The shooting death of a middle aged
Black man, Walter Scott, at the hands of a South Carolina police officer,
Michael Slager, after a routine traffic stop for a broken tail light, has yet
again added another shocking ripple into the debate about excessive force used
by police officers in America.
This case is particularly stark because it was all caught on film by
a young man by the name of Feidin Santana,and showed Mr. Scott
apparently running away from the officer and instead of the officer
giving chase, he instead emptied 8 bullets into Mr. Scott, killing him within
seconds.
Of course you know that police profiling, police brutality and police shootings
of Black men in the United States is a very controversial and dark side of
America. One area in which America just seemingly can't turn the corner on the
racial divide.
What was also strange about the videowas that it's alleged that officer
Slager filed a false police report on the matter, stating that Scott was
reaching for his taser, a struggle ensued and that he had to use deadly force.
A report he filed before video evidence of the incident went viral on social
media.
Upon review of the video, nothing of the sort happened the way officer Slager
had stated. In fact, it appears as if the victim had no taser in his
hand, was not in a life and death struggle with officer Slager and
appeared to have been running for his life as if it were in imminent danger.
There is also a second video that emerged as a result of the initial
shooting video, this time of dash-cam footage of officer Slager in the initial
traffic stop and the subsequent first attempt to flee by Scott.
Persons close to Mr. Scott claims that Scott feared going back to
jail on child support issues, as he had a warrant out for his arrest from his
children's mother.
In addition, the initial viral-murder-video indicates that officer Slager after
having shot and killed Scott, went back to the spot where Scott ran from him
the second time, picked up something in his hand and dropped it near the body
of Scott, which investigators are now alleging to be the Taser officer
Slager said in his report that Scott had wrestled from him during the
scuffle, a scuffle that did not happen.
What's surprising is that Mr. Scott was 50 years old and officer Slager was 33.
Scott also appeared to be a shop-worn 50 year old with officer Slager as
an in-shape 33 year old. The questions must be asked: How much of a struggle
could it have been for officer Slager to use deadly force on a man running away
from him? Also, why was it so hard for officer Slager to give chase on a man,
who appears, to be barely able to get out of the way fast enough for his own
life let alone break out into a Usain Bolt-esque 100 meter dash?
All of this it appears to be "proof" of what persons in the Black
community have been saying all along: Police officers are hunting down Black
men for sport. And, if it was not as a result of the video by Mr. Santana that
incontrovertibly shows a middle aged man running away from a fairly young police
officer and being shot in the back 8 times as a result, officer Slager would
have been able to plant evidence and get away with filing false reports on what
actually happened during that fatal afternoon.
This recent shooting is on the back of another controversial police shooting in
Ferguson Missouri, of a black teenager, Michael Brown back in August of 2014.
The shooting and subsequent verdict in the case sent shock waves through the
world, as Ferguson Missouri was torn up as persons rioted and clashed with
state and local police in very intense protest stand-offs. Police stand-offs
complete with riot squads, the National Guard, mini tanks and military
style SUV's and Hummers.
The Michael Brown incident was not like the Walter Scott incident
however. Brown was a teenager (which seems to fit the narrative of police
officers killing black teens and statistics will show this quite definitively),
the shooting was not caught on film, Brown was a pedestrian walking down the
street with a friend of his that testified at the trial of the officer charged
with the killing.
Of course, police advocates claim that there is no distinction with who they
profile, stop, arrest or kill.
To give some obvious evidence of this was the lesser reported case of police using
deadly force back in April, 2014 with the shooting death of a
White-Hispanic male, Richard Ramirez, also during a routine traffic stop.
Ramirez was shot while sitting in the back seat of a car. Not known at the time
of the shooting was that Ramirez was high on Crystal Meth, and was unable to
coherently respond to the officers request, prompting fear from the officer of
Ramirez and the other passengers in the car that resulted
in Ramirez being fatally shot three times.
As a result of the Brown case in particular however, which ignited
the already smouldering sentiments from
within the African-American community about the White
establishment's treatment of their race, which also can be traced back to
the brutal beating of Rodney King and the subsequent riots that followed the
case and with the acquittals of the officers involved, slogans
started popping up like "Hands up. Don't Shoot!", "Stop the
Police!" and "Black Lives Matter!".
Yes, Black lives do matter. Having a brother die in police custody in the
United States, who was known to have a medical condition and was in the cell
for about 6 hours before any medical attention was brought to him after his
initial request for treatment, looking back at it seems very suspicious. Black lives must matter!
