There is so much profoundly disturbing about the shooting of a 50 year old African American man, Walter Scott, by a White Police Officer, Michael Slager of the North Charleston Police Department, (NCPD), that one does not where to begin. The alleged cold blooded murder comes at a time when there have been a slew of similar high profile incidents, within a relatively short space of time, where law enforcement is seemingly immune from the consequences of what appears to be a homicide to the lay person. Starting with the vigilante Zimmerman killing of Travyon Martin and continuing with the Ferguson slaying of Michael Brown, the choking death of Errol Garner on Staten Island, the shooting death of 12 year old Tamir Rice in Cleveland and the downing of John Crawford 111 in a Walmart in Dayton, the unfolding pattern of events has been the same. - a black male is shot in circumstances where a minor offense is alleged or under circumstances that even the most cursory investigation would have counseled caution.
What then follows seems scripted. There is an uproar by the body politic, protests, dry explanatory statements from the police who claim they were acting out of self defense or fear of life and limb, a smear of the victim, and where there are judicial proceedings of one sort or another the bar is so low or the system so weighted that the defendants are exonerated. One would like to believe that with the video and the first hand credible courageous evidence of the witness to these events that this is an open and shut case but stick around ….
It is hard to face up to the reality of what is being presented as one believes that law enforcers, in general, are upright, take the trust society puts in them seriously and that these are just isolated events, as they may well be. However the time has come to probe deeper into these incidents. The video cellphone has rocked our unconditional faith in law enforcement much in the manner that DNA evidence did in questioning of the guilt of some of those languishing in jail or death row for rape and murder. The North Charleston Mayor admitted that if it wasn’t for the video it was unlikely that the arraignment of Office Slager would have materialized. How does one now feel about the two hundred odd police shootings in South Carolina, of whom 79 succumbed these past five years, where in every instance no culpability was found? (Like DNA the video camera will help exonerate as well as convict defendants in the years to come).
THE CONTEXT OF THE POLICE BEHAVIOR
Ferguson Missouri
One also questions how on earth this type of behavior can occur in a vacuum? In Ferguson Missouri a Justice Department investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, (FPD), following the Michael Brown death, a culture of corruption and mal fides was found to be present through the whole law enforcement and town legislature system. The town was being financed by fines and court fees disproportionately being dished out to the black citizens. The City Manager pressured the Police Chief to collect more fines and the latter delivered. This objective was achieved and officers were evaluated on “productivity”.
The report states that this culture impacted the behavior of the Officers in the day to day activities where they illegally harassed citizens usually black. Infringements included constitutional violations such as penalizing free speech, improper stops and arrests, interpreting harmless behavior as threatening and the use of excessive force. The statistics show that African Americans were the group far more likely to suffer from these practices.The officers were not subject to review or disciplining for these endemic violations.
These aforementioned abuses were aided and abetted by a Municipal Court that acted in a draconian fashion backing up the extortionist behavior of the police. The report cites numerous examples of increases of fines and ever increasing court costs. African - Americans were far more likely to have extended court stays, arrest warrants and less dismissals of their cases. Ninety -two percent of the arrest warrants issued by the court were for this population group. The racial bias of these activities is reflected in that over ninety percent of the citations and arrests warrants were of African Americans. The overwhelming reports of police violence against alleged offenders involved Black Citizens as did all the incidences of police canines' bites.
At the time of the death of Michael Brown there was substantial mistrust of the FPD and the investigation of the Justice Department negated the argument of the Ferguson officials who maintained that the protests were due to outside agitators. The report resulted in high profile resignations including the Chief of Police, the City Manager and the Judge of the Municipal Court. It is a pity that Prosecutor McCullough didn’t resign too.
So it is not unreasonable to conclude that Michael Brown’s violent death at the hands of the police took place in a culture of police and city bias to towards the African American citizenry of Ferguson.
