Enough Already

Thank God for videos. It's getting more and more difficult for anyone, even the police to pull off anything nefarious without someone capturing it with a camera. A man named Mr. Feidin Santana had the foresight to film the South Carolina police officer firing eight shots at the back of 50 -year old Walter Scott after a routine traffic stop turned ugly.

The video shows patrolmen Michael Slager approaching Scott as he leaves his car. He reaches for Scott, apparently with the intent to taser him. Scott then pulls away, the taser falls to the ground and Slager pulls out his handgun. Scott runs away. There is no indication on the video that Slager ordered Scott to stop or surrender as he should have done.

He fires his handgun eight times. With the last shot fired, Scott falls face down and the patrolman walks towards him, ordering Scott to put his hands behind his back. The man is not responding so he cuffs his hands behind his back. Then walks over to where he dropped his taser, picks it up, walks back and drops it by Scotts body. Apparently intending to tell anyone investigating that Scott had taken his taser away from him and ran away.

Yep, that's what he was going to do alright, run away, then turn around and have a shootout with the taser against the cops gun. Right! At no time did it look like Slager attempted to determine if Scott was alive or might need medical attention. His whole concern was for covering his butt.

Is the man prejudiced? I can't say. I don't know him. It's quite likely. But it's just as likely that he was hopped up on adrenalin and the fact that he had the authority of his uniform and his penis extender gun. While there are many fine people in law enforcement, that kind of work also attracts people who like to be in authority over others and then abuse that authority.

But just watching this video brought back the 60's to me in vivid detail. The images from that time of folks who just wanted to be treated like human beings, which they are. And as equals, which they also most certainly are, remain indelibly fixed in my memory. What concerns me most, besides the fact of another senseless death, is that it's one more incident that highlights the degenerating race relations in this country, which weren't where they should be, granted. But have been getting worse for some time now.

I was glad to see the swift response of local and county law enforcement. That was the correct thing to do. Slager has been fired and charged with murder. Not put on administrative leave, then given a free pass because he was able to persuade his superiors he was just defending himself and was in fear for his life.

Oh my, whatever will Al Sharpton do if he can't show up and throw his big mouth into the fray, screaming racism and stirring the pot with his big spoon? The authorities handled this correctly because they had the information they needed thanks to Mr. Santana's quick thinking.

State Senator Marlon Kimpson said he plans to sponsor a bill requiring South Carolina police to wear body cams. But what is going to keep them from turning them off and claiming they malfunctioned? Meanwhile an innocent man, father of four is dead and for no good reason.

As for planting the tasor next to Scotts body, that isn't the first time we've heard of law enforcement planting a gun or other weapon on a suspect to justify their actions. Or even planting drugs on someone when their drug bust didn't produce the results they hoped for. A crooked cop is a crooked cop. They will find a way to cover their butt or cover for a fellow officer if they are corrupt.

But race aside, I think there is often another element in these tragedies we tend to overlook. Last year in my own town, an officer fired five bullets into a suspect, killing him instantly. The police had chased him into his home where he hid in a closet, only coming out when he heard them closing in on him. And he came at the officer with a knife. Did the officer have to kill him? I don't know. I wasn't there. I've certainly had enough practice at the firing range to be able to put a bullet where I intend to. But that is firing under perfect and calm circumstances. The officer was young and fairly new on the force. I believe he panicked. But I don't believe he showed the same intent as the officer from South Carolina.
And thank God, both of these men were white or we'd have had Al Sharpton climbing up our butts and grabbing as much camera time as he could to stir up any black folks in the area.

Not long after this incident, there was another police shooting in a town close by. But this time it was a black officer shooting a white woman. Again, no sign of Sharpton. I believe this shooting was accidental. Again a young officer, fairly new on the job. There was never any question of racial tension. The officer was put on administrative leave while the state investigated. Fortunately, there were several witnesses who all agreed that the officers gun discharged while he was falling due to the icy sidewalk.

I'm more concerned about incidents like Ferguson because I believe that TPTB use race as a divisive tool along with religion, politics and social level to keep us fighting each other and distracted as to what they are doing. I hate to see people playing into their hands and jerks like Sharpton just fuel the flames.

On the other side of that coin, I'm not willing to give a free pass to someone of any color who is breaking the law and wants to cry discrimination when they get arrested or think they are being profiled. Do the police profile? Well, if in your area most of the crimes are committed by members of one race, I think it would be only smart to keep a more watchful eye on people of that race, age, gender, etc. Never mind the socio-economic reasons for that crime. I'm not buying that people have no choice but to break the law. I've seen too many people raise themselves up out of poverty and go on to make something out of themselves. It may not be easy, but it can be done. Of course, once you have a record, you've just shot yourself in the foot. Like E.T. Williams says, if you want to be treated with respect, start with yourself.

And I am really tired of the race card being played whenever anyone criticizes Obama, Holder or Obama's newest pick for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. Dick Durbin, Democratic Senator from Illinois had the nerve to accuse the Senate Judiciary Committee of racism for doing their job! It is the right and the duty of that committee to investigate presidential picks for various positions, Read your Constitution Durbin. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with her ethics and conduct so far in her career. And it looks to me like there are more than a few questionable moves she's made as a judge or states attorney. These senators have a right to ask some hard questions and sift through her answers.

The same thing can be said for Obama or Holder. When they get caught doing something that is at the least questionable if not outright criminal, that seems to be their first line of defense. They're being picked on because they're black. Give me a break! No, you are having your feet held to the fire due to your conduct. Deal with it and stop whining. It shouldn't matter to anyone what someones color is. It's their ethics and conduct on trial.

Will we ever see a time when MLKs dream is a reality? Probably not. There will always be ignorant people who judge others by the color of their skin or their religion or politics or what side of the tracks they come from. And whites don't have the market cornered on prejudice either.

There are no free passes. Sorry. That isn't the way the world works. But we can do better as a nation to ensure that all children receive the same quality education; that all people have the same opportunity for a good job or a home in a good neighborhood. We can train law enforcement to be as color blind as possible. And those in authority can do the right thing when dealing with obvious incidents of wrong doing among their rank and file.

As long as the world is filled with imperfect people, there will be incidents like the one in South Carolina. But things are improving slowly. No one could argue that things are as bad as they were in the 60's or for most of our history prior to that time. MLK gave his life for a cause. He didn't get to see the improvement his efforts helped bring about. But if you can't see that a white police officer being fired and charged with murder for killing a black man in the deep south isn't progress, you just don't want to see it. http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=14851