The video can be watched here. I will not be posting or otherwise sharing it online.
I do not want to contribute to the online necropolis of black bodies shot dead by cop and/or white identified vigilantes.
I am also finding it difficult to convey my exhaustion with once again having to write about how another unarmed black man has been killed by the police. My hand is moved by a commitment to tell the truth; writing is a small act compared to those who actually suffer the slings and arrows of racist white violence by America's police.
As I have written about and discussed many times in these years of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown, white privilege is the ability to twist and distort reality in the service of the bizarre and self-serving world that the White Gaze conjures forth for the psychological, material, and political benefits of its owners.
In the service to those delusions, White Racist Paranoiac Thinking invents a scenario that justifies the killing of black and brown people (and the homeless, poor, mentally ill, and other "disposable" human beings) by the police and their allies.
Eric Garner screamed "I can't breathe" as the police murdered him. White lynch mobs portrayed themselves as honorable men who were doing unpleasant work in defense of white women's and white civilization's honor and security as they burned alive and dismembered the African-American "imps of the inferno", the monster in the form of a man known as "the black beast rapist".
Walter Scott was stopped for a traffic violation. In fear for his life, Walter Scott ran away from a white South Carolina police officer named Michael Slager.
Slager then shot and killed Walter Scott.
Michael Slager then lied as he used the standard script:
The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, had said he feared for his life because the man took his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man — Walter L. Scott, 50 — fled.
The North Charleston mayor announced the state charges at a news conference Tuesday evening.Fortunately, Slager's lies were exposed by a video recording of the event.
He has now been charged with murder.
White racist paranoiacs will invert and twist reality in their defense of Michael Slager.
Scott was somehow threatening Slager.
Scott was trying to grab the weapon of Slager.
"We don't know what happened before the 'incident' occurred!"
"Remember Darren Wilson!" as though the latter was some type of innocent child and victim as he did the work of Ferguson, Missouri's Jim and Jane Crow-like police department.
"Scott was 'wanted for a 'family court warrant'! He is a horrible father, a criminal, why make him a victim when Officer Slager is the real hero!"
I have learned to accept that I, a black man, embody and channel a type of monstrous black masculinity as viewed through the White Gaze.
But even we monsters, the Garners, the child Tamir, the Crawfords, and now Mr. Walter Scott deserve a whee bit of mercy and benefit of the doubt before we are put down by the police.
If hunting man is the greatest of sports, I would hope, that for lack of a better word or turn of phrase, that white cops who choose to kill or otherwise abuse unarmed black people, would be a bit more "sporting" in their ways.
Ultimately, we, the black Frankensteins of the world, need to be a bit more cautious as we go about our business, playing with little white children as they pick flowers by the lake.
I am a man. I am a black man. I am a human being. I am an American citizen. I am not a monster. When will the police accept and respect that fact?
I know it is a question with a clear answer.
Yet, I still channel hope by asking it.
54 comments:
So far ,from what I've seen, Faux News has been so what quiet about it. That may change by morning's light.
I've seen other channels start the old machine rolling about the victims criminal history vs. the cop's heroic career, except on some of the more independent channels and websites where commemters are calling for the death penalty and some of the cops sordid past has been mentioned. He's not as clean as some of the corporate owned media would have everyone believe.
I do feel for and fear for the brave person who shot the footage. That took an incredible amount of courage to stand there and film this as it occurred. You're basically watching a snuff film.
Looks like another long, sad year of tears for Black people. There's a line in the Torah about how God counts the tears of women. I'm not religious at all but if there's anyones tears should be counted, it's those of WoC.
The Right-wing hate media machine is gearing up as we speak. Tomorrow will be very interesting.
Hey, I was wondering if you were planning on doing any post or a series of posts blogging on the incendiary incident of the SAE Fraternity kids on the bus with their lynching chant and similar racist or hazing behavior in Greek Life across the country. I know the media hurricane around it us dying down, but I'd edpecialky like to know and hear your thoughts on this post that public non-apology and the Rolling Stone faux-rape scandal fall-out? I'm in college and seriously reconsidering my associative pledge to one KAO considering their neo-Confederate origins and symbolism, more on that later...
Their hive-mind. They're working on the talking points. They'll use the same words, the same sentences. Everyone from the high-paid tv talkingheads to the anonymous online trolls.
