A white officer from North Charleston, S.C is being charged for murdering a black male. The incident took place on Saturday, April 4, 2015. The officer, Michael Slager (33) pulled over Walter. L Scott due to a broken taillight according to police report. Slager claimed he feared for his life when Scott had taken his stun gun after the traffic stop, little did he know there was a cameraman during the crime scene which got everything on video. The video proves that Scott therefore did not take officer Slager’s stun gun but was dropped near his body after Scott ran away from the officer and was shot by him 8 times in the back which killed him. In the report, the officer said he and his partner had done CPR on Scott, but they had just arrested him and planted evidence near his body.
This would probably the 5th time an officer has claimed they have “feared” for their life when dealing with black males. This was not an act of fear but an act of racism. Are police officers quick to use force especially in cases involving black men? Most definitely. Unlike Martese Johnson, Eric Garner, etc. case, Slager is being charged with murdered due to the video that was recorded. This is the first time an officer is facing the consequences lead by their actions.
“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong,” Mayor Keith Summey said 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 democratic values here are life, authority, and loyalty. Life is shown because the officer endangered the life of this man by shooting him in the back and by claiming he was in fear of this black male whom was unarmed which then lead to Scott being murdered by this officer. Authority was taken to another level by this officer, he thought the badge he wore gave him complete authority to do whatever he wanted to protect himself, even though he wasn’t in any kind of danger. The last democratic value shown here was loyalty because Slager reported that Scott had stolen his stun gun but the video says otherwise. Therefore, Slager planted evidence on Scott for his own benefit.
A link with the video of the shooting is shown below:
alexskates59 • Apr 13, 2015 at 2:43 pm
I do believe this is an act of racism and that cops are profiling black males even more as time progresses. The more and more times this happens the more cops are quick to use force against black males. There may be a certain level of fear which causes them to act this way but no one can know for sure except the person killing the black male. I think this problem will just continue to grow unless action is taken against it, but there will always be racism in the United states and around the world.