A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the murder case of Michael Slager, the South Carolina officer who killed Walter Scott, an unarmed black man who was shot in the back multiple times following a routine traffic stop. The 2015 incident, caught on video and widely viewed around the country, focused the nation’s attention on police treatment of African-Americans and reignited protests of law enforcement following a series of black men killed by officers. There was a video released.
This was written on December 5,2016, yet the trial was in 2015 and there was no justice.
Few officers go to trial for on-duty shooting deaths, and even fewer are convicted. From 2005 and to 2014, 69 officers have been charged for on-duty shootings while only 26 were found guilty, according to numbers compiled by the The Wall Street Journal. In April, an Oklahoma volunteer sheriff’s deputy was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of 44-year-old Eric Harris. But in other high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of police, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, juries have not handed down convictions. You can even compare this to the Dred Scott Decision on how black people never get the justice they deserve in certain court cases.
I like your comparison to the Dred Scott Decision and agree that some justice needs to be served at some point.
ReplyDeleteYour synthesis was phenomenal I totally agree about what you stated. And honestly people who make decisions during these trials really need to open their eyes. " 69 officers have been charged for on-duty shootings but only 26 were found guilty" wow....
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