# South Carolina police officer charged with murder. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087 "2015-04-08T01:36:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/301 "2015-04-13T16:55:30Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > They didn’t have much of a dad before he was dead, either. > > Regards, > Shodan He paid his child support. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/302 "2015-04-13T17:11:42Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Weird. Sure, maybe he was a crappy dad (maybe it’s even better than 50/50 that he was, depending on the evidence), but I’ve always assumed that the possibility that I might be slandering a dead person who didn’t deserve to die would outweigh any positives gained by insulting the dead. > > Maybe you’re right – but is this possibility worth the chance that you’re unjustly insulting the memory of a dead man and his family? Funny how tender you are towards the feelings of a dead guy while busily accusing a living one of murder. We’ll both have to live with our consciences. I am comfortable describing this person, with his history of assault and battery, being kicked out of the military for drug offenses, and buying cars instead of paying the tens of thousands he owed in child support, as “not much of a dad”. You’ll have to live with yours. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/303 "2015-04-13T17:17:50Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Oo! Oo! Pick me! Pick me! > > I was sarcastically responding to **Rysto** ’s charmingly sarcastic suggestion that all deadbeat parents deserve to be murdered… Thats a relief, for a minute I thought you were saying the Walter Scott shooting was justified, but you were being sarcastic. My mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/304 "2015-04-13T17:19:48Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > He paid his child support. > 🙂 > [@Chris Rock](#): > > “I ain’t never been to jail!” What do you want, a cookie?! You’re not supposed to go to jail, you low-expectation-having motherfucker! Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/305 "2015-04-13T17:29:49Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Funny how tender you are towards the feelings of a dead guy while busily accusing a living one of murder. I’d say it’s about the dead guy’s family, which I’ll admit to being far more concerned about than the killer’s family. I accuse Slager (without the force of law, while understanding that he has the right to a fair trial) of murder because that’s what the video seemed to show – he shot a man that posed no immediate danger to anyone, then immediately recognized that he did something wrong and tried to stage evidence to exonerate himself. No video showed Scott being a poor father, or trying to cover up bad fatherhood. > [@](#): > > We’ll both have to live with our consciences. I am comfortable describing this person, with his history of assault and battery, being kicked out of the military for drug offenses, and buying cars instead of paying the tens of thousands he owed in child support, as “not much of a dad”. You’re a lot more trusting of various media allegations (without video evidence) than I am. Maybe Scott did all those things, but “media source says he bought cars instead of paying child support” isn’t enough for me to insult a dead man. Or maybe he did all those things but is mentally disturbed through no fault of his own. In such I case I choose to err on the side of “don’t risk insulting the memory of an unjustly killed person”. And as I said before, no described sin of Scott’s comes remotely close to Slager pulling the trigger and killing him. > [@](#): > > You’ll have to live with yours. > > Regards, > Shodan In the scheme of things, if one of us is wrong it doesn’t really matter. I just found your statement extremely callous, and I couldn’t imagine so describing a man who was unjustly killed myself. In normal human communication, your statement is an implicit “good riddance”. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/306 "2015-04-13T17:33:48Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I am comfortable describing this person, with his history of assault and battery, being kicked out of the military for drug offenses, and buying cars instead of paying the tens of thousands he owed in child support, as “not much of a dad”. Are you as comfortable as you seem with calling that a capital offense, trial not required? With defaming a dead man in order to rationalize excusing his killer? > [@](#): > > We’ll both have to live with our consciences. … > You’ll have to live with yours. I’ll make that choice the same way every time. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/307 "2015-04-13T18:33:12Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Funny how tender you are towards the feelings of a dead guy while busily accusing a living one of murder. I suppose everyone’s allowed one shooting, right? I guess we’ve been a bit mean towards the poor ole thing; he only meant to taze Harris a few times. Now that “that’s that;” what about that scum Harris who was shot in the back, on the floor, while in custody, and mocked as he lay dying, pleading for help… what a horrible person, totally deserved to die. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/308 "2015-04-13T18:42:50Z")
As it turns out I’m not in the shooting death thread about Harris, but an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT thread. Damn, I’ve got to keep these murder threads straight. (Of course it seems that this death was equally as pointless and sad as Eric Harris’) ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/309 "2015-04-13T18:48:34Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Are you as comfortable as you seem with calling that a capital offense, trial not required? No, I don’t seem to have said anything of the sort. > [@](#): > > I’ll make that choice the same way every time. Yes, you do seem to respond to things I didn’t say a lot. [QUOTE=iiandyiii] You’re a lot more trusting of various media allegations (without video evidence) than I am. [/QUOTE] So you won’t believe that he was kicked out of the Coast Guard for drug offenses until you see videotape? Do you believe he owed child support, or does someone need to record it on their cell phone? My gosh, the knots you people tie yourselves into. