Please,say it isn't so... Another light-skin cop shoots an unarmed person with darker skin for no apparent reason except for the light-skin's anger. What the hell is going on? It appears, we are living in a world where more pigmentation that developed during our evolution (due to climate) is a death sentence no matter what the circumstances. How sad for us all that the very people who we hire to keep the peace, can become our judge, jury and executioner, at whim.
Bigotry in government that trickles down to departments and agencies, which are in place to make sure there’s justice for all, but do the opposite choosing instead, who deserves justice and who does not, it’s reprehensible.
It sure didn't help when Ronald Reagan used bigotry to win elections… Encouraging those who were already filled with hate and prejudice, that it’s OK to feel that way, as long as you vote for those who feel and believe like you do… In other words, vote for the bigots who run for office… and they will make our country so intolerant, that all those with more pigmentation will become marginalized, or in prison or dead, and it continues to this day… Sadly, it's starting to appear as though this is no joke!
thinkingblue
After the video surfaced, the relevant local authorities, to their credit, acted promptly and justly. Slager was fired by the police department and charged with Scott's murder by the district attorney. The killing was denounced by South Carolina's Republican governor and its two Republican senators. In this case, clear video evidence pierced the thin blue line.
And yet, if it wasn't for the pure chance of Slager's actions being videotaped, he probably would have gotten off scot-free. Without videotaped evidence, stories of officers fearing for their lives before using deadly force can be difficult to dispute, and local police departments have little incentive to conduct extensive, critical investigations of the self-justifications of officers who kill. Even worse, they do have incentives to cover up even the most serious police misconduct.
"Americans are bombarded with evidence that police officers who use excessive or fatal force will go to great lengths to protect themselves and make sure they face no legal repercussions," says Heather Ann Thompson, a professor of history at Temple University who specializes in issues of criminal justice. "From the state police's bloody retaking of Attica in 1971, to the recent police officer killing of a citizen in South Carolina, cover-up is the first line of defense."
This tendency to cover up represents a very serious systematic problem. A great deal of the criminal justice system depends on the honesty of law enforcement officials. Many criminal prosecutions depend on police testimony, and we often must rely on the investigations of local police when potential cases of misconduct arise. Pervasive dishonesty both lets individual bad actors escape punishment and undermines essential law enforcement activities.
As Jeet Heer details at The New Republic, the social science literature shows that our trust in the police is often not warranted. "Testilying" (police giving knowingly false testimony in court) and "reportilying" (police producing reports that are knowingly false) are dismayingly common. The prosecutors theoretically charged with checking police behavior are all too likely to be in cahoots with them, rather than acting as a watchdog. Within the system, most people have nothing to gain and much to lose by aggressively pursuing police misbehavior.
Read More: GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER