If armed? That sounds a whole hell of a lot like “I feared for my life” or that hoary old chestnut “he went for my gun.”
If armed, indeed. And how do you have the guts to still post here under that same username, Mr. Paper Towel Tube? LOL
No, actually it is true. Denial doesn’t affect that.
Regards,
Shodan
Do they teach this kind of behavior at your church, Christian?
I didn’t see it on the video if he did. Of course, we also don’t know if there was a grassy knoll nearby, from which the black guy was really shot.
Also keep in mind that not two days after this guy got shot, a scientist says that we will soon have definite proof of life on other planets. Coincidence? Or something - deeper?
Who’s judging him harshly? I am asking if you can describe, or point to, the expression on the cop’s face, or his body language, that communicated “Run so that I can shoot you” vs. “If you run I will shoot you”.
And if the expression, or whatever it was, communicated “dangerous cop” then in what way was it a good idea to run away? And if the cop was going to shoot him no matter what, why would the cop wait until he was running away? If all he was thinking was “think I’ll kill me some nigger”, wouldn’t it be better to shoot him so all the bullet holes were in the front? That would back up the scenario where the black guy attacked him. (Assuming in either case, the cop didn’t recognize that he was being filmed.)
If a cop is pointing a gun at you, you do what he says (to the extent possible). You don’t run away, you don’t make any sudden moves. That doesn’t entitle the cop to shoot you if you do, but it makes it less likely that you will get shot.
I’m white, and I know enough not to make people with guns nervous. I would think a black person, with all the alleged racism that the SDMB loves to RO over, would know it too.
The cop shouldn’t have shot him (as far as can be determined so far), but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t stupid to run.
Regards,
Shodan
My point (badly made) was that the murderer has lied about everything so far. If we exclude all of his claims, there are stories that make the guy’s running seem like a rational decision.
That makes better sense, but I wouldn’t take any other, unsubstantiated stories at face value any more than I would take the cop’s account at face value. The cop lied, apparently, so his story isn’t true. That doesn’t make any other stories true. IYSWIM.
Regards,
Shodan
You are, for one thing – insisting that it was “stupid to run” below. Maybe he was “stupid” for running, or maybe not, but all I’m saying is that there are reasonable circumstances not beyond credibility that are consistent with the video in which it would decidedly not be stupid to run, and that this may have been the case.
Obviously not, from the distance and angle of the video.
It may have been a good idea to run away if the victim reasonably believed that the cop urgently meant to do him immediate and serious bodily harm.
I doubt he was thinking “gotta kill me a nigger” – but I think it’s very possible that, at some point, something snapped in the cop and he decided he wanted or needed to do serious harm to this man.
There are circumstances in which someone is pointing a gun at you and the best (or at least a reasonable) course of action is to run. I don’t know if this was one of them, but it’s entirely possible.
It doesn’t mean it was stupid to run, either, except with 20/20 hindsight. There are circumstances entirely consistent with the video in which running might be the best chance he had to survive.
This is entirely out of place in this thread. You are receiving a warning for personal insults and attempting to de-rail a thread. Do not do this again.
No, I can only imagine that someone stole a police car.
Yikes! Glad you weren’t caught in the crossfire.
Thanks, so were we! 
It may have been, but I haven’t seen any evidence that it was. AFAICT in this case it was stupid to run. If that is a harsh judgment, so be it.
What reasonable basis did the victim have for believing that the cop was going to shoot him, even if he didn’t run?
It’s possible. IMO it is far more common that the cop will not shoot you if you don’t run.
No offense, but you appear to be trying to have it both ways. The vic was right to run, because we know in hindsight that the cop would shoot him.
And I don’t find it reasonable to say that only 20/20 hindsight can tell us if it is a bad idea to run from the cops. Because this notion that cops are typically racist and trigger-happy is nonsense.
If you do not [list=A][li]attack the cop, or []run away from the cop, or []make any sudden movements, or[*]refuse to let the cop handcuff you if he feels the need[/list]then the cop will not shoot you. [/li]
It doesn’t mean that the cop was justified in shooting, in this case. But it seems very likely that the shooting could have been avoided with a little common sense.
I suspect this is going to run like many threads discussing rape. It is not the woman’s fault if she gets raped while doing something stupid, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t stupid.
Regards,
Shodan
Oh, sure you could … but you’d need to have the proper training … and self-confidence (or motivation).
I should certainly be motivated.
iiiandyiii.
If the man had not run, do you think the cop would have shot him anyway? Why?
Can you point to a case in which someone has run from the cops and it turned out to be a net positive for them?
You mean the ones that don’t wind up dead? Living would seem to count.
I don’t know, and there’s no way to know.
