One More Reason Why We Must Shut Down
Business As Usual on April 14!
Another cop caught on video murdering a
Black man. This time the victim was Walter Scott, a 50 year old man
who had been stopped for a traffic violation. The murderer was
Michael Slager, a South Carolina cop, who shot Scott 5 times, 4 of
them in the back as he ran away. And this murdering pig didn't stop
there. He handcuffed Scott's lifeless body, ran back to the spot
where he initially confronted Scott. It appears Slager picked up the
taser he had shot Scott with and carried it to where Scott lay and
placed it beside the body, shooting him in the back as he ran away.
This case was shocking, and not at all
surprising. Shocking because you can see the cop chasing Scott and
gunning him down as he tried to flee, AND because it appears Slager
planted evidence to make it look like Scott was some kind of a
threat. Also shocking because you see other cops come onto the scene
and watch this evidence planting occur. But none of them said
anything about it before the video got out.
Not at all surprising because there
have been many, many cases of cops murdering people, including more
than a few where the murders were caught on video tape. There have
been many, many cases where witnesses to these murders have said that
the cops planted evidence to try to justify their criminal actions.
And in almost every single one of these cases, the system let the
killer cops walk.
This time the killer cop has been
charged with murder, but let's be clear. This would never have
happened if there hadn't been a video that made it impossible to
claim that the cop had reason to fear for his life. Slager hasn't
yet been convicted for the murder that we can all see him committing.
We saw Eric Garner get murdered by police last year, and the system
still exonerated his murderers. The prosecutors may still forget how
to prosecute in this case, and this killer cop may still be allowed
to walk.
This is not a case of the system
working. The system was working the way it always works; well on the
way to exonerating another killer cop, until the video came to light.
The real message from this case is not that there is one bad cop who
murdered someone and planted evidence to try to justify that murder.
It's that police are still wantonly murdering Black and Latino
people. And that the system still works to exonerate cops when they
murder people. THIS MUST STOP!
Anyone with a shred of justice in their
hearts needs to join in acting to STOP it by taking
to the streets on April 14! to stop the “business as usual”
of killing by police.
Carl Dix @Carl_Dix
