Summary: The judge in the Michael Slager trial was forced to declare a mistrial after jurors could not reach a unanimous decision. Michael Slager is a white police officer who had shot an unarmed black man named Walter Scott, mutiple times. This happened in 2015 after a traffic stop. Slager claims these shots were in self-defense, as he thought Scott could've at any moment turn around and attack. This whole event was caught on video by a witness's phone. One juror said he could not vote for a convinction and was set on that. Slager was charged with murder and will face 30 years to life in prison if he is convicted. The Scott family is staying strong and waiting for their justice to be served.
Analysis/Synthesis: This isn't the first time we have heard of a police shooting. One of the most recognizable shootings that comes to mind is the Michael Brown case. Just like in the Michael Slager case, police officer Darren Wilson was not found guilty of his crimes. This time however it is because the jury can not reach a common ground. I found it very striking each time the writer(s) clarified who was white or black. It shows that this isn't just any other run in with the law; it unabashedly shows the clear racialism in this police shooting.
Sources: http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/05/us/michael-slager-murder-trial-walter-scott-mistrial/index.html
The thing that strikes me about this is that the officers accused often do not see an err in their ways. An immediate reaction to suspicion should not be firing bullets into a human being. White, cisgender, neurotypical, able-bodied men appear to truly be above the law in today's society. The first major case in which an officer was convicted for shooting an unarmed black man concerned a female officer. She shouldn't have gotten away with it, but she shouldn't have been the only one not to get away with it, either.
ReplyDelete-Cal Thompson