South Carolina Police Officer Faces Murder Charge

[Mr.C]

Originally Posted by 4444

i'm not so sure - there will be a 'story' behind this, i'm sure.

why did the dude run, though? never run from the cops, and if you're gonna run, zig zag!

The video evidence is damning, especially when it looks like he plants something next to the body.

Just noticed that SC has the death penalty.

[NSX]

No excuse there. Justice please.

[Berzerker]

Reading the details on what the officer said before the video evidence came out is proof why all officers need to start wearing body cams. He straight up lied about the way things went down. Had no video been taken, 99% sure he would have gotten away with murder.
I believe South Carolina has the death penalty. nomsayin?

Berz out.

[4444]

Originally Posted by Mr.C

The video evidence is damning, especially when it looks like he plants something next to the body.

Just noticed that SC has the death penalty.

oh, it's damning. i only saw the dropping of the taser this morning, but still, let the justice (injustice?) system do its work

i still question why anyone would EVER run from the police.

[willystyle]

Cop charged in shooting of unarmed black man faced earlier complaint of using excessive force

Mitch Weiss And Michael Biesecker
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Associated Press
Published Thursday, Apr. 09 2015, 3:08 AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Apr. 09 2015, 3:10 AM EDT

The South Carolina police officer charged with murder after video surfaced of him shooting a fleeing suspect in the back was allowed to stay on the force despite an earlier complaint he used excessive force against an unarmed man.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Mario Givens recounted Wednesday how he was awakened before dawn one morning in September 2013 by loud banging on the front door of his family’s North Charleston home.

A white South Carolina police officer was charged with murder Tuesday, hours after law enforcement officials viewed a dramatic video that appears to show him shooting a fleeing black man several times in the back. (April 8)
VIDEO
Video: Footage shows officer gunning down fleeing man (Warning: graphic)
A white South Carolina police officer will be charged with murder over the shooting death of a black man who appeared to be fleeing from him. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
VIDEO
Video: South Carolina police officer faces murder charge over shooting of black man
On his front porch was Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager, the same officer now charged in the shooting death of Walter Lamer Scott following a traffic stop over a broken taillight. The latest case of a white police officer killing an unarmed black man grabbed international attention this week after a video recorded by a bystander showed Slager firing eight times as Scott ran away.

Wearing only a T-shirt and boxer shorts, Givens, who is also black, said he cracked open his door and asked the officer what he wanted.

“He said he wanted to come in, but didn’t say why,” said Givens, now 33. “He never said who he was looking for.”

Then, without warning, Slager pushed in the door, he said.

“‘Come outside or I’ll tase you,“’ he recalled the officer saying as he burst in. “I didn’t want that to happen to me, so I raised my arms over my head, and when I did, he tased me in my stomach anyway.”

He said the pain from the stun gun was so intense that he dropped to the floor and began calling for his mother, who was also in the home. At that point, he said another police officer came into the house and they dragged him outside and threw him to the ground. He was handcuffed and put in the back of a squad car.

Though initially accused of resisting the officers, Givens was later released without charge.

“It was very devastating,” said Bessie Givens, 57, who was awaked by her son’s piercing screams. “You watch your son like that, he’s so vulnerable. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I was so scared.”

It turned out that the police officers had gone to the family’s home at the behest of his brother’s ex-girlfriend, who earlier reported awakening in her nearby house to find Matthew Givens in her bedroom, uninvited. She said he left when she began screaming, and she called police.

That woman, Maleah Kiara Brown, told the AP in an interview on Wednesday that she and a friend had followed the police officers over to the Givens home and were sitting outside as Slager knocked on the door. The second officer had gone around to the back of the house.

She had provided the officers with a detailed description of Matthew Givens, who is about 5 feet 5 inches (1.5 metres, 12.7 centimetres) tall. Mario Givens stands well over 6 feet (1.8 metres).

“He looked nothing like the description I gave the officers,” Brown said, referring to Mario Givens. “He asked the officer why he was at the house. He did it nicely. The police officer said he wanted him to step outside. Then he asked, ‘Why, why do you want me to step outside?’ Then the officer barged inside and grabbed him.”

Moments later, she saw the police officers drag Givens out of the house and throw him in the dirt. Brown said she kept yelling to the officers they had the wrong man, but they wouldn’t listen. Though Givens was offering no resistance, she said she saw Slager use the stun gun on him again.

“He was screaming, in pain,” she said. “He said, ‘You tased me. You tased me. Why?’ It was awful. Terrible. I asked the officer why he tased him and he told me to get back.”

She said she later told a female police supervisor what she had seen.

“He was cocky,” she said of Slager. “It looked like he wanted to hurt him. There was no need to tase him. No reason. He was no threat — and we told him he had the wrong man.”

Angered by what happened, Mario Givens went downtown to police headquarters the following day and filed a formal complaint. He and his mother say several neighbours who witnessed what happened on the family’s front lawn also contacted the police, though they say officers refused to take their statements.

The incident report from that night filed by Slager and the other officer, Maurice Huggins, provides a very different version of events. In the report, obtained by the AP through a public records request, Slager wrote that he could not see one of Givens’ hands and feared he might be holding a weapon. He wrote that he observed sweat on Givens’ shirt, which he perceived as evidence he may have just run from Brown’s home, and then ordered him to exit several times.

When Givens didn’t comply, Slager said he entered the home to prevent him from fleeing, and was then forced to use his stun gun when Givens struggled against him. According to the officers’ report, the two Givens brothers are described as looking “just alike.”

After Mario Givens filed his complaint, the department opened an internal investigation. A brief report included in Slager’s personnel file said a senior officer was assigned to investigate. After a couple weeks, the case was closed with a notation that Slager was “exonerated.”

