# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/141 "2015-04-09T11:50:31Z")
In case anyone besides **get lives** cares, I started a GQ thread on the MLK assassination matter [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18275535) so no further discussion need take place here. ---
**Author:** ![BlueOhio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@BlueOhio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueOhio)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/142 "2015-04-09T12:54:41Z")
I was anxiously awaiting this thread to get my weekly dose of aceplaceism’s. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/143 "2015-04-09T13:02:26Z")
> [@rsa](#): > > Nobody corrected this yet? Eight shots, five hits. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > They are trained, quite correctly, that if you must shoot someone, keep shooting until they go down. > This policeman obviously, to me, shot the guy when he should not have. I think **rsa** was correcting **Morgenstern** ’s statement that the officer fired 8 and hit with 3, rather than the other way around. I think we all understand that cops are supposed to keep firing until the target goes down. Or, maybe, stops. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/144 "2015-04-09T14:03:49Z")
> [@get\_lives](#): > > Didn’t you just get embarrassed by me in a GQ thread? Oh, I was embarassed FOR you alright - not by any of the facts I posted. Also, never believe that just because someone tires of fighting the delusions of another that those delusions somehow become true, no matter how often it happens. ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/145 "2015-04-09T14:10:18Z")
> [@BlueOhio](#): > > I was anxiously awaiting this thread to get my weekly dose of aceplaceism’s. Well, he has certainly over delivered. A few years ago, I got pulled over for speeding in Concord NC. It was a rather amazing traffic stop in that I was technically speeding, in that I was about 10 mph over the speed limit, but so were the dozens of motorists around me. In addition, a young guy in a flashy car had just blown past me doing at least 10mph faster than I was going , literally at the very moment I went by the cop on the shoulder. So imagine my surprise when it was me he pulled in behind. My wife (now ex-wife) could not believe it, and really mouthed off to the cop. IIRC, an actual quote was “Are you fucking shitting me?” 45 year old white woman, so she got a stern look. Eventually I was let go with NO TICKET. At no time in that traffic stop did I consider fleeing. But you know what? At no time in that stop did I even think for a moment that my wife and I were going to be arrested, cuffed, or shot. My wife calmed down, the officer backed down, and we all went on our way. Now, **aceplace57** , take my wife and I out of that story and insert a young African American couple. In the south. Do you honestly think that they would have been as assured of their safety? Do you think they would have been let off with no ticket? Especially after a little mouthing off? If you can’t see why there is a culture of fear amongst minorities in their dealings with police, then you just are either (a) not paying attention, (b) just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![get\_lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@get\_lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/get_lives)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/146 "2015-04-09T14:13:49Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Oh, I was embarassed FOR you alright - not by any of the facts I posted. Also, never believe that just because someone tires of fighting the delusions of another that those delusions somehow become true, no matter how often it happens. IOW, yes, you got embarrassed. You didn’t (and still don’t, apparently) understand the difference between _interpreting_ facial expressions and **making** them. For the most common emotional states, culture has no influence on how expressions are MADE. It has some small influence on how they are INTERPRETED. Please don’t respond to this, or to me, ever. I don’t find talking with you interesting, and I don’t come here to be bored. ---
**Author:** ![get\_lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@get\_lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/get_lives)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/147 "2015-04-09T14:16:16Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > Well, he has certainly over delivered. > > A few years ago, I got pulled over for speeding in Concord NC. It was a rather amazing traffic stop in that I was technically speeding, in that I was about 10 mph over the speed limit, but so were the dozens of motorists around me. In addition, a young guy in a flashy car had just blown past me doing at least 10mph faster than I was going , literally at the very moment I went by the cop on the shoulder. > > So imagine my surprise when it was me he pulled in behind. My wife (now ex-wife) could not believe it, and really mouthed off to the cop. IIRC, an actual quote was “Are you fucking shitting me?” 45 year old white woman, so she got a stern look. Eventually I was let go with NO TICKET. > > At no time in that traffic stop did I consider fleeing. But you know what? At no time in that stop did I even think for a moment that my wife and I were going to be arrested, cuffed, or shot. My wife calmed down, the officer backed down, and we all went on our way. > > Now, **aceplace57** , take my wife and I out of that story and insert a young African American couple. In the south. Do you honestly think that they would have been as assured of their safety? Do you think they would have been let off with no ticket? Especially after a little mouthing off? > > If you can’t see why there is a culture of fear amongst minorities in their dealings with police, then you just are either (a) not paying attention, (b) just don’t get it. You are forgetting that it could be BOTH. He could be both ignorant AND largely unable to use the available evidence to make a hypothesis. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/148 "2015-04-09T16:17:53Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > If people believe a police officer would randomly shoot a black person that is calmly responding to instructions and offering no resistance. I don’t have a response to that. That level of cynicism and distrust in our police is something that I can’t begin to comprehend. [Maybe this will help you comprehend it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XFYTtgZAlE) ---
**Author:** ![Fallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fallen)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/149 "2015-04-09T16:23:00Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Of course, what makes this murder? Can you say that the officer was premeditating the killing in the few seconds during which he draws his gun and opens fire? Unless he made a blog entry saying something like “I’m gonna cap me a black person today”, you can’t say he planned out the murder any further than during the traffic stop itself. Habeeb, you need to read up on what defines murder. What constitutes intent and murder does not revolve around someone planning to do it well ahead of time. Intent can be formed in an instant (and one can hardly argue the intent was not to kill when you shoot at someone that many times). ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/150 "2015-04-09T16:34:44Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > [Maybe this will help you comprehend it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XFYTtgZAlE) Calmly following instructions and offering no resistance != immediately reaching into your car where the cop can’t see your hands and without saying anything. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/151 "2015-04-09T17:07:14Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > The same “Deep South” people on which you are such a self reported expert, the ones who according to you don’t give a F%&\*, concluded 30 years after the fact that the government murdered a black man in the 60’s. The same “Deep South” people who, again according to you, would never convict a cop of the same thing in 2015 despite much more evidence. > > Facts don’t appear to matter to you and even your unsupported opinions conflict. :rolleyes: > [@get\_lives](#): > > Didn’t you just get embarrassed by me in a GQ thread? I’m just going to leave you alone so you can lick your wounds. > [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Oh, I was embarassed FOR you alright - not by any of the facts I posted. Also, never believe that just because someone tires of fighting the delusions of another that those delusions somehow become true, no matter how often it happens. > [@get\_lives](#): > > IOW, yes, you got embarrassed. You didn’t (and still don’t, apparently) understand the difference between _interpreting_ facial expressions and **making** them. For the most common emotional states, culture has no influence on how expressions are MADE. It has some small influence on how they are INTERPRETED. > > Please don’t respond to this, or to me, ever. I don’t find talking with you interesting, and I don’t come here to be bored. Regardless of whatever issues the two of you have with one another, that discussion doesn’t belong in this thread. Knock it off. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/152 "2015-04-09T17:08:02Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Except then we’d have people arguing that well, with what that guy said, of course he was dangerous. And defending racial slurs by saying that if the cop didn’t lynch anyone, it couldn’t really have been racist, etc. > > Trust will come back when people are treated equally and fairly by the cops and no sooner. It will take that, plus serious gun control. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/153 "2015-04-09T17:11:10Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I was once in a car between two North Little Rock police cars that were shooting at each other. Did you ever find out WTF that was about? ---
**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 9, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/154 "2015-04-09T17:11:30Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Calmly following instructions and offering no resistance != immediately reaching into your car where the cop can’t see your hands and without saying anything. He was calmly following instructions – he did what the cop told him to do, calmly, upon being asked. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/155 "2015-04-09T17:14:02Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > He was calmly following instructions – he did what the cop told him to do, calmly, upon being asked. And doing so in a way that looked exactly like he was reaching for his gun so he could shoot the cop dead. It’s common sense that whenever you need to reach for something when talking to a cop, you say out loud what you’re doing and keep your hands where he can see them. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/156 "2015-04-09T17:40:50Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > And doing so in a way that looked exactly like he was reaching for his gun so he could shoot the cop dead. It’s common sense that whenever you need to reach for something when talking to a cop, you say out loud what you’re doing and keep your hands where he can see them. Most people don’t have the amount of training for dealing with cops, as cops have for dealing with non-cops. For most people, their reaction will be ‘Obey the cop.’ They’re not going to think about how it looks to the cop. ---
**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 9, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/157 "2015-04-09T17:48:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > And doing so in a way that looked exactly like he was reaching for his gun so he could shoot the cop dead. No, except in the sense that reaching for any object in any location looks “exactly like he was reaching for his gun so he could shoot the cop dead”. Further, the cop continued shooting after it was _extremely clear_ that there was no gun. That’s a pretty good indication that it was the cop’s judgment that was flawed here. > [@](#): > > It’s common sense that whenever you need to reach for something when talking to a cop, you say out loud what you’re doing and keep your hands where he can see them. It’s far more “common” sense not to shoot someone for obeying instructions, and not to continue firing at an unarmed man who is falling backwards away from you. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/158 "2015-04-09T18:02:17Z")
[Feidin Santana](http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/man-who-filmed-walter-scotts-murder-was-terrified-and-still-fears-police): "I felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger. I thought about erasing the video and just getting out of the community, you know Charleston, and living some place else.” Kudos to the fellow who videoed the murder and gave the vid to the victim’s family. I hope the local police do not seek retribution. The interview at the bottom of the link includes Santana’s description of what he saw before he started videoing. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/159 "2015-04-09T18:07:53Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > That’s a pretty good indication that it was the cop’s judgment that was flawed here. Non-cops are expected to be rational and intelligent at all times. If they misunderstand instructions, panic, or fail to think about what their compliance looks like to a cop, they deserve to be shot and killed. Dumb-asses. Cops are allowed to have flawed judgement because they have a dangerous job. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder/717087/160 "2015-04-09T18:09:17Z")
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