There's a racist troll on another blog who uses a variety of names; even steals other commenters' names. Sometimes for fun I'll copy and paste one of his "original" thoughts into google, and word for word it shows up on a thousand reactionary places.
Someone made a good comment about that: "We won't be hearing from those frat kids again until they're our congressmen"
The rightist echo machine and the "liberal" media have a symbiotic relationship. The one launches an "in your face" public defense and the other corroborates with a more nuanced spin. Both camps detect a breech in the wall of white privilege and mobilize all resources to preserve the structural prejudice. But it will be next to impossible to dismiss the video evidence that even a credulous public is all agog about.
"Slager made a bad decision. Police work is scary business and he made a bad decision." At least, that's what I think the echo chamber is going to say. They can't defend Slager more than that - the evidence is too clear. He'll be convicted and go to jail. Then, they'll use this case as an example of how justice in America is fair and works as it should. But what if there was no video? . . .
That video exposed more than just the tactical lies told by that cop in a classic, and cowardly attempt to create a justifiable kill.
That video baldly exposes the lie that black men are demonic beasts who threaten the lives of heroic cops. Walter Scott's humanity and innocence was so palpable as he rightfully panicked, as his body reacted to the impact of those bullets. Walter Scott, a black man, unfettered by the lies that uphold Whiteness is the human in that video.
Slager is the in-human beast. The cold blooded killer. The menace to society. The thug.
And yet, as some have written, the MSM has already begun to spin a web of seemingly small deceptions that will serve as guideposts carving a path to White innocence.
Slager's commendations have been aired and his relatively clean disciplinary record is on display to demonstrate, to those that choose to believe the lie, that Slager is a good police officer and good man. You see being a police officer is dangerous, and sometimes good cops, as evidenced by Slager's track record, make tragic mistakes....
Whiteness does not see what's on that tape.
Right! Some folks, steeped in Whiteness, think that if they offer up draconian punishment for the coward Slager, that they are demonstrating their ability to be fair and just. Really they are demonstrating their inability, at this point in time, to conjure a plausible defense for the actions of this cop.
If there was no video...Michael Brown.
I can't help but see parallels to the Michael Brown killing. I think MB was running for his life, just like Walter Scott. Michael Brown turned to surrender, just like eyewitnesses reported, but was gunned down anyway in a hail of bullets, just like Walter Scott.
I also believe that these men are not "reaching" for the gun or taser in the way that is being described by their killers. I think these killers are threatening these men with obscene force, and these men are grabbing at these weapons to protect themselves. And the act of protecting oneself is being spun as a lie to justify the kill.
I think Kokanee has it about right. The only "defense" is that "he was a good man - a good cop - who made a poor decision." And "This is something he'll have to live with for the rest of his life. He has lost his job, isn't that enough?"
This video is really kind of an acid-test of a person's moral depravity. If you can look at this and think there is any question that Scott was murdered - that Slager didn't treat Scott like he was no better than a rabid dog in the street - you're in the running for the king of all assholes. Hand in your humanity card and go play with your Hitler friends.
Easy for me to say because I'm considered "white," I'm not outnumbered 9 to 1, but the old-school gentleman I'm referencing here may have the correct attitude:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/malcolm_x.html
As for analysis, there's no point. White people and their authoritarian followers of any background are psychotic.
Yes, the incredible bravery of the person recording struck me immediately. It is the kind of thing I would like to think I could do should I encounter such a situation (I hope I NEVER) but I don't know if I could.
You're "seriously reconsidering"? Seriously? No, really, FUCKING SERIOUSLY??!!! You should already said not only "no," but "HELL NO."
One thing that seems to be different here are the swift reaction by some of the officials in charging the cop with murder. Even the right-wing Governor Nikki Haley made a strong statement about not letting cops get by with this.
Another thing is the odd silence on the part of some people who normally would have been screaming right away about what a "thug" the victim was. The stories did mention that he had warrants, etc., but otherwise the usual screaming, racist orcs are maybe kind of stunned by the video evidence, trying to find their footing so to speak. They may just stay relatively quiet on this one, and if the cop is convicted and goes to prison use that, as Kokanee says, as proof of their assertions that all is well in the "justice" system.
And I really do mean if the cop is convicted. I do wish I was more certain that he will be. After the acquittals in the Rodney King case, despite the clear video evidence, then unfortunately just about anybody can be acquitted. For one thing, has the video even been turned over to the prosecutors? Slager will have an attorney, and while the racists might stay fairly quiet, they can also anonymously give a lot of money for a defense fund and he may be able to get a very good attorney. I hate to be a downer about it, but juries, especially white juries, can be convinced of anything, especially if they already want to believe it.