I’ll point to cases that almost certainly have occurred in American history – slaves running from police and getting away to freedom; black people running from racist police enforcing Jim Crow polices (and supporting lynchings) and escaping; black people running from individual racist cops who mean to do them harm because they are bullies who enjoy beating black people.
Probably most of the instances in which someone ran from the police were not such circumstances, and it was an unwise move. But not all, and considering that this cop was a bad and murderous cop, I’m not at all sure that Scott’s decision to run wasn’t entirely rational based on what he knew at the time.
Officer Michael Slager
Walter Scott
Slager stopped Scott because the car Scott, and an as of yet unnamed passenger, was driving had a faulty/broken center brake light (not a tail light). Scott was followed by Slager as he pulled into an Advance auto parts store parking lot.
In the police cam video, Slager asked Scott for drivers license and insurance card. Scott didn’t produce ownership, or insurance, papers because he said he was test driving, or planning to buy, the vehicle.
Question - Who owns the vehicle? The passenger? Someone else?
During the stop, Scott attempted to exit the vehicle, but was told by Slager to stay in the vehicle. Scott later bolted from the vehicle and ran away. (Nothing suspicious about that action. rolleyes )
Off camera, Slager can be heard yelling Taser, Taser, Taser, and telling someone (Scott?) to get on the ground, get on the ground. No gunshots were heard.
Feidin Santana later video’d more of the confrontation between Scott and Slager. “Before I started recording, they were down on the floor. I remember the police [officer] had control of the situation,” Santana said. “He had control of Scott. And Scott was trying just to get away from the Taser.”
…*The video begins by showing a second or two of an apparent struggle between the officer and suspect. The officer contended he used a Taser stun gun on Scott and that Scott tried to take that weapon, authorities said.
…The video shows Walter Scott running away, with his back to the officer. As he does so, two objects fall. One falls behind the officer. And the other falls between the two men.
…As Walter Scott runs away, the officer pulls his service pistol and fires eight times, the video shows. As the shots are being fired, Scott keeps running away from the officer, the video shows.
…It was Slager who apparently called police dispatch. “226 to dispatch, shots fired, subject is down. He grabbed my Taser,” Slager told the dispatcher, according to a transcript provide by Broadcastify.com.
…A slow-motion analysis of the tape, along with highlights of key moments, supports the family’s step-by-step interpretation of the officer’s actions, including the handling of the Taser, the attorney alleged.
“He drops the Taser, kills Mr. Scott, walks all the way back, picks something up off the ground from where he was taking the shots, comes back to the body, waits a second, drops it on the ground, and then pretends to be recovering it and putting it back on his holster,” Stewart said, referring to the Taser.*
Question - How did the Taser end up on the ground?
Question - Did Scott knock the Taser out of Slager’s hand?
Question - Did Slager throw the Taser behind himself?
Question - Why did Slager feel he had to retrieve the Taser and place it closer to Scott’s body? (This, alone, is a reason to fire Slager.)
From the Santana video, beginning at 0:24, you see both Scott, and Slager, bent over and appear to be struggling.
At 0:25, Scott is turning away from Slager, and beginning to run, Slager is reaching for his firearm, there is a black object on the ground in front of Slager’s feet, and another black object (Taser?) sliding away behind Slager.
At 0:26, Slager fires the first of 8 shots at Scott. The Taser wire(s) can be seen leading from Slager’s forarm towards Scott. (Taser wires would normally come from the barrel of the Taser, not drapped over the Taser users forarm.)
At 0:035, Slager radios dispatch - “223, shots fired,” he said. “Subject is down. He grabbed my Taser.”
…As Slager began stopping Scott at the intersection of Remount Road and Craig Road at about 9.35am, he radioed the dispatcher to say he was “coming up on a grey … Mercedes”.
Santana later told CNN that Slager had Taser’d Scott.
A Taser representative told CNN this morning that their Taser cartridges leave a shower of particles/confetti to identify the area where the Taser was fired. Which makes it doubly stupid to move the Taser from where it was fired, or had slid to.
Initial stop - Advance Auto at Remount Road and Craig Road, North Charleston, SC -
http://www.mapquest.com/us/south-carolina/business-north-charleston/advance-auto-parts-3525316
Question - But where did the shooting take place? How far away from the initial stop? Was it somewhere along Craig Rd?
Besides the T-1000?
This whole series of shootings is disturbing to me because I know I’m going to have to discuss it with my kids. What do I tell them about police officers? Trust them? Don’t trust them? Obey them because they’re good people and it’s the right thing to do, or because they’re they law and might kill you? Just do your best to never encounter one?
I would rather be able to tell my kids that all police officers were good honest people that they could trust. Santa is the biggest lie I’ll tell them right now though.