Cleveland Ohio
In Cleveland a twelve year old African American Tamir Rice’s death occurred, under highly questionable circumstances as confirmed by the police video. A Justice Department investigation into the Cleveland Police Department, (CPD), had been initiated at the behest of the Mayor of Cleveland following community wide protests at the behavior of the Department and a statement by the Ohio Attorney General that there was “systemic failure” of the CPD. The investigation concluded that the Department used “unnecessary and excessive” force in violation of the fourth amendment. The types of excessive force the report detailed were “deadly force including shootings and head strikes”. Similarly the overuse of tasers, chemical spray and fists were listed. The CPD was criticized for violent behavior towards mentally disabled citizens some of who just needed welfare assessments. The officers were cited for dangerous or poor tactics that made violence an inevitability.
It is reasonable to conclude that Tamir Rice’s death took place in the context of a dysfunctional Police Department that had been cited for endemic, unnecessary and excessive force.
WHAT ABOUT NORTH CHARLESTON?
As soon as the first hand report accompanied by a video evidenced the penny dropped with the NCPD and the City of North Charleston. Michael Slager must have wondered what had hit him. He never saw the bus coming!. He was fired from the NCPD and charged with first degree murder without bond. The City of North Charleston is purchasing body cameras for all officers and the legislation in the South Carolina Congress for body cameras for all South Carolina officers is suddenly on the fast track. Lessons had been learned from the arrogance of other police departments, cities and States who just stuck to their guns in similar circumstances. So there has been some progress….. Jay H. Ell would hate to think that the Republican Mayor was motivated because he is up for reelection in a constituency that voted 71 percent for Obama in the 2012 election.
It is early days yet but what can be learned about the culture of the police in North Charleston? More will transpire later so let us begin by examining the information that was provided by the NCPD and Slager himself prior to the release of the cell phone video. Jay H. Ell can only imagine that it will get worse for Slager. The post mortem results hardly can to be corroborative of the early narrative of the shooting.
Slager’s edited radio dispatch call.
Firstly, there was the release of an edited recording of the radio dispatch call that Slager made of the incident. (The immediate question is how does an officer who is ostensibly in fear for his life have the time to give a running commentary of the situation and the follow up question is why was this released report an edited version of the interaction?)
“In foot pursuit - black male green shirt black pants”
The radio report edits are here so it is impossible to know what happens in the interim other than a call goes out to all police in the area then seconds later:
“Shots fired. Subject is down. He grabbed my taser”.
“Everyone is ok except the subject, (sic), …. it looks like to the chest to the right side. Unresponsive… another gunshot wound to the buttock”.
At the immediate debriefing also on videotape Slager explains, “He grabbed my taser”.
Jay H. Ell will not insult the intelligence of his few readers with how this was designed to fit in on a cover up of the shooting but in the cold light of day, which this type of incident is never exposed to, all this will not jive with the subsequent unfolding of events.
NCPD statements prior to the video emerging.
The first statement within a few hours of the event emanating from the NCPD reinforced and embellished on the cover up version of Slager. The statement referred to a traffic stop “gone wrong”. The officer was said to have deployed his department issued Taser and the suspect gained control of it and attempted to use it against the officer. The officer then resorted to his service weapon and shot him.
Again in the light of subsequent events Jay H. Ell will not insult the intelligence of anyone by pointing to the lies in this other than to say another dimension has been added to the cover up, the official stamp of the NCPD. In what may be a potential crime Slager is acquitted without there being as much as the slightest investigation. Slager has very little to worry about - maybe some rationalization after the post mortem that the suspect turned his back on him as he shot and that his gun jammed and he went on firing or whatever - does it really matter? Slager had been there before and he knew the drill.
