Michael Slager, the cop who shot unarmed civilian Walter Scott, was previously involved in a very surprising incident. Early one morning in 2013, Slager banged on the door of a young black man named Mario Givens. Without giving a reason, Slager demanded entrance, and then barged inside.
Once inside, Slager told Givens to "come outside or I'll taze you." Givens put his arms up and Slager tazed him anyways. Then Slager and another cop dragged the young man off. Givens was charged with resisting arrest. Soon after, he was let go without explanation.
It is said that Givens was targeted because he had the same last name as someone accused of another (rather minor) crime, even though the two Givenses look nothing alike.
If this report is accurate, Slager should have been fired in 2013. One thing's for sure: That guy really, really likes his Taser.
The grim joke used to hold that "driving while black" was a crime. In too many parts of today's America, the crime is breathing while black.
We should also note that the man who shot the video of Slager killing Scott, Feidin Santana, considered erasing the evidence because he feared retribution. That's the kind of country we now live in.
There is, predictably, a support fund for Michael Slager. If the killing of Martin Luther King had happened in today's America, there would be a support fund for James Earl Ray. The people contributing to that fund would not be conspiracy buffs convinced that someone else was the shooter. The contributors would be folks who wanted to send a message: "Attaboy, Jimmy!"
12 comments:
Joseph, I'm guesing you agree with me that James Earl Ray was not the lone nut who killed Martin Luther King. (Last week, I bought for $1 at a Salvation Army a copy of the Mark Lane/Dick Gregory book about the MLK case called "Code Name: Zorro." When I got it home, I was shocked to discover it was signed by Lane--and James Earl Ray!) Ray was allowed to rot in jail and even give interviews. (He also escaped once.) But I might actually disavow my abhorrence of the death penalty to see this cop punished in the way that Southerners best understand.
Well, that book is quite a find. I bought the same book at a thrift store, but no signatures.
The story I heard about the escape is interesting. Do you remember the film "Marie," about the pardons-for-pay racket in TN? (It's a good movie; stars Sissy Spacek.) Allegedly, one prisoner got an unfathomable pardon even though there was no pay-off. That same fellow helped Ray to escape.
As I recall, this was around the time of the HSCA. The escape certainly did much to place a "guilty" sign around Ray's neck.
Now, that's the story I heard. To be honest, I never put much effort into finding a written source for it. Do you know anything further?
Joseph, I too think you do us a disservice by sneering at James Earl Ray. My limited examination of the case suggests to me that Dr. Pepper may have gone a bridge too far with his material about the military snipers, but I would not be at all surprised that an investigation of the magnitude of his should be targeted by disinfo operatives charged with making his findings seem incredible.
American police killed 100 people last month.
What we have is a nation of idiots, does no one else realize that if you just don't be an asshole criminal, don't resist arrest, don’t run, and use common sense that no one would get shot? I'm not saying all the deserved to die that have, I'm just saying the whole situation could've been avoided.
Btw, people are just falling right in their trap and the media uses to fuel the fire so the fking morons that watch tv for knowledge get worked up and riot and you know what will be after that right? Outlawed guns, marshal law, civil war, and Armageddon
What we have is deep institutional corruption of our police forces, where crossing the blue line is considered worse than murdering someone in cold blood. People with too high of an IQ can not become police officers. This is also true of people with too much formal education. Police departments and district attorneys routinely cover up police misconduct and outright criminal acts. Police quite routinely shoot people or taser people who have not committed any crime, have not resisted, have not run. The only idiot here is Overkill_MSA.
I guess the problem as far as the killings is that we allow people with weak constitution to bare arms and be in place of authority. People who are ready to wet their pants every time they are confronted by a bully so they pull their guns out. They don't have the training or strength of character to stand up to adverse situations withouthout guns. Having said that, the last one is murder pure and simple, evil and cold one at that
Overkill-
Yes, these situations could be avoided if black people just submitted to being beaten, choked, tortured with a taser or shot by a psychopath in uniform. Then we could avoid having a police state. The logic is infallible, assuming you are smoking meth.
Mr. Overkill, I beg to sorta differ. Since I'm fairly well crippled by Father Time, I won't be running from any cops. However, I'm also not gonna obey any random words that come out of a cop's mouth. He is not the boss of me or thee. I've seen cops do a couple of noxious things but on the whole my interactions have been professional. That does not mean I will laying down in a muddy road just because some kid with a badge tells me to. Oh, and Mr.Joe, the SC cops immediately fired and charged the cop with murder. The same immediate firing and charging happened in NC a couple of years ago-- and there was no video. What happened with Garner in NYC? Being in the South has nothing to do with rampaging racist cops. I rather doubt that every cop north of the Mason Dixon line is Tom Sellack.
I vote for schizophrenic country, one that bleats freedom and liberty and exceptionalism but has repeated instances of justice denied, particularly for the average joe but consistently for the poor.
If we as a people are 'falling into a trap' as Overkill suggests then it might have to do with continuing breaches of authority, a pattern of shoot first, ask questions later.
Btw, my husband worked on a small municipal police force years ago. During training, one of the first training shoot/don't shoot instructions was simply: you do not shoot anyone in the back. Duh.
The police have an important job to do. But they need to clean up their act in all departments. Taxpayers pay police salaries to protect them, not shoot them down in the streets like dogs. We've over-militarized our forces and too many of these guys act as if it's them against the rest of us.
Enough is enough! How many sick videos do we need to see before a total revamping is required, demanded??
Peggysue
Both. We have maniac cops because we have a maniac country.
In defense of South Carolina (where I currently live) this is the only state that has at least charged police officers in relation to police shootings. In the last three years, three officers have been charged with offenses related to shootings–I suspect this is way more than other states even though I doubt cops here are all that much more trigger happy. (Oh, Chicago in the '80s!) One especially tragic case involved a man trying to sort out a problem with his daughter's traffic ticket. The first trial resulted in a hung jury with the majority voting to convict...
On the other hand, and this speaks to the gentleman who thinks that if you just don't run, you'll be fine, there is that video that showed a man shot by an officer (the former black, the later white and again in South Carolina) after he reached back into his car to get his license. Fortunately the officer was a piss poor shot. (He has been fired and charged with assault.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INgvKRkSZ2w
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