Almost Ferguson

The policeman was accused of killing an unarmed African American: why is it important

On April 4, the 33-year-old police officer of North Charleston (South Carolina) Michael Sleger shot eight times in a 50-year-old local resident, African American Walter Scott, who died on the spot. Scott was unarmed; According to the policeman, he tried to take away the Taiser (stun gun) from him and forced to open fire. Against the backdrop of protests against police arbitrariness in Ferguson and New York, the murder of Scott became the number one news in the United States-and a national scandal. And on April 7, Slager was charged with murder, which in the States in such cases practically did not happen to the Police in the States. "Medusa" says what happened in North Charleston and why this case of a police violence is special.

The death of Walter Scott is almost completely documented: video recordings and the moment of shooting are published ( carefully: the video contains the scene of the murder ), and what happened before it. Based on the rollers and testimonies of Scott, a policeman can be restored in sufficient detail, what exactly happened on April 4 in North Charlston (population-about 100 thousand people) in South Carolin, where there are more African American ones than white. At the same time, almost the entire state of the city police consists of white.

What happened?

On April 4, Michael Sleger demanded the driver of Mercedes-Benz to stop-as the policeman explained in the report, the back of the headlight did not work for the car. On the recording from the DVR in a police car it is clear that Sleger asks for documents and insurance from a black driver. Scott explains that he has not yet purchased this car and has not issued insurance, but is going to do it in the very near future. The policeman asks Scott to wait in the car and goes to his car, but the man is trying to leave Mercedes twice: the first time he obeys the demand of Slager, and runs away after 20 seconds.

According to slager, he rushed after the man in pursuit and tried to shoot him from Taiser - an non -lethal stormy -shocker. A brawl began, Scott took away the taisor from the policeman and continued to flight, after which Sleger took out a firearm and shot eight times, and then ordered the wounded man to lie down (Scott had already fallen down on the lawn) and put on his handcuffs.

The random passerby shot the shooting on the phone - it is this shooting that casts doubt on the reliability of the policeman's testimony. These events did not fall about the brawl and the tiezer only from the words of the policeman, and on any of the video recordings. But on the shooting of a passerby it can be seen how, after the shooting, Sleger takes a certain object and throws him to the body of a shot -out man - it is quite possible that the same taisor, which, according to Slager, was at Scott and posed a threat to the policeman. In addition, the police report says that they provided first aid to the wounded man; And judging by the video, at least a few minutes he lay on the grass, chained in handcuffs. Was it possible to save him is unknown. Five of the eight bullets released by the police got into Scott, one of them touched the heart.

Why did Walter Scott run away from the policeman?

The deceased Walter Scott can hardly be called a respectable citizen - he was more than ten times held accountable for various crimes, but not one of them was associated with violence. Basically, Scott violated the law when it came to payments of alimony or obligations to appear in court. The policeman did not have time to blame him for anything specific; Apparently, a man, faced with a law enforcement officer, panicked because of previous problems with the law.

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Police are usually not accused of murders in the performance

The US legislation justifies the murders in the execution in two cases - if the murdered person posed a significant threat to the life and health of a policeman or others, and if he committed a serious crime and tried to hide from the police. In most cases, the courts believe more by police officers than witnesses, and video evidence in such cases arise extremely rarely. The role and vague of the formulation of a significant threat plays the role and vague.

That is how it was in two loud killings with the participation of police officers-neither Darren Wilson, who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, nor Daniel Pantaleo, strangling Eric Garner during the detention in New York, were not accused of murder. In both cases, the court not only justified the police, but even on a pre-trial examination did not find any reason to blame them for anything.

The police officer who shot Scott was fired and taken under custody

The situation with the murder of Walter Scott is extremely similar to Ferguson, but with one difference - the policeman not only immediately charged the murder, he was fired from law enforcement agencies and placed on the right to secure. This is not officially reported, but it is obvious that this happened because of the video of a random witness-it clearly demonstrates that it was completely optional to shoot. It is not in favor of Michael Slager who speaks his past - they had already complained about excessive cruelty about the policeman, and once he used the Tyzer against an innocent person.

Pavel Borisov

Riga