Regardless of the under-supported narrative on police killings and how
they claim not to target Black men and Black people in general, in
that they are no more profiling Black men as they are just doing regular police
work, the fatal statistics are somewhat telling.
Reported by Propublica.org, young Black men were shown to be 21 times
more likely to be killed by a police officer between 2010 and 2012 than Whites.
Also more startling was that between 1980 and 2012, there were 41 teens that
were14 years or younger reported to have been killed by police: 27
of them were black; 8 were white; 4 were Hispanic; and 1 was Asian.
The numbers are startling. While police advocates state that Black on Black
crime is the real killer in African-American cities, with the same can be said
for Caribbean countries as well and it is a legitimate fact, but it is an inconsequential
fact because what we're talking about here is police killings of Black men and
not Black on Black crime.
I, myself, have had my run in with law enforcement in America.
During my brief two and a half year study period, I was stopped a total
of five times and booked on two separate occasions. Both for traffic
violations. Oddly enough, one stop was for a broken tail light. The other was
for speeding, just a "little" over 30 in a residential area.
Seriously, it was just a little!
With the broken tail light incident, what happened afterwards was
startling: It started off with the one initial female police
officer that stopped me and asked me to come out of the car, and within 3
minutes I was surrounded by 6 other police officers; two additional squad
cars behind me; one to my passenger side with two officers; one head
on; one squad car adjacent; and another catawampus, all just
apparently stopping in to observe the proceedings. All were White and
White-Hispanic. All of this just for a tail light I did not even know was
broken, and also with me being five minutes away from home.
Looking back now and seeing what does take place with Blacks in America, it is
not a difficult thing to say that I was extremely lucky.
Needless to say it ended without an incident that would have garnered national
and international attention. The booking officer was so polite afterwards that
she helped me to push my car across the street because it has stalled. Yes,
even my little Nissan Sentra was shaken into stalling.
Another "alarming" incident happened on the way back to my dorm
room from a party, and it has some relevance to the situation that Walter Scott
faced.
That night an officer rolled up quite silently behind me, turned on his sirens
and asked me to pull over. Then, with his blow-horn, asked me to turn off
the car engine. I promptly complied. I then proceeded to hop out of the car as
if it was "the norm", having being asked to do so on two prior
occasions, one in which was the broken tail light incident.
He then retorted to me with shock and alarm in his voice, and then briskly
asked me to get back into the car. After about 2 minutes of him ruffling around
in his squad car, he came up to my window and asked me a few questions: Did I
know where I was, where was I going, do I have any documentation to prove
who I was, etc? I promptly complied, showed him my student identification,
where I was coming from and where I was going, and he then said quite calmly to
'continue on' after he ran another check on my status.
The officer also asked me why did I get out of the car? I told him, quite
calmly: "Isn't that the normal procedure?"
Looking back at that incident now, I felt a little more in danger considering
what getting out of the car can represent to a police officer if you are Black
and it being in the middle of the night and was not asked to do so.
Even though I was not ticketed for that stop, what was odd was that the
other ticketed offense with the broken tail light happened at night as
well, but the procedure was different. Totally different!
With all that being said, from the unfortunate death of Walter Scott, to the
Michael Brown incident, to the Rodney King beating, to the overwhelming crime
statistics that show, quite clearly, that while blacks are a mere 13% of
America's population they are 21 times more likely to be killed by a police
officer than whites, to my own issues while living in America while Black,
America has a long way to go with regard to sorting this problem. And it is an
"American problem"! Because myself having lived in London for just
about the same amount of time as I did in America, I note that I was not
stopped or questioned at any time by the police or district constables.
Not one time.
One thing seems to be important to this entire phenomenon however: Running away
from the problem only raises the level of seriousness, no pun
intended.
***Officer Michael Slager has been
fired by the Charleston South Carolina Police Department and is facing murder
charges for the killing of Walter Scott.****
Youri Aramin Kemp, is
President and CEO of "KEMP GLOBAL", a Management Consultancy firm, based
in the Bahamas which serves all markets. Our core competencies are:
Business and Project Planning and Design; Project Execution; Market
Researchn and Analysis; and Operations Development. Through our
affiliates, we offer Construction Services; Public Relations Services;
and IT and back office support to small and medium sized businesses.
Email: globalviewtoday@gmail.com
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