Posted on 04/14/2015 5:58:20 PM PDT by IChing
In the very first media reports of the shooting by South Carolina officer Michael Slager of Walter Scott the North Charleston police were quoted as follows (Saturday April 4th):
FIRST MEDIA 4/4/15 […] Police in a matter of hours declared the occurrence at the corner of Remount and Craig roads a traffic stop gone wrong, alleging the dead man fought with an officer over his Taser before deadly force was employed.
[…] A statement released by North Charleston police spokesman Spencer Pryor said a man ran on foot from the traffic stop and an officer deployed his department-issued Taser in an attempt to stop him.
That did not work, police said, and an altercation ensued as the men struggled over the device. Police allege that during the struggle the man gained control of the Taser and attempted to use it against the officer. The officer then resorted to his service weapon and shot him, police alleged. (link)
A video containing part of the confrontation surfaced when eye-witness Feidin Santana contacted the family of Walter Scott the following day (Sunday); and then gave the video to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) on Monday.
Officer Slager was arrested later Monday afternoon and charged with Murder before witness Santana was even interviewed.
The actual public display of the video began on Tuesday April 7th. With the immediate media storyline stating the original police statements were “false” and/or “factually inaccurate”.
The story became about “lying police”, and that specific narrative framed the media discussion for the next week. Even normally level-headed media punditry jumped into the PC fray for their pound of flesh shouting that Officer Slager falsified his statement(s).
However, with time, further careful research, and much closer looks at the video itself, it appears that nothing initially stated by South Carolina LEO, or more specifically Officer Michael Slager is false or incorrect. [zoomed taser video by Bob]
So sorry, I forgot to check the box indicating this is an excerpt.
715 comments on previous thread concerning the disposition of the taser in relation to Slager’s physical person.
bump
So? It is the murder that he has been charged with that is the issue.
Did they also explain the altering of the crime scene and of the evidence?
There is a thread that started today you might find interesting. Some good images were posted from the Conservative Treehouse thread, and the debate began all over again.
People see only that original video showing only part of the encounter, and do not take the time to look any further, failing to realize that they are only looking at part of the tragic encounter.
Here is the thread for your perusal.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3279181/posts?q=1&;page=1
In Slager’s initial written report of the incident did he state that he had been actually ‘shot’ with his own taser during the struggle? (I know he said “He GOT my taser”, or something close to that, over his radio). Has the cop’s union or his superiors commented anywhere that Slager had indeed been shot, and ‘stuck’ with the barbs, of his own taser fired at him by Scott? I can’t find anything like that. What a mess.
The part that really interests people, is what is on the video, his defense attorney can use anything before it to help reduce his sentence, but he cannot explain away the killing.
It’s very clear that Scott and Slager were in combat on the ground with Scott over the officer, Scott got the taser as they rose up and Scott shot the officer with the taser gun. Scott had proven himself to be extremely dangerous and willing to go to extreme degrees to resist arrest. Totally justified shooting.
Regarding the murder charge, SLED is a political office meant to provide cover to the state administration. Slager is getting sacrificed to the wolves to prevent another Ferguson.
I agree there is more to this story.
But the video speaks for itself.
Shoot an unarmed man in the back when he was running away?
Going to be a tough sell.
Seems like there may have been a struggle and the Taser did not work for some reason.
Looks like the officer and the dead guy are caught in the wire, with device landing behind the officer...
I dunno...
Seems like there may have been a struggle and the Taser did not work for some reason.
Looks like the officer and the dead guy are caught in the wire, with device landing behind the officer...
I dunno...
Read this post. READ the post.
You mean when he is somewhere else?
He was only at the beginning of his fleeing at that point.
fyi this is a police taser that from what i read, once darts are in place can give repeat incapacitating shocks if you pull trigger again....
so yea if the darts are in the cop and the guy has the taser and if he pull the trigger would incapacitate the cop.. they yes i say a good shoot...
Because if the guy incapacitates the cop then the cop is at his mercy for the guy to take his gun and finish the job...
But that a lot of "what ifs" so in and of itself does not mean the shooting was justified..
but it does in mean the cop did not just calmly shoot some guy in the back for just running away....
the guy did attack the cop and try to incapacitate him....
So I want more detail... because the the spin is it was unprovoked cold blooded murder.
I think if they do got to trial in going to go manslaughter 1 or 2 .....if the cop should of seen the guy as no longer a threat..
And that depends on more details because at that range even if the guy still had a working taser was he a threat?
but it does seem clear the guy did grab the cops taser and attack the cop.... so state of mind.. heat of the moment ...that will factor
I think there was much more to this encounter than is shown on this video, which started at the end of two separate physical struggles.
There was a long (reportedly 2 minutes) fight at the entrance to the park, and there is reported to be an eyewitness to that fight, but it isn’t shown on the video we have seen.
There is some speculation that this video has been edited, but I am not qualified to analyze whether that is true.
When I slow down the video, and go frame by frame, the most critical point is right at the start of the video, in frame 16 and 17.
In frame 16, Slater is holding Scott with his left hand grabbing Scott’s right arm. Scott’s left arm is hidden by his body, which is sideways to Slager, and at the same time Slater is pulling his gun from the holster on his right side with his right arm.
In frame 17, a blink later, we see Scott pulling away from Slater as the “item” gets tossed behind Slager. I can’t see the toss of the item by Slager by his left arm (his weapon was in his right), so conclude that Scott must have thrown it with his left arm.
But others may not have taken the time to look at that very early encounter, focusing only on the shooting. The question to me is what caused Slager to shoot? If he thought Scott still had the taser, then he may have felt imminent threat.
So you suggest that, instead of shooting, Slager should have again given foot chase, wound up wrestling on the ground in close combat with him again, and this time risk Scott taking his gun instead of the taser he took the first time and deployed against the cop. Scott eliminated that as a possibility when he attacked the cop with his own weapon the first time. He also proved that he was extremely dangerous and desperate and posed a risk to other officers coming into the scene or innocent bystanders (potential hostages).
Actually Scott had been ‘fleeing’ for several minutes at that point, was physically resisting arrest and may have assaulted the officer with his own taser.
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