It is our broken Law Enforcement Officer System that should be on Trial
-- Not its perennial victims, and far too often 'victims of color'.
When murder and manslaughter and race motivated killings, can be accepted simply "on the word" of the Officer doing the Killing, and the collecting Evidence, and the writing the CYA Reports
-- then something is definitely "broken" in our LEO System ... in many more ways than one, at least according to writer Charles Blow:
Walter Scott Is Not on Trial
by Charles M. Blow, NYTimes.com -- April 13, 2015
[...]
And the most disturbing thread that emerged for me was people who said up front that they saw no justification for Scott being killed, but nevertheless stalked around for a back door that would allow them to surreptitiously blame the victim for his own death. Some formulation of “if only he hadn’t run...” was the way this dark door was eased open.
If only ... the Cop hadn't shot him. In the back. When he was NO Threat to no one.
[...continuing ...]
For me, there is only one issue in the Walter Scott case: he is dead, and that cannot be undone. And not only was he killed, but he was killed in a most dishonorable way: shot in the back as he fled. So, for me there is only one question: Should the dead man be dead? Is there anything, under American jurisprudence and universal moral law, that justifies the taking of this man’s life?
What gives such Cops the ability to
Take or Give Life, seemingly
on a whim or mood?
All else wanders into the weeds. The judicial system could have easily dealt with any misdeed Scott is accused of -- failure to pay child support, failure to present proper documentation for a car he was driving, resisting arrest, fleeing -- and none of those offenses, if he were found guilty of any or all, would have carried the death sentence.
[...]
So what gives such Cops the
unchallenged authority to mete out such extreme punishment -- when a Jury
would never come close to the same Penalty
... never in a million -- unbroken -- years.
Walter Scott is NOT on Trial.
It should be our broken Law Enforcement Officer System that should be on Trial.
If there were any Real Justice in the world.