Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Trial over North Charleston police shooting ends in mistrial.

To be clear the trial for THAT shooting ended in mistrial.

Here is more courtesy of the New York Times:  

The trial of Michael T. Slager, the North Charleston police officer whose videotaped killing of an unarmed black man staggered the nation as it was embroiled in debate about police misconduct and racial biases in law enforcement, ended in a mistrial on Monday. 

Judge Clifton B. Newman’s decision to halt the proceedings came three days after jurors signaled that they were within one vote of returning a guilty verdict against Mr. Slager, who could have been convicted of either murder or voluntary manslaughter for the killing of Walter L. Scott. But jurors also sent conflicting messages on Friday about whether they could break their impasse, setting off a confused legal frenzy. 

On Monday, though, the panel of 11 white people and a black man again sent word that it would not be able to reach a unanimous verdict about Mr. Slager’s conduct, prompting the mistrial ruling.

So hard for a jury to know the right decision in a case like this.

If only there were some video tape that clearly showed the suspect running away when he was shot.

Oh wait......

And as NYT points out there is nothing new about this outcome:

The outcome in the Slager case is similar to the resolutions in other recent trials involving claims of police misconduct. This fall, a jury in Cincinnati deadlocked in the case of a university police officer who fatally shot a motorist who was black and unarmed. Here in South Carolina, juries twice deadlocked when considering charges against a rural police chief who fatally shot an unarmed black man. And in December 2015, the trial of a Baltimore police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray ended in a mistrial. (After a judge, ruling in bench trials, cleared other Baltimore officers, the prosecutor there dropped all of the criminal cases in the matter of Mr. Gray’s death.)

And people wonder why groups like BLM exist, and why they spend their time protesting in the streets. 

26 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:31 AM

    Well maybe he would have been convicted if a videotape not only showed the officer shooting the man in the back but also showed the officer planting evidence, oh wait. Well, maybe if the officer made a false statement about the victim taking his teaser, the tasker that he planted next to the body, oh wait. The judge read a statement by the lone holdout that made you wonder what case he was watching. And even though the jury was 11 to 1, white to black in an area where the population is 47% African American, at least there was only one holdout.

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  2. Anonymous7:20 AM

    At this point, a white police officer could shoot a black infant dead and not be convicted.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:12 AM

      Agreed. But I wonder to what lengths some would go in order to stop a black teenager from ending her pregnancy? It's all about keeping control of a population that used to be more subservient.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous7:24 AM

    Racism exists all over this country, but no way in hell would I ever live in the South where it is still so easy to outwardly live as a horrible racist and sexist. There are parts of this country that are decades behind in evolving and they will never ever really be evolved. Next century, these parts of the US will be just as they are now.

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  4. Anonymous7:41 AM

    It's no wonder too many of our young people have given up on the system. From top to bottom it is corrupt.

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  5. Anonymous7:44 AM

    If you ask President-elect Donald Trump and his alt-right administration about the shooting, they would most likely tell you it was a righteous shooting and the officer deserves a medal.

    There's a video!

    There's an eye witness!

    Who in their sick mind would say not guilty?

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  6. Anonymous7:46 AM

    Trump’s Bogus Carrier Deal Gets Even Worse

    ...The Carrier deal was a sham. Many conservatives are privately biting their tongues, but a few will admit that what Trump ad Pence did is crony capitalism. The deal reeks of the worst kind of special interest corruption and upward redistribution of wealth.

    The national television cameras are long gone from the Carrier plant, but the reality is that workers still don’t know how many jobs are staying. The number of jobs being sent to Mexico is continuing to grow by the day.

    Trump lied about the Carrier deal, and a president-elect who will lie for the sake of a little good publicity won’t have any trouble lying about matters of war and peace.

    Carrier got some corporate welfare, Trump got his publicity stunt, and the workers at Carrier are continuing to get screwed.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/06/trumps-bogus-carrier-deal-worse-730-jobs-saved.html

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    1. Anonymous8:21 AM

      Good article with Carrier interview here:

      http://www.businessinsider.com/united-tech-ceo-says-trump-deal-will-lead-to-more-automation-fewer-jobs-2016-12

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:33 AM

      I just posted a link to a Carrier story with bits of interview with the company's head. There will be fewer jobs in IN. Period. Things are always getting blamed on trade, but it really boils down to technology taking away jobs. They're calling it the "Third Industrial Revolution." The guy basically says that those IN jobs are the jobs of yesterday.