The Dominican Republic immigrant Feidin Sanatana’s video
As the subsequent phone video shows Officer Slager goes through a charade of handcuffing the dead suspect - presumably to add credence to his story as to what a risk this guy posed to him and to reinforce how frightened he was that he even had to handcuff a “wounded” man - remember he had already reported that Scott had been shot in the chest and the buttock. He nonchalantly moves an object, assumed to be the taser from the place where the shots were fired from to where the body is now. “Not to worry the boys will back him up”, as they do - backing him up that there was CPR was a nice touch. (Officer Slager faced a similar situation at least once before when confronted with a serious complaint of grievous assault and there had been no repercussions then). He is sure the suspect in the fleeing green shirt had a rap sheet a mile long, he had after all resisted arrest and “fought” with him - What is a law officer supposed to do?
One other damning piece of hubris is that the video shows Slager staring at videographer Santana and the latter acknowledges that he did. Slater carries on doing what he did to cover up his alleged crime - “Who is going to believe this dark guy? It will be my word against his”. Santana then gets close to Scott and Slager and he is told to leave the scene.
The three minute video is so indelibly etched in the psyche of America that one needs hardly needs to go through each frame and it will be referenced where relevant.
A New Witnesses to the “altercation” emerges
Subsequent to the release of the video an additional eye witness described what she saw when Slager caught up with Scott. She explained it was like a tussle with Scott saying, “What do you want?”, “What did I do?”, type of thing. She categorically maintains that she did not hear Slager shout stop but heard the shots. Thus, a Miss Gwen Nicholl’s corroborated Feidin Santana’s testimony of the event prior to the latter turning on his phone recorder. Santana, who is mature beyond his years, saw Slager on top of Feidin and heard the sound of the taser go off. He reports that he, like Ms. Nicholls, never saw Scott go after the taser and “He never tried to fight he just wanted to run away”.
The perceptions and behavior of Feidin Santana, the immigrant Dominican Barber
What struck Jay H. Ell more than else about the culture surrounding the NCPD was through the eyes, perceptions and the behavior of the young barber who witnessed and videotaped this crime scene on his way to work. He has reflected that he immediately new the magnitude of what he recorded and he felt his life may be in danger. He wanted to get out of Charleston and start his life anew elsewhere. His life had changed in a matter of seconds. He at one stage wanted to erase the tape. He maintained that, “He is still scared”. The follow up question was of whom is he still scared and why? His lawyer answered for him. “There are other officers who said they gave CPR who are still around and Feidin wants to know how he can get protection”.
After reading the police report on the incident Santana decided go to the police. He told them that the police officer wasn’t abused and that he had witnessed everything and he had recorded it. One of the police asked him if it was true that he had a recording and then told him to wait. Santana became scared as he felt that the interview was going the wrong way and absconded. A decision that his lawyer confirmed was “very wise” under the circumstances as there were other law enforcement officers that now could be potentially investigated for the cover up.
In spite of all this Santana felt that the family needed justice so he decided to give the video to them. When asked to comment on the impact that this incident might have had he concluded that it would detract from the positive image that Latin America has of the USA. He also believed that it was important to expose this type of abuse of minorities by the police.
Needless to say the family did not give the video to the police but rather to the New York times. .. Houston we have a problem…..
WHAT NOW?
Arising out of the earlier incidents mentioned above President Obama established “The President’s Task Force on 21St Century Policing" which released its first report this March. The basis for the investigation was the distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities where ,“Too many people, particularly young people of color, do not feel as if they are being treated fairly”. Inter alia the objective of the task force, that had input and representation from every involved group, was to foster strong collaborative relationships between law enforcement and those that they serve.
One of the themes addressed in the conference was that it was society that made some of the unpopular laws that the police carry out, for example the draconian drug laws that have criminalized so many. In addition as Jay H. Ell has tried to point out the police force is sometimes a reflection of the society they operate in. One of the Task Force’s overarching recommendations was to promote community based initiatives that address the core issues of poverty, education, health and safety.
There were lists of recommendations such as independent police investigations into alleged improprieties, transparency of the workings of law enforcement and training in diversity and communication.
So well meaning people are aware of the problem which is not just a policing problem. The latter are in many ways just doing what the community they operate in expects them to do. And never lose sight of the fact that there are many well functioning communities with functional law enforcement.
No comments:
Post a Comment