On that "quietness" issue: I have a couple of distant, right-wing cousins I've never met in person as Facebook friends (yeah, I know; it's complicated blah blah). One is a retired highway patrolman, so they are very pro-cop. They have both shared pictures and posts about some of the shootings of black people by cops and little comments supportive of the cops' side of the story. Anyway, when this one happened, one of them posted a link to the straight news story, without adding any comment. I know, that is just "anecdata," but I thought it was interesting that he was not trying to defend it in any way.
How will they defend it? I don't know. I think others here have offered sage observations that I have nothing to add to.
Perhaps Johnathan Capehart is working on how "Back turned Don't shoot" is a lie.
My guess is he'll get off. An indictment is not a conviction. As you point out, there are high-priced defense attorneys who can perform magic. And the bar is very, very low for trial jurors and those serving on grand juries, as we've seen with Zimmerman, The Garner Murder, et al.
I'm in complete agreement on all counts.
That's exactly how I see it too. It never mattered to me whether Brown had his hands up or not. That whole argument was thrown in to obscure the emerging public understanding of the nature of that interaction between Wilson and Brown -- like dirt is thrown in with clear water to muddy it up. Too many eyewitnesses perceived the situation as a black man fleeing in fear for his life while an enraged officer, hellbent on stopping him, pursued and shot at him. The "inconsistency" of eyewitness reporting of details can't obscure that truth.
It's time that we start filming the police every time we see them. The police need to know that they are going to be watched all the time.
#FlimAllPolice
Sure you could. I also hope you never encounter a situation that calls for it; but if you did, you would record it. So would I.
And as soon as the film is shot, if possible ,even simultaneously, upload to some sort of remote backup, so that even if the police intimidate the person into giving up their recording device, the footage can't be accessed or destroyed by them.
I'm not a techie, so I don't know how possible that is.
I suspect that he will get a lot of "encouragement" to take some kind of plea deal, hopefully a LWP one (I am opposed to the death penalty, period, but if they put it out there to use as a bargaining chip and scare him, I wouldn't be too upset about that). Gov. Haley and a whole bunch of others would probably like to put him away so they can say, "See? Justice!"
Yeah, the online trolls who come crawling from under the floorboards, in a flood of obfuscation, faux outrage on the cops behalf, derailment with irrelevant information and muddying of the topics.
Their primary purpose: to disrupt any and all forms of social justice discourse.
I'm hopeful though, because we, all of us, are learning their tactics, studying what they say and do and learning ,at least in some spaces, to moderate discussions, ignore them, don't feed them and stay focused and on point.
Perhaps. Even these craven Confederates may have interest in "optics" for 2016.
Obviously this entire police department has to be gutted; his co-conspirators arrested, indicted, convicted. But you saw what Holder had to deal with just with Ferguson; you saw the whitewash of murderer Darren Wilson. You even witnessed a prominent African-American writer publicly "buy" into that report; he has been AWOL since then. Hopefully, he is figuring out ways to get his family out of this racist shithole of a nation.
And yes, as with you, I don't think the death penalty should ever be used.
Extremely possible. Email or text the video to yourself.
"I'm in college currently and seriously reconsidering my associative pledge to one frat K.A.O considering their neo-Confederate origins and symbolism in light of me doing some back research on them"
What is there left to think about? Are you a neo confederate white supremacist? If not, then walk away. If you remain you are sullied by the company you have CHOSEN to keep.
I trust that you will make an informed decision. Don't forget to report back.
Just read that the brother who shot the video of the murder is going to speak publicly. It really took balls of steel to capture that on film as it happened. I assume the killer either didn't know he was being filmed, or assumed the witness wouldn't come forward, in any case he felt free to tell the usual lies bout being attacked and "fearing for his life."
But I can see it coming: when this guy comes forward, we'll see the Super Bowl of niggerization like we've never seen before, assuming he's a brother. The usual police defenders are going to do all they can to put him on trial along with Scott.
This reminds me of Rodney King. They had his beating on video and they still acquitted those cops. I won't be surprised if they find some way to acquit this demon Slager.