      Americans resisting learning new skills and trashing education will mean that things just continue as they are in places. The American mindset of these workers is, ironically, what your currently popular use of the word "elitist" is all about. They think they know it all. They think they are morally superior. I get that they see the physically hard-working past as emblematic of America's can-do spirit and so on, but, well, sorry, but their jobs have been dying for decades now. I was in my early teens when it started--I remember reading about it in the paper and hearing about it on the news often--and now I'm in my mid-50's, and the clingers-on have continued to cling. Their refusal to think ahead and envision something different for themselves and move along with the rest of society has left them stuck. I admire what they did. My dad was one of them. But he knew long ago that he was the last of a breed of workers. He would talk about it and I'd read his union newspaper. They all knew what was coming.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:46 AM

      Exactly, even farms are all digital workers. No longer a human driving tractors. Yep, these people helped EC to go R. yep no jobs period, unless they train.

      Delete
  7. Or...
    Jefferson Parrish Sheriff Newell Normand was just on MSNBC and they had to cut him off because of his incendiary and profane language. Go Tamran Hall!

    What an asshat! His remarks exemplified throughout this not so cleverly disguised ongoing attitude. There were the usual good ole boy Trumpette legislators backing him up.

    We have to try to get the electors to vote Trump down...see headlines on HuffPo this a.m. Long shot.

    I am seriously considering getting my 4/10 out. It is the only thing I know how to shoot except a slingshot.

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  8. Anonymous7:49 AM

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eaee2a44f1b1a05eb8b60671e6c51c2ee4f109c8988cf68a2e04d8405d60709f.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous7:57 AM

    If only that police officer was Sarah Palin, that man Walter Scott would still be alive today. With five shots Sarah Palin can't even hit a non-moving caribou with a high powered rifle looking through a top of the line scope. Even after the first four shots the caribou didn't even run.

    I know it is nothing to make fun of but watching that video sickens me. Walter was shot as if he was an animal. That's why I thought of Sarah Palin. The man was running away and was shot in the back. He was not a threat to anybody.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:40 AM

      Yes, it appears to be murder.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:42 AM

      I mean you have thousands of movies showing murder and you see it as muder. This is real life and yet the juror could not say it was mudr?!

      Delete
  10. Anonymous8:08 AM

    The final result of the US presidential election is still unclear almost a month after polling day – and the recount in Michigan has now been thrown into chaos because of broken voting machines.

    As officials began a full recount in the swing state, it emerged that faulty machines mean half of all votes cast in the city of Detroit may be ineligible for recount. A third of voting precincts in Wayne County, that largest of Michigan's counties, could also be disqualified.

    The problems were discovered after voting clerks were unable to match the number of votes cast on the machines with the number of people who had been registered at polling stations.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/us-election-michigan-recount-donald-trump-broken-voting-machines-hillary-clinton-a7458231.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:39 AM

      Seriously?! Broken machines?

      Delete
  11. Anonymous8:09 AM

    Florida voters sue for recount

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/12/05/florida-voters-sue-recount/95021946/

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:37 AM

      I am glad for this. Especially now that I know for sure that the orange fatty has his daughter so heavily involved, I think voters did not vote his daughter in.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous8:09 AM

    Unexplained discrepancies could stymie recount in hundreds of Michigan precincts

    http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/308927-unexplained-ballot-discrepancies-could-make-hundreds-of-michigan-precincts

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  13. Anonymous10:34 AM

    This is so sad. It does appear he committed murder right before our eyes. I hope the ghost rises up and just bothers him forever.

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  14. Anonymous10:51 AM

    Trump is thrilled for broken machines in Michigan.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous4:13 AM

    Not surprised at the results. My co workers and I came to this conclusion when we first heard of the shooting. I figured people would say we don't know why he ran, he started assaulting the officer. It was a justified killing, one less thing off the street and so on and so forth. Great job America show the world just how racist we really are

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  16. Anonymous4:17 AM

    I also see Rump giving Dylan Storm Roof a presidential pardon, he might even get the Secretary of Race Relations also.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous4:20 AM

    Some people are truly mental gymnasts to think this shit is right or OK. You reap what you sow, be a terrible person and bad things happen.

    ReplyDelete

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