It’s quite common for juries to side with police officers in cases where those officers have shot and killed civilians, even when records show gross police misconduct. Despite mounting evidence that points to a need for reform of policing at structural levels, unapologetic police supporters think that these cases represent isolated incidents. Yet their “few bad apples” theory doesn’t paint a complete picture—a much larger and systemic problem which involves poor training, questionable policies and racist practices.
Take the 2015 shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, by Michael Slager, for instance. Scott (a black man) was stopped by Slager (a white man) for a brake light that was out. After what appears to have been a respectful interaction, Scott got out of the car and ran from Slager. We do not know exactly why Scott ran although it is suspected that it is because he was in arrears on child support payments. Slager tasered Scott, but the taser didn’t stop him. They scuffled and Scott managed to get away. Then Slager shot at Scott eight times, aiming at his back, and planted the taser next to Scott’s body. And it was all captured on video.
From the other side of a fence line, Feidin Santana, a 23-year-old barber and Dominican immigrant who was walking to work, witnessed the chase and began recording on his phone just as Scott broke away from Slager. Of all the police shootings that had been captured by citizens, this one was the most shocking. To many observers, it was unambiguous: An unarmed black man runs. A white cop coldly takes aim, shoots him multiple times in the back, and then appears to plant evidence—the Taser, which Slager had retrieved from where they had scuffled—beside the body.
This case shocked everyone in North Charleston—including the police themselves. Normally cops are the first to defend other cops but even they couldn’t defend Slager’s actions. It was obvious to anyone who saw the video that Slager was never in danger of being harmed by Scott as he was clearly running away from Slager.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017 · 2:06:43 PM +00:00
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Kelly Macias
According to four people familiar with the case, on Tuesday, Michael Slager will enter a guilty plea in the Federal District Court of Charleston. It is unclear as to which charges he will plead guilty to though it appears that he will plead to one or more of three federal civil rights charges.
North Charleston's police chief declared himself "sickened." Slager was fired and charged with murder—a rarity. His first lawyer quit and his union refused to pay for his defense. The city reached a swift civil settlement with Walter Scott's family and paid out $6.5 million without even being sued. Initially denied bail, Slager spent months in solitary confinement—some of that time in a cell next to Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black parishioners at Charleston's Mother Emanuel Church two months after Scott's death.
This is what makes the trial and resulting outcome so very bizarre. In December, the jury was unable to reach agreement about Slager’s guilt or innocence. They couldn’t even agree on a charge of manslaughter. Thus, a mistrial was declared and a new trial date has been set for August of this year. What exactly does it take to convict a cop of murder? Especially when the evidence is caught on camera? At a bare minimum, one of the outcomes of the trial has been a realization that cops in South Carolina are woefully underprepared for their jobs.
Maria Haberfeld, an expert in police training and the chairwoman of the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College in New York, was withering in her assessment when we spoke by phone. "South Carolina has one of the worst academies in the country, and that is saying a lot because police training in general is bad," she said. "Even within the context of how poorly we train, they are an embarrassment to the police profession and a danger to society." [...]
A report issued in March 2016 by the Police Executive Research Forum argued that misguided training—specifically, instruction that teaches officers to "draw a line in the sand" and resolve confrontations quickly—contributes directly to problematic shootings by police. Cops in training spend a median of 58 hours on firearms proficiency but just 8 hours learning de-escalation tactics to bring episodes to peaceful conclusions, according to PERF's research.
Add to that historical hostilities between police and communities of color and you have a recipe for disaster. In a world of where things have increasingly become polarized, we have to figure out how we can get police the proper training to do their jobs and hold them accountable when they endanger the public unnecessarily. Who knows what the outcome of this next trial will be but one thing is for sure—Walter Scott deserves justice.