Those who have seen the video will recognise the lynching ritual of humiliation and degradation in Walter Scott's murder. After getting shot 8 times in the back, Walter Scott is roughly cuffed, hands behind his back, with his face planted in the dirt. If he is dead, why cuff him? And if you cuff him, doesn't that mean he might still be alive? Might he have had a last word for his child or father?
But Scott is splayed out - like a big-game trophy - in that position, unattended for several minutes. That treatment alone could turn a critically injured person into a dead body. Surely policemen aren't EMT-qualified to declare somebody dead just seconds after shooting him. What if he had cardiac arrest or was in a coma? What if emergency medical attention could resuscitate him? Why didn't those policemen instantly apply first aid and call EMT?
When an American soldier in one of America's many invasions gets shot or even blown up, nobody turns them face down in the dust to die. They are on a helicopter within minutes. Why is there no further outcry about this contemptuous indifference to a dying person, handcuffed face-down at a policeman's feet.
Now watch for it? I'm speaking about putting the victim on trial. Look for the assassination of the dead man's character- from the time he was a child. If he spit on the sidewalk at 12, you're going to hear about it. Then, cue the buck-dancing apologists. They'll defend the police officer's action at any cost. Of course they'll find the black apologists. I'm sure Sean Hannity already has already given that talking turd, Jesse Lee Peterson, a call. They'll also invite those safe academics and media pundits who will not dare speak the uncompromising, unmitigated truth about racism. Calling Little Johnny Capehart, please.
Capturing a murder with the use of new technologies has meant very little where African Americans are concern. Those numerous pictures of lynchings are brutal murders caught on film. America has reacted to those atrocities by ignoring them.
When the beating of Rodney Ling was caught on film, again technology, was minimized and discounted. You didn't see- what you saw- was the narrative. Expect this in Mr. Scott's case. It was only when the Justice Department decided to do what was right that those officers who pummeled and dehumanized King- received some punishment. But frankly, as long as J Edgar Hoover's name remain on the Department Of Justice...that is a clear message about justice in America.
Oh you know it!
There are apps that post video to the internet live. Livestream, for example. We should all have an app like that on our phones and know how to use them. Citizen army here we come.
Yes.
We have no idea what that cop said to him to make him try to run away. The man was fifty years old. Loooong past his "thug" years, but in the minds of those poisoned by Whiteness, it makes perfect sense that all these Black men are out there attacking the police, despite their age and capabilities.
Of course they're going to believe he's a thug. They managed to excuse Tamir's death by blaming his parents for having him.
Seriously! The reasoning seemed to be, "Well, if they didn't want their kid shot, they shouldn't have had him!"
I've had it with these people. When these cops start coming for them, and they are their kids are being gunned down in the streets (because sooner or later, this behavior will be reaching a suburb near them. We are just practice for when the police start doing it to the middle class, to try to keep them terrified and in check, too) will I have any compassion left to spend on them? Or will it all have been used up on us?
I'm going to make the argument that this was premeditated. His very first act is to cover his ass on the story he'll be telling his superiors later. That was his first thought after shooting him.
I think he'd already had this idea in his head, for a while, to kill a Black man and make that claim, long before he met his victim.
Just watched the interview of the young man on MSNBC. He is Black and Dominican. He said he was very scared and considered erasing the video, but decided, after seeing the media reporting and reading the police report, that the truth needed to come out.
He even took a moment to take America to task for not being the country that the Dominicans look up to.
Some observations:
The walk aways:
- Slager's lawyer quit.
- Slager was fired from his job.
The race downplaying:
- "I didn’t see a black man killed by a white cop; I saw a man shoot another man in the back.” —story
The outrageous spin:
FOX News says video was doctored, South Carolina man was actually running toward police officer
That last bit of satire was good. Huffpo's rewrite was better. Someone needs to do a cartoon with poor Mr. Scott depicted as moon walking towards the thug cop. Depraved racists will reframe the event that way.
Oops...satire. Caught again! That's really funny...
This is why some jurisdictions have attempted to pass laws, at the behest of the police, that make it criminal to record cops in action.
If they can't find any "thuggish" selfies of him, they'll just find photos of a different man. They did it with Michael Brown. Trayvon also. Photos got passed around online with the "look, he was no angel" slander.
I have learned to accept that I, a black man, embody and channel a type of monstrous black masculinity as viewed through the White Gaze.
rotflmbao...,
GTFOH Chauncey you know you not hard enough to bust a grape!