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/310 "2015-04-13T19:08:21Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > No, I don’t seem to have said anything of the sort Is that an admission that the many details of the dead man’s life you have offered us here are not, in fact, relevant to the situation? If you do think they’re relevant, then you have a reason for thinking so, a reason that you are reluctant either to defend or withdraw. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/311 "2015-04-13T19:14:45Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > So you won’t believe that he was kicked out of the Coast Guard for drug offenses until you see videotape? Do you believe he owed child support, or does someone need to record it on their cell phone? > > My gosh, the knots you people tie yourselves into. For me, I believe these things are not only completely irrelevant, but offensively irrelevant. Unless you’re saying that any of these things justify the shooting, they have nothing to do with the thread. And no, there’s no parity between saying nice things about the deceased and saying awful things about the deceased, unless when you go to funerals you get up and say, “To be fair, your grandma was arrested three times for DWI, so she really was kind of an asshole.” When someone dies, we remember the best things about them, so people saying kind things about Scott are working in that tradition. When someone commits homicide, we evaluate their actions specifically, and consider the actions of the deceased only to the degree it might legally justify the homicide. That’s why folks are asking you if Scott’s failure to pay child support mandates a death sentence–because if it doesn’t, it has no relevance to the thread. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/312 "2015-04-13T19:21:57Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > So you won’t believe that he was kicked out of the Coast Guard for drug offenses until you see videotape? Do you believe he owed child support, or does someone need to record it on their cell phone? For me to believe with the certainty necessary for me to insult the unjustly killed? Yes (and I’m not even sure if that would be enough). Your assertions have no relevance to the thread, except to express “good riddance to bad rubbish”. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/313 "2015-04-13T19:24:27Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Is that an admission that the many details of the dead man’s life you have offered us here are not, in fact, relevant to the situation? No, I am pointing out that your version of what I have said in this thread is, shall we say, imaginative rather than realistic. [QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] For me, I believe these things are not only completely irrelevant, but offensively irrelevant. Unless you’re saying that any of these things justify the shooting, they have nothing to do with the thread. [/QUOTE] I’m sorry to have to decline your application to be arbiter of what is or isn’t relevent. Whether you think general discussion, and opinions other than your own, are relevant to the thread or not will have no effect on what I post. Thanks just the same. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/314 "2015-04-13T19:34:00Z")
So, neither support nor withdraw, just pretend it didn’t happen, once again. Sad. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/315 "2015-04-13T19:40:34Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > No, I am pointing out that your version of what I have said in this thread is, shall we say, imaginative rather than realistic. > I’m sorry to have to decline your application to be arbiter of what is or isn’t relevent. Whether you think general discussion, and opinions other than your own, are relevant to the thread or not will have no effect on what I post. Thanks just the same. > > Regards, > Shodan So how was it relevant? Did you not intend it as “good riddance to bad rubbish”? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/316 "2015-04-13T19:45:25Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > So you won’t believe that he was kicked out of the Coast Guard for drug offenses until you see videotape? I can’t find that, Shodan. Do you have a cite? Thanks, Plant. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/317 "2015-04-13T19:53:08Z")
If I may be so bold as to offer an interjection, **Shodan’s** comments were made in answer to Scott’s children being without a dad, and in support of the observation that he wasn’t much of a father. I cannot imagine how anyone, let alone several people, might manage to interpret that to mean that **Shodan** is therefore implying that Scott deserved to die or that his death was “good riddance to bad rubbish”. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/318 "2015-04-13T19:57:10Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > If I may be so bold as to offer an interjection, **Shodan’s** comments were made in answer to Scott’s children being without a dad, and in support of the observation that he wasn’t much of a father. I cannot imagine how anyone, let alone several people, might manage to interpret that to mean that **Shodan** is therefore implying that Scott deserved to die or that his death was “good riddance to bad rubbish”. There was no purpose to asserting that Scott wasn’t much of a father (and therefore his children aren’t really missing anything important) that I can conceive of other than “good riddance to bad rubbish”. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/319 "2015-04-13T20:22:33Z")
Yes, there was. It was to say that given his history there isn’t likely to have been too much of a father there for his children to miss, and therefore concern over their loss might be somewhat misplaced. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/320 "2015-04-13T20:29:03Z")
_That’s_ who there is to defend **Shodan** on the point - someone with _that_ much well-demonstrated concern for the welfare of children. \*You \*wanna tell the kids they really haven’t lost all that much? What words would you use? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087.md?page=17)