Oh noes! what is our hero going to do now?
Looks like a good shoot to me, after all, you want the officer to go home to his family at night doen't you, and of course, we don't know the whole story, and police have to make instantaneous life and death decisions, and he followed departmental guidelines, etc.
The cop screwed up. He should have checked for witnesses after the event and confiscated the evidence (which of course would "go missing"
He was merely exercising one of the perks of police work i.e. getting away with murder. It's too late to do the favorite cover up when there is lots of evidence and that is putting it before a grand jury. The prosecutor controls what a grand jury sees, and the prosecutor can "indict a ham sandwitch" or let Atilla the Hun go. This is the technique that was used to let the swat cops who tossed a grenade into a toddler's playpen off the hook. Lots of high fiving after that.
Looks like murder.
Moving on.
He’s been charged with murder. If he gets away with this, there should be some rioting.
This police officer is cooked.
If there was no video taken, no way the officer gets charged. No. Way.
Hope he gets thrown in prison for a long time.
The person recording the whole thing was very brave.They got really close to the cops,I expected one of them to draw down on him at any moment.
Just wondering how many of my tax dollars went toward that Mercedes.
These guys get scarier and scarier every day. Makes you wonder what the /_=/^ they got away with before cell cameras and videos.
This episode is exactly why you should smell a rat anytime you hear of a law being passed that restricts the right of citizens to make a video recording of a LEO performing his/her job.
Anyone who thinks this case is like Ferguson is comparing apples and oranges.
One thing the video shows is that that 9mm Glock the cop was carrying didn’t exactly throw the perp for a loop.
When we can't even call a clear excess of state power what it is for fear that some sleazy character might use the example to get off, then we have failed. The Left never loses sight of their organizing principle - Expand the State - no matter much their factions might hate each other. We always forget that our organizing principle must be Shrink the State. Too many of us seem to fear we might need to exercise all that glorious State power one day to go after people we don't like. They even go so far as to defend bad actors like this guy in support of that misguided fear.
Conservatism should be about conserving the radical spirit of Liberty laid down by the Founding Fathers.
“stopped by Slager for a broken tail light”
This is why the state likes seatbelt laws. Gives another excuse to pull folks over and up the arrest.
This guy never should have been a cop. Sad to watch.
No comment until I find out what the traffic stop revealed. Police never shoot except at fleeing felons.
Looking at the vid I see no reason for the cop to shoot.
Don’t know all details but if it’s only pull over for tail light and outstanding warrant, this implies two things to me:
1) cop ran tags before pulling him over.
2) cop verified ID and found outstanding family court warrant, i.e., not a felon.
As such, even if the guy flees the scene, the cop could impound his car, issue an APB, and let other cops hunt him down while he’s processing the vehicle.
Of course the biggest caveat here is, is the article correct?
This should help ‘ease’ the racial tension in this country /s.
Trying to defend the shooter cop in any way is nonsense.
Protests start at North Charleston City Hall in less than a half hour. Not much to loot there and it’s close to the main police station. Local Charleston SC news will break in with live coverage. Where he was killed has plenty to loot and burn. Map here;
Ping.
Looks like the cop was angered by his suspects resistance and/or verbal incitement, and vented on him. It looks like second degree murder is the appropriate charge, and it might get downgraded to manslaughter if they buy that he was following Department escalation procedures, and then wrongfully opened fire due to excessive passion from a struggle.
They were away from the vehicle in the traffic stop, indicating that the suspect walked away from the vehicle and was being non-compliant. It must have gone on for some time, for the incident to draw spectators to film it - probably some shouting, possibly some scuffling.
If the suspect assaulted the officer prior to the video starting, he may have been fleeing a felony, which puts the shooting on a different legal footing.
There are escalation procedures for subduing a suspect, e.g first give a command, second attempt to physically compel compliance or apply a restraint (handcuff), third might be non-lethal incapacitation like pepper spray or stun gun, and finally the use of lethal force.
After the stun gun was deployed, the gun was the next and last escalation step. Clearly, the cop was not in danger when the suspect was running away, so self defense will not fly to justify the shooting. If he was legally authorized to shoot to stop a fleeing felon, he might beat the murder wrap on that basis.
It is pretty clear that he tampered with the evidence, planting the stun gun near the suspect (a time-honored technique - many cops used to carry a small back up gun available to plant on anyone they might shoot). He might have also (likely) made false official statements which could get him fired, and possibly another criminal charge. The fact that he has already been fired, indicate to me that he did lie.
In this case, I think that the officer is likely to go to jail for a long time. Many sentences are tripled on law enforcement personnel who are found to have violated their trust.
This is clearly a much more serious incident than Ferguson, which was a complete fraud against an innocent police officer, or the Staten Island incident Eric Garner, where a suspect resisting arrest died from a heart attack and positional asphyxiation while normally restrained, due to his obesity.
This is murder, and the cop should fry.