The moments between 18 and 20 seconds really are bizarre. The cop is too cool, calm and collected, as he gets set in a ready position, while gliding his hand down to his pistol, and up again to aim, shoot, and kill.
It's almost like he goaded Walter Scott into running. I do wonder what he was saying to cause Mr. Scott to run.
Says a pathetic man with too much brawn- and a tiny brain..
If that Charleston cop had seen the Dominican immigrant filming he would have killed him too. And nobody would have uttered a "peep". The story according to NPR and the NY Times would have been about the stresses on this poor All-American policeman ("Charleston Sniper") who - after shooting one Black Fiend that charged him - tragically mistook a phone in the hands of another (who looked like a thug) as a gun, and shot him too. "Oh, the PTSD this poor man will suffer. The injustice of the accusations from Al Sharpton and all those other race-card-playing Blacks".
The cop would have raised 10 million dollars online overnight. Actually, he still might.
They also did it with the coward Darren Wilson. There were photos of a white male with a severely bruised and broken orbital bone, circulating around the internet. It was a smoking gun photo that proved MB had beaten this poor hero to within an inch of his life.
But alas, the real photos of the coward appeared a couple of weeks later that showed some redness on Wilson's face.
So if the fake, bruised and broken orbital bone picture made MB's murder a justifiable kill, then surely the majority would rethink their position when the real photo surfaced?
Of course not. The maintenance of the lie of White innocence is too slippery to be pinned down by the truth, and so the mild redness on the coward's face became sufficient.
Why don't we, the " sisters and brothers, no mater our color" surround the Fox News facility, one by one capture the racists and "escort" them out of town, nay out of our country?
I am of Scottish/Italian lineage and have seen too many African/American sisters and brothers weaping tears of fire for their dead children. My heart breaks for them and the country we wanted to build.
Let's remove Fox. OURSELVES! They are the unwanted and UNINTENDED RESULT OF FREEDOM OF SPEACH. Let's remove these people.
I am a man. I am a black man. I am a human being. I am an American
citizen. I am not a monster. When will the police accept and respect
that fact?
When you demonstrate the numerical and tactical resolve to inflict heavy casualties on their thin blue line.
So long as it's all just whining and hiding beneath the skirts of a gassy echo-chamber of feminized fellow-whiners, cops will keep killing you like they were serving up hotcakes.
Black lives will only begin to matter when it costs somebody dearly to take one.
Why are you here whining? Where's your blog? Where's your petition? How much money have you donated? How many protests have you attended? Furthermore, attempting to discount the people who post here with the term feminized reveals much about you.
Yes, the victim will be put on trial and any possible arrests in his life from 20 years ago will be brought up. This will used by the right wingers to argue that the victim was no angel and that cops in general really do go up against some bad people in society and we shouldn't be too harsh on law enforcement.
OTOH, I hear the same right wingers arguing that it is an injustice that guys still can't buy AR-15's at a gun show because say, a background check shows a domestic violence charge from 1980 or an assault charge from a bar brawl back in 1992. Our draconian gun laws our taking away our 2nd Amendment Rights!. As Chauncey says, White Privilege is a hell of a drug.
1. Because you steal oxygen.
2. Blog? Mwua-hahahahahaha!!!
3. Donate? What, to feed lard-assed beggars like you and the bronies here who can't hold down productive day-jobs?
4. Protests? How many "protests" did Jose Rodriquez "attend"?
5. lol, the only thing you know about me is the extent of my petty disdain for a gurgling, shambling, mound of tallow like you pumpkin.
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Yet, you have planted your sorry trolling self here. Get lost!
The usual supporters and apologists for police violence against black folk were set back on their heels by this video. But I have no doubt that they won’t eventually come back with the same narratives of the hero, every man, just doing his job, regular guy “real American” blessed cop, sacrificing to “keep us safe” who was confronted by the monstrous, animalistic black other of whom its "normal" for him to be put down like a dog at even the slightest hint of any assertion of rights. You’re right, we could be easily talking about two murders here, and both would have been whitewashed in the usual way.
I still fully expect them to recover and come back full tilt with those racist narratives, and raise money for the “victim.”. I’m sure they’re working feverishly as we speak to find some dirt on the witnesses to make him a second perp while making the cop out to be the ultimate victim. The power they have to supersede common sense and decency, and humanity have not been diminished, even with the video.
In those seconds he was not a man in fear of what he was about to do, let alone, in fear for his life.
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