnecessary:
The 33-year-old Slager, who has been jailed since his arrest, faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted. Wilson said the death penalty does not seem to apply because there were no aggravating circumstances such as robbery or kidnapping as required under state law…
Slager told authorities he initially tried to stun Scott with his Taser, but it didn’t work, and that as both men scuffled over the stun gun, he fired his handgun at Scott in self-defense. The video shows the men briefly scuffling over what appears to be a Taser before Scott runs away and the officer begins firing at Scott’s back.
Another video, from the officer’s dashboard camera, shows Scott bolting from his car after Slager pulled him over and checked his identification. Slager then chased him down.
Family members have speculated that Scott may have tried to flee because he was fearful of returning to jail over about $18,000 he owed in late child-support payments.
Why didn’t Slager chase him down again? After all, he’d successfully done so once. Was he tired? What made him think this was worth shooting a suspect in the back? Yes, there was a chance that Scott might have been a dangerous criminal, but police can’t be shooting all fleeing suspects on the off chance that they are extremely dangerous.
Fleeing is always stupid (unless you are facing the death penalty for some other crime, in which case I suppose it makes sense to risk it), as is trying to wrest a taser away from an officer. But it is certainly not an infallible indication of extreme dangerousness, nor does it appear that Slager ever felt threatened physically by Scott in anything like the manner that Darren Wilson did when attacked by Michael Brown.
There’s also no indication that this case had anything to do with race, although of course it will be made to be about race and has been made to be about race. As far as I can see, it’s actually about whether there was an aggressive over-reaction by a cop. The video shows that a good case can be made that the answer is “yes.”
This one was about the police dropping a taser at the body?
This is all about evil racist white cop shoots fleeing black man in back. Black lives matter, except when they don’t. I live outside Washington DC and last weekend 10 people were shot and 10 knifed. What did the Washington Post have on the front page? A story and pictures of the white cop manhandling the black teen age girl at the pool party in the town outside Dallas. Another evil racist white cop victimizing blacks. The slaughter in DC didn’t matter because those people were shot and knifed by other blacks. The murder rate in Baltimore has reached unprecedented levels and nobody cares because it’s all black on black.
Propaganda uses some parts truth, some parts deception. The more truth it holds, the more power it gains.
Even if a case can be made that this was an aggressive overreaction, I don’t see how that case adds up to murder rather than manslaughter.
A case can also be made that the officer thought the suspect was merely trying to improve his tactical position and intended to continue the struggle.