From Judge Cristina Live at 9, 4/13/15
By now, I’m guessing that you’ve all seen the brutal video of the killing of Walter Scott at the hands of a South Carolina Police Officer Michael Slager.
Ok - yes, we don't all facts yet... You know I love my cops… But it's guys like this that ruin it for all the good intentioned moral cops, don’t you think?
I could not believe what I saw in that video. Here we are living in year 2015 and I watched an unarmed black man get gunned down, shot in the back 5 TIMES by a white police officer. All because the man was scared of going to jail for being behind in his child support payments. He was cornered, running toward a fence that he probably couldn’t easily make it over. I can only imagine that man’s terror. Did he know he would die in such a brutal way at that moment? For missing child support payments?
There is just no excuse for what that officer did. The poor man was treated worse than a wild animal. I mean, this cop hunted and shot the man in cold blood – like an animal. And actually, I’ve heard from people who hunt that WILD ANIMALS ARE TREATED BETTER BY HUNTERS. The cop actually fired 8 times and 5 shots hit the man. HUNTERS DON’T JUST SPRAY AN ANIMAL WITH BULLETS. THEY TRY TO KILL THEIR PREY AS HUMANELY AS POSSIBLE, USUALLY WITH ONE SHOT. If Slager thought he couldn’t handle Walter Scott alone, all he had to do was wait a few minutes for help from other officers. So many other things could have been done to take him into custody.
And if not for a brave young man with his cellphone camera we would have no idea what really happened. It sounds like body cameras are not enough. Do we all need to become walking camera and evidence collectors with our cell phones? Because without this young man and his camera, we would never have been privy to such depravity of human life - to such utter perversion and evidence of the worst of human behavior.
Slager planted his stun gun near the victim and thought he could get away with it. This cop is absolutely un-defendable. I’m calling it murder, not manslaughter, and he should get the maximum penalty.
So what's going on with America? It's that disease I keep talking about in my opening statements here on Judge Cristina Live. It’s worse than cancer because at least with cancer while there is no cure, there is hope. In a story like this, I don’t see the hope. Do you? I see an anger – a HATRED – that is all consuming. One that eats at the core of every single person infected by it. And it makes me sad to say this – but I don’t even know if I’m shocked anymore.
Honestly, it sounds to me like this was more of an assassination. And speaking of… AND no one is talking about it, but did you know that of all days this happened on April 4th?
April 4th was the 47th Anniversary of the day that Martin Luther King was assassinated. And instead of taking the time as a Nation to reflect on that tragic event, we ended up with another one happening right in front of us.
But this isn’t just about race. And this isn’t just about the police. You might think that something like this will never happen to you. You would never run from the police or get into that situation, but are you one hundred percent sure about that? If one group of people can be singled out – WE are all at risk. None of us are safe from the abuse of authority.
Walter Scott ran because he had a warrant for being behind in his CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS.
Did you know that in South Carolina if you fall behind on child support payments, they can take away your driver’s license??? Well how are you supposed to go to work to earn the money to make the payments if you can’t drive to your job? I also read that on average, 1,500 people are in jail in South Carolina, for nonpayment of child support.
We might need to ask ourselves if this is something that should be punishable by jail time? How can someone make payments if they are behind bars? This system needs to be looked at because it seems to me that the goal is to put people in a much worse position than they were in BEFORE they couldn’t make the payments! How is that helping the kids?
What if laws are passed to make it a crime to be behind in your house payments? Or your car payments? Or your credit card payments? What kind of pre-Revolutionary War era debtors prison are we trying to create here? How many people will be running from the police if something like that ever happens? And how many times will ONE BAD COP decide to take his or her gun out and just blow the person away?
And with all due respect to cops we need to me more aggressive with them for all of our sakes... No one is above the law. Badge or no badge -- Everyone must be accountable for their actions.
So what is the answer? Continuing field education?? Periodic psychiatric testing??? How can we weed the bad seeds out of the police force before they take an innocent life?
You be the jury and tell me: How do we keep this from happening again? How do we weed out the bad cops before they take another innocent life?
