Michael Slager a former North Charleston South Carolina police officer who was charged this week with shooting an unarmed black man in the back and killing him , was exonerated in 2013 of accusations that he used excessive force against another unarmed man he thought was a suspect.
Slager was fired for last weekend’s shooting of Walter Scott, 50.
The excessive-force incident occurred September 15, 2013 when Slager and another officer went to the home of Mario Givens in North Charleston. They were looking for Givens’ brother Matthew Givens, who was a suspect in a burglary. Slager went to the front door and the other officer went to the rear of the house.
Slager was charged this week with murder for shooting and killing Walter Scott, 50, last weekend after a traffic stop. Bystander from the scene shows Scott was running away from the officer when he was shot.
Givens shook his head when the AP asked him about Slager being charged with murder in the death of Walter Scott.
“It could have been prevented,” he said of Scott’s death. “If they had just listened to me and investigated what happened that night, this man might be alive today.”
When are the people going to have justice? Especially as a member of the African american community, I have very strong reactions to this story. Some police and others in authority still treat us like we don’t have value. We are all human and have the same basic right that should be protected in a equal way. In this article the core Democratic values that are present include Authority and honesty.
Who polices the police? Basically who gives them the right to use force on these people as they do? Are these police men telling their parts of the story and how they put these innocent black men in harms way?
As a democracy we are holding the police more accountable for there actions through social media.
Anthony_Hester • Apr 18, 2015 at 4:15 pm
Even though this issue has a lot to do with race I don’t think that’s all it has to do with. I think they need to focus on what is wrong with the police instead of what the people did to deserve being killed.