Posted on 04/12/2015 3:58:09 AM PDT by IChing
On the first day we saw the North Charleston, South Carolina, shooting video of Walter Scott by Officer Michael Slager we were as shocked as everyone. However, as research now indicates there is much more to the story.
What we cover here in the latest update might just change the entire way the story continues…
(Excerpt) Read more at theconservativetreehouse.com ...
Really.
How do you get the taste of boot polish out of your mouth at the end of the day?
I am truly curious.
Who knows why. Recall that Zimmerman’s first lawyers did the same thing
Agreed with all your observations- that’s what I saw in the post
“...Please explain? I would like to know under what circumstances can someone be shot as they run away from a police officer that would fit the scenario being discussed here?...”
It used to be you have to be able to articulate that the fleeing suspect posed an immediate deadly-force threat to the officer and/or others. There are countless “what-if” scenarios you can come up with, but the bottom line is that the suspect poses an immediate, deadly threat to yourself and/or someone else and you have to shoot to stop him.
So take two cops and put them in the same situation. Officer Barney is prone to panicking and knee-jerking when his badge-heavy bluster fails him and someone calls his bluff. He’s physically incapable or has p1$$-poor hand-to-hand skills so he escalates to his taser/gun early and hopes it scares the bad guys into behaving. The problem with Barney is that he’s all bluff and hasn’t really thought through what he’s going to do when he eventually encounters a guy that calls all of his bluffs.
Then you have Andy who realizes that the guy who just fled from him for a minor infraction (equipment violation) is a pudgy mess and may have a heart attack running. So he has to choose if it’s worth chasing him when: he already has his car and his ID. Radio says there are no warrants on him -OR- perhaps radio says there is a warrant for child-support (a non-violent issue). Andy may instead choose to tow the dude’s car and go get him later from his house at his leisure. That tow bill is going to cost him a whole lot more than an equipment violation, but the dude shouldn’t have run. Now, if the guy fits the description of a recent bank-robbery or murderer or whatever, the scenario changes and you will pursue. But even then, you still can’t shoot a bank-robber or murderer in the back unless you can articulate that he posed an immediate deadly-force threat to the officer and/or others.
And there are perhaps a gazillion other scenarios you could dream up, but the bottom line (and I’ll keep saying it even if I wear it out) we need fewer badge-heavy, inept, rule-mongering, panicky Barney Fife’s and more calm-under-pressure, level-headed, patient Andy Griffith’s who know how/when to exercise a reasonable level of discretion and know when to escalate use of force *and* have the physical skills to escalate. I am convinced that would help ease a bunch of this “us vs them” crap.
There are tens of thousands of cops in this country, the overwhelming majority of whom are good, honest, hard-working, decent individuals. Criticizing the tiny minority of bad ones does not mean that we’re anti-cop, no matter what some people around here may think.
No, it’s far more complicated than that, the old fleeing felon rule went out the window in 1985, but if you pay attention to the analysis at the link Slager has some defense points.
You have yet to explain why slager jogs 30 feet,retrieves and object, returns,and places it next to Mr scotts body.
Was the SOP when you were a cop?
Excellent, thank you
The two, and adding Wilson/Brown, are different instances. Each resulted in dead "perps". While Zimmerman and Wilson are, in my opinion, good shoots, this one is not.
You can try the case in this court of public opinion, just as others will. Your attitude is that those find fault with Slager are somehow not fair is simply your opinion. Wrong, in my opinion.. Boil it down to the bare facts and Slager was NOT in imminent danger, the perp had disengaged and was fleeing. No one, certainly not a civilian, has a justification to shoot an unarmed person in the back. Not unless it is a war zone and a soldier is simply liquidating a combatant. Now, if you wish to state that cops are working in a war zone and the citizenry are the enemy....well then, we have an issue that too many cops today seem to perceive it to be.
What you said. Case closed.
The officer is alive to complain of taser darts and taser wrap from an altercation.
The other guy is dead, face down, shot in the back how ever many times while in retreat, at barely a gallop.
Your remarks in this thread make perfect sense to a commonsense, law abiding citizen. IMO your factual reasoning will fall to the gutter with police hating individuals. Oh how wonderful it was back in the day(before Obama stirred up old race divisions) when a person had to be proved guilty by their peers in a court of law instead of a group of internet/mean-stream media mobs.
I find it interesting that the media constantly injects the fact the person shot was black and the policeman was white but the media does not want to report the race of a black person when they just assaulted a white person. I am disgusted by the double standard.
Oh, I looked at it and It’s a desperate grasp for an excuse. Like I said, he may get a lawyer to convince the jury, but if the prosecution is worth a hoot, it’s does not seem all that difficult to defeat that desperate claim.
And I really don’t care what the cop is ultimately convicted of, that’s entirely up to the state and the jury. But make no mistake - Slager and his colleagues in that P.D. know it was a bad shooting. All they are doing now is trying to minimize the ultimate sentencing. As far as I can tell, Slager’s goose is cooked if he gets an even halfway capable prosecutor. Maybe he will next claim “temporary insanity”, which is just as convincing as “he was confused and thought Scott still had the Taser (the one that Slager himself dropped in order to draw his pistol). My advice to Slager is to immediately ask for solitary confinement when he gets to prison.
Personal insults: the last resort of a liberal when reason fails.
“If I am wrongly stopped by a cop and he “assaults” me while wrongly stopping me, can I shoot him and say all is good?”
In that situation, you are not the LEO and different laws apply, so your comparison apples and oranges is a rather senseless exercise.
Except, the author of that Daily Beast piece does a somewhat cursory, dismissive job, not bothering to look into the kinds of factors as found at TCT. And he’s probably wrong; if I had to bet I’d say Slager does time on a lesser charge of some kind, although the state could blow it like they already have by charging murder.
Depending on the cartridge the wires can be from 25-35 feet for most duty use. As long as the cartridge is attached to the device, subsequent pulls of the trigger will send a charge to the darts. Additionally there are blunt probes at the end of the cartridge so that you can push the weapon into the intended target and deliver a “drive stun.” Not as effective, but still quite painful. <
Bkmrk.
I have personally seen the overwhelming good that good officers accomplish every day. Just as there are great police officers who truly love their jobs and do the best they can in very difficult conditions, there are the few who seem to be caught being complete miscreants and violating common rules of decency and good order.
Holding any group's feet to the fire is not being anti this or anti that. Being charged with carrying a deadly weapon and being the "line" between civility and barbarity comes with great responsibilities. When cops are right, they are rightly praised. When cops are wrong, they must be held accountable.
It’s hard to tell but it doesn’t look to me like Slager threw down the taser. It looks like Scott was the last one to have possession of it. What I don’t find convincing is that the probe is stuck in Slager. I think it’s more likely the wire got tangled around him during the struggle.
Funny...I thought calling a freeper a Liberal was also a peronsal insult.
Has ANYONE in this thread attempted to explain why Slager would retrieve an object and place it next to Scott’s body?
Anyone?
Bueller?
This was an X26 so you have to manually switch the cartridge. None of the accounts go into that yet.
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