Bon voyage! Have fun in jail, shitbag!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/us/michael-slager-sentence-walter-scott.html
He should’ve gotten life, and this is only one case stacked up against a mountain of cases where the cop gets away with it; but it’s a start.
I agree justice was done in this case. Yes there are cases where the cop gets away with it, there are also cases where people presume the cop guilty and won’t give the evidence an open-minded evaluation.
This absolutely fucking enraged me. I can not think of a punishment too cruel or too unusual for those cops.
While I don’t agree with how the officer handled the situation up to the point of shooting, I have to be honest and say it looked to me like the guy could have been reaching for a gun. At the time the cop fired, Daniel Shaver reached his right hand behind his back like he was reaching for something and then brought it out again. For all the cop knew, Shaver had in the back pocket of his pants. When I watched the video the first time, I could not tell whether he had a gun when he brought his hand out from behind him. Keep in mind, if Shaver was armed and intended to shoot, the officer would have had a mere split second to react. He could reply the video again and again and in slow motion to make sure whether or not Shaver had a gun. Now, I will say I do not understand why he ordered the guy to come forward on his knees with his legs crossed. I don’t why he couldn’t have ordered the guy to lie flat and have cop search him. I would like to know more about how things got to the point it did in the video. Also wish Ferris were still here. I’d be interested to hear what he would have to say about this.
This is why I don’t trust cops. If you make even just one movement that could possibly be startling in any way, then they’re justified in shooting you to death.
EDIT: I know most of them won’t do that, but that’s the mindset amongst many people. “Oh, he was unarmed, but it looked like he could’ve been reaching for a gun. Better safe than sorry.”
EDIT 2: And Warbler, I know you’re not trying to justify police brutality. I’m not accusing you of that.