Brown is listed as a witness in the investigative report, but her purported statement included none of the details she said she provided about Slager using his Taser to shock Givens while he was on the ground. She said she was never contacted as part of the police investigation and had not spoken with anyone about that night until she was contacted by an AP reporter Wednesday.

The report also includes statements from Givens and another woman who was there that night, Yolonda Whitaker, said she saw Slager stun Givens “for no reason.” Efforts to reach Whitaker on Wednesday by phone and the addresses listed for her in the police report were unsuccessful.

Givens said he was never contacted as part of the internal investigation into Slager and only learned the case had been closed after he went to the station about six weeks later and asked what happened.

“They never told me how they reached the conclusion. Never. They never contacted anyone from that night. No one from the neighbourhood,” Givens said.

Asked about the 2013 incident on Wednesday, North Charleston police spokesman Spencer Pryor said the department now plans to review the case to see if its decision to exonerate Slager was correct. He had no timetable on when that review might take place.

Givens shook his head Wednesday when asked about his reaction to learning Slager had been charged with murder. Slager is being held in jail without bond.

“It could have been prevented,” Givens said of Scott’s death. “If they had just listened to me and investigated what happened that night, this man might be alive today.”

Cop charged in shooting of unarmed black man faced earlier complaint of using excessive force - The Globe and Mail

[JaPoola]

Most fitting sentence for this pig would be to put him in general population in jail.

Putting him on death row would be a long waste of time and money.

[dachinesedude]

Originally Posted by JaPoola

Most fitting sentence for this pig would be to put him in general population in jail.

Putting him on death row would be a long waste of time and money.

and how is putting him in jail not a waste of time and money?

[white rocket]

The death penalty is cheaper. Perhaps not the right choice according to some but SC enforces it and it saves tax payers money. Personally I'm all for the death penalty for both the justice aspect and saving money.

[Bouncing Bettys]

Originally Posted by white rocket

The death penalty is cheaper. Perhaps not the right choice according to some but SC enforces it and it saves tax payers money. Personally I'm all for the death penalty for both the justice aspect and saving money.

All I have ever read or heard about the cost of the death penalty compared to life in prison is that, in the end, putting someone to death costs more due to court costs, appeals, etc.

[Timpo]

California police use of body cameras cuts violence and complaints | US news | The Guardian

Police Camera will cut complaints by 88%, also cuts use of force by 60%

[underscore]

Originally Posted by white rocket

The death penalty is cheaper. Perhaps not the right choice according to some but SC enforces it and it saves tax payers money. Personally I'm all for the death penalty for both the justice aspect and saving money.

I'm about 50/50 on the death penalty but only in cases like this with very clear evidence, witness statements alone aren't reliable enough.

[JaPoola]

Originally Posted by dachinesedude

and how is putting him in jail not a waste of time and money?

How long do you think he would last in general population in a South Carolina jail where the majority of inmates are black?

[InvisibleSoul]

Dash cam footage of the traffic stop before the shooting

Walter Scott shooting: Dashcam video shows him run away after traffic stop - World - CBC News

[pinn3r]

Originally Posted by white rocket

The death penalty is cheaper. Perhaps not the right choice according to some but SC enforces it and it saves tax payers money. Personally I'm all for the death penalty for both the justice aspect and saving money.

False. The death penalty is just as expensive, if not more

Death penalty court proceedings are hefty

[geeknerd]

Originally Posted by 4444

oh, it's damning. i only saw the dropping of the taser this morning, but still, let the justice (injustice?) system do its work

i still question why anyone would EVER run from the police.

same reason you run away from criminals.

source: http://www.revscene.net/forums/70271...er-charge.html

[Traum]

Damn... 20 years...

Ex-cop in South Carolina gets 20 years in prison for shooting - NEWS 1130

A white former South Carolina police officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting an unarmed black motorist to death in 2015.

A federal judge handed down the sentence for Michael Slager on Thursday. Slager pleaded guilty to violating Walter Scott’s civil rights by unjustly shooting him in the back five times as he was running away from a traffic stop.

A federal judge ruled that Slager committed second-degree murder. The ruling came as part of federal sentencing proceedings.

[CharlesInCharge]

Is that a full 20 years or will he get paroled after 5-10?

[mikemhg]

Should be life. He murdered that man, and tried to cover it up.

[Halfpast]

Originally Posted by CharlesInCharge

Is that a full 20 years or will he get paroled after 5-10?

Federal prison in the U.S. does not have parole release, so he'll serve the full 20 years, minus credit for time served prior to sentencing and maybe credit for good behavior, which is capped at 54 days per year.

[SiRV]

YouTube

Fuck the police

[twitchyzero]

lol tyt

the leo brought out the biggest rifle in his cruiser...jesus did he think he was clearing out an Al-Qaeda cell or something?

[Mr.Money]

pretty crazy USA has the most fucked up people in the police force.....absolutely no training of danger awareness and its more easy to pull the trigger on anything in the slightest.

[Ford_Fanatic]

Originally Posted by SiRV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTdJYZMKeQs

Fuck the police

Fuck, that video got my blood boiling.

Any typical person would have trouble following those confusing orders on a good day, let alone while being under the barrel of a gun.

Look at this goof. What regular cop etches "YOU'RE FUCKED" on a rifle they use while on the job?

You just know he plays dress up at home, decked out in special operator gear, trying to grow a gnarly ass beard (but probably can't) and daydreams about gunning down"Hajjis"

[SkinnyPupp]

If that's not the most punchable doucheface I've ever seen, I don't know what is

[MarkyMark]

What kind of protocol is that? Why can't they just tell them to lay face down with your hands behind your back? It's like they made it like that to purposely make it easier to shoot people for not complying.