South Carolina cop charged with murder in shooting

Too young to die, too slow to live.

 

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves in establishing a narrative here. We don't know exactly what happened in the minute leading up to the video and why the officer likely feared for his life. This was a guy who was driving a car with an apparently broken tail light and may also have been behind in child support payments, afterall.

 

A couple of things jump out to me about this cop, after watching the video. One, he's a terrible shot. Or he is in the video, at least. The guy is running away from him pretty slowly, at close range, and yet it appears a number of shots missed him. Second, unless it was edited out, he apparently doesn't notice a person nearby getting video of the whole thing. So if nothing else, this cop is a terrible shot and he's not terribly observant. Those are two pretty bad qualities for a cop to have. Again, based on what's seen in the video.

 

That was tough to watch.

 

As for narrative, there were false narratives in some previous cases. I guess everyone should have just accepted those in pursuit of some false sense of justice.

What we should all want in all of these cases is the truth, and justice based on the truth.

This guy is a murderer. We don't need any narratives.

 

"Likely" feared for his life? How about "allegedly" feared for his life?

I think in some of these shooting cases the cops are scared (justified or not) and others they are pissed at the person for not obeying them and think that gives them a right to shoot.

 

The lesson: There's almost always someone with a camera phone taking pictures or video of you.

I'm not a big proponent of the death penalty, but I could make an exception in this case. Cop committed cold-blooded murder, plain and simple.

 

Don't go for the fucking death penalty. The bar for conviction is higher, and there is more likely to be some cracker standing in the way, and then this thing becomes a cluster F. Just convict him of something and put him away for life.

 

In reading the Charleston newspaper's coverage, apparently the death penalty isn't an option. The max sentence is 30-to-life (at least as they're reporting it). I don't have any idea why.

 

Maybe there should have been a camera around in 2013:

Two people filed complaints against Slager during his time with the force, including one man who said the policeman shot him with a Taser for no reason in September 2013. Internal investigators exonerated the officer of any wrongdoing, though the suspect in that case was never arrested.

Yolanda Whitaker, a North Charleston woman who witnessed the 2013 incident and gave her account to the investigators at the time, told the newspaper Tuesday that Slager pulled Mario Givens, who was clad in boxer shorts, from his home and shot him with a Taser.

Whitaker watched the ordeal unfold from inside Givens’ home.

North Charleston officer faces murder charge after video shows him shooting man in back - Post and Courier

 

In SC, I believe you need a second crime to bring death penalty...ie murder during a robbery, assault, killing multiple people, etc. However, if you you kill a law enforcement officer, that automatically qualifies for death penalty.

 

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