By now, I’m guessing that you’ve all seen the brutal video of the killing of Walter Scott at the hands of a South Carolina Police Officer Michael Slager.
Ok - yes, we don't all facts yet... You know I love my cops… But it's guys like this that ruin it for all the good intentioned moral cops, don’t you think?
I could not believe what I saw in that video. Here we are living in year 2015 and I watched an unarmed black man get gunned down, shot in the back 5 TIMES by a white police officer. All because the man was scared of going to jail for being behind in his child support payments. He was cornered, running toward a fence that he probably couldn’t easily make it over. I can only imagine that man’s terror. Did he know he would die in such a brutal way at that moment? For missing child support payments?
There is just no excuse for what that officer did. The poor man was treated worse than a wild animal. I mean, this cop hunted and shot the man in cold blood – like an animal. And actually, I’ve heard from people who hunt that WILD ANIMALS ARE TREATED BETTER BY HUNTERS. The cop actually fired 8 times and 5 shots hit the man. HUNTERS DON’T JUST SPRAY AN ANIMAL WITH BULLETS. THEY TRY TO KILL THEIR PREY AS HUMANELY AS POSSIBLE, USUALLY WITH ONE SHOT. If Slager thought he couldn’t handle Walter Scott alone, all he had to do was wait a few minutes for help from other officers. So many other things could have been done to take him into custody.
And if not for a brave young man with his cellphone camera we would have no idea what really happened. It sounds like body cameras are not enough. Do we all need to become walking camera and evidence collectors with our cell phones? Because without this young man and his camera, we would never have been privy to such depravity of human life - to such utter perversion and evidence of the worst of human behavior.
Slager planted his stun gun near the victim and thought he could get away with it. This cop is absolutely un-defendable. I’m calling it murder, not manslaughter, and he should get the maximum penalty.
So what's going on with America? It's that disease I keep talking about in my opening statements here on Judge Cristina Live. It’s worse than cancer because at least with cancer while there is no cure, there is hope. In a story like this, I don’t see the hope. Do you? I see an anger – a HATRED – that is all consuming. One that eats at the core of every single person infected by it. And it makes me sad to say this – but I don’t even know if I’m shocked anymore.
Honestly, it sounds to me like this was more of an assassination. And speaking of… AND no one is talking about it, but did you know that of all days this happened on April 4th?
April 4th was the 47th Anniversary of the day that Martin Luther King was assassinated. And instead of taking the time as a Nation to reflect on that tragic event, we ended up with another one happening right in front of us.
But this isn’t just about race. And this isn’t just about the police. You might think that something like this will never happen to you. You would never run from the police or get into that situation, but are you one hundred percent sure about that? If one group of people can be singled out – WE are all at risk. None of us are safe from the abuse of authority.
Walter Scott ran because he had a warrant for being behind in his CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS.
Did you know that in South Carolina if you fall behind on child support payments, they can take away your driver’s license??? Well how are you supposed to go to work to earn the money to make the payments if you can’t drive to your job? I also read that on average, 1,500 people are in jail in South Carolina, for nonpayment of child support.
We might need to ask ourselves if this is something that should be punishable by jail time? How can someone make payments if they are behind bars? This system needs to be looked at because it seems to me that the goal is to put people in a much worse position than they were in BEFORE they couldn’t make the payments! How is that helping the kids?
What if laws are passed to make it a crime to be behind in your house payments? Or your car payments? Or your credit card payments? What kind of pre-Revolutionary War era debtors prison are we trying to create here? How many people will be running from the police if something like that ever happens? And how many times will ONE BAD COP decide to take his or her gun out and just blow the person away?
And with all due respect to cops we need to me more aggressive with them for all of our sakes... No one is above the law. Badge or no badge -- Everyone must be accountable for their actions.
So what is the answer? Continuing field education?? Periodic psychiatric testing??? How can we weed the bad seeds out of the police force before they take an innocent life?
You be the jury and tell me: How do we keep this from happening again? How do we weed out the bad cops before they take another innocent life?
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