South Carolina cop charged with murder in black man's death

No the cop should not shoot someone for evading. That's ridiculous. The fact that people believe this is a reasonable response blows my mind.

 

Cop should probably only shoot if he has very good reason to believe that this person could hurt others if he gets away. Assuming he has commited a crime doesn't fit that.

The shooting in the leg thing is not fool-proof...you're also shooting in a public place where bystanders could be hit. Same thing applies to some of these high speed car chases...with so many other people being endangered, I always wonder if the car chase was really worth it.

 

The problem with that, though, is that Scott was tased prior to running. The article mentions Slager tased Scott, and Scott still ended up running. The taser was ineffective in this case.

The best scenario would have been for Scott to surrender peacefully. There was no need to run. I don't even know why it escalated to tasing and would like to hear more about the events prior to the filming. Once Scott does run, Slager should have physically apprehended him and called for backup instead of gunning him down. Without any deadly threat, he was too quick to escalate to deadly force.

Police officer training is too quick to escalate to deadly force, in my opinion. That should be changed. More officers should be held accountable for their actions, as well. If more officers were held accountable for wrongdoings, we'd see a change. But then we need evidence of officer wrongdoings and that's with body cameras or street cameras. I've always been in favor of cameras in public areas. As a law abiding citizen, cameras are no threat to me and cameras always tell the truth.

 

I think this is exactly the right attitude.

 

Prison reform won't happen. Police reform maybe. Both are long overdue.

 

Agreed.

 

Good point. Tasers aren't always effective but even when they are effective they aren't guaranteed to be non-lethal or at least non-injurious.

This is a frequent argument that is brought up that if people just cooperated with police then these type incidents won't happen. I agree that in general this is the best policy yet a case like this shows that police could potentially overreact to a non-threatening situation. Further a case like what happened in SC where a highway patrol shot someone who was complying and also the recent cases in NYC and here in MN where police were recorded threatening otherwise compliant suspects, it does raise questions just how much a threat might Scott feel actually from the LEO rather than the otherway around.

I agree that there is a problem with the use of force among LE and I think the attitude of us versus them is driving a lot of that. I saw a recent story about a CHP officer who for decades of service handing out traffic tickets has never had a complaint and even has been complimented by people who he has hadn't out tickets too. What he did was that he actually tried to empathize with those he pulled over. Now while there are many situations where that wouldn't work there are many where simple good people skills could go a long way to defusing situations.

Another issue that I think needs to be addressed is the situations such as the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases where prosecutors treated the LE suspects much differently than other suspects when it came to indictments. Whether the officer ends up being found guilty or not the fact that they know they will get preferential treatment from a DA isn't a deterrent to bad behavior on the part of LE. I understand that LE is a very difficult job but that doesn't mean that an LEO accused of a crime shouldn't be treated like anyone else going through the criminal justice system. Doing so just breeds more distrust between LE, the judiciary and the public it is supposed they are supposed to protect and serve.

 

The reason someone is wanted in the first place is always factored into the decisions an officer makes up to an during an arrest. Just running away from a cop is never a justification to be shot at. In this case, the guy was pulled over for a traffic violation, and I assume the officer discovered he was wanted for unpaid child support payments (even if he didn't know, still not justified). It might be a different story if the guy was a murderer who was considered armed and dangerous.

Side note - It's 2015; there shouldn't be a police officer on duty anywhere in America that isn't wearing a body camera.

 

This idea that you can shoot someone in the leg to wound is a dangerous myth that has come from movies and TV shows. My understanding from going shooting with LE before is that you are taught to aim for the center of mass because for one it is difficult to hit the legs and in the case of someone who is a threat to you there is no guarantee that hitting someone in the legs will stop them.

The other part of this though is that shooting someone in the legs isn't a guarantee of just injury without death. A gunshot is a major trauma to the body and since there are major arteries running through the legs someone could bleed out very quickly. Also the trauma of being shot in the legs could cause shock and cardiac arrest in those who aren't in very good health and barring those there is always the danger of infection. So shooting someone in the legs as an alternative to lethal force might just end up killing them anyway except in slower and more painful.

 

I think the cop stopped him for a broken light on his car. He didn't know about the child support payments at the time. Of course, either way, he had no right to shoot the guy.

 

Normally during a traffic stop, they ID you. Any warrant/outstandings would have popped up. We don't know if they made it that far, regardless.

 

This is like stuff you see in movies or The Wire

 

Closest I could get to the first frame of the confrontation.

 

Well I don't think there is any question that the man was an active participant in his own death, but that doesn't make what the cop did right. The now dead man was a moron, and the cop is a criminal.

 

I can't tell anything from that still, honestly, except for the fact the cop is grabbing him by the arm, and the suspect is trying to pull away.

The fact the cop is *already* going for his gun is curious. Makes you think that perhaps before the two men got into frame, the suspect went for the officer's weapon.

The problem is the officer's credibility is shot to hell with all the lies he told already.

 

I may have missed it, but has the guy who shot the video been interviewed? I am curious as to why he decided to pull out the camera in the first place.

 

Well I think it's clear that the guy struggled to get away from the cop and ran which is just stupid.

Give the man a Darwin award and the officer the death penalty and call it a day.

At some point people are going to realize that fighting with cops is NEVER in your best interest. If they want to arrest you, go with it. If the arrest is unfair, sue.

 

Exactly... Run behind the suspect at a safe distance until backup shows up and then bum-rush him.

And the dude was 50 with an old man slow motion run.. Where da F was he going to run to. It actually looked like the cop could have walked real fast and kept up with him and or the guy would have passed out after a few more yards.

 

It seems inherently wrong to consider someone partially responsible for their own death simply because they ran from the police.

If we consider that to be true, then the officer is somewhat justified in his actions. His actions were simply unjustifiable given what we know.

No one who runs from the police after a traffic stop should reasonably expect be shot because of it, let alone eight times.

 

I'm not justifying what the cop did, I'm just saying that fighting with cops and running from them is NEVER a good idea. With as many incidents with police as there have been lately you'd think people would realize that it's not worth it to resist arrest.

In no way is the officer justified in shooting the man, he should have tackled him and tased the hell out of him, but not shot him. I'm just saying that when you fight with cops and run from them you are poking a bear, which is stupid.