Policing The Police

This past weekend national news exploded with a not-so-unfamiliar story involving a white police officer shooting an unarmed black man. During a routine traffic stop in North Charleston, N.C. Walter L. Scott attempted to run away from officer Michael Slager, but after failing to tase Scott the officer pulled out his gun and shot at the fleeing man eight times. Slager ended up shooting Scott five times. Is this the story that officer Slager told his police department? No. He claimed that Scott struggled with him to take his taser and so he had to use deadly force. You might be wondering how I'm so certain that my facts are correct- well several days ago a bystander came forward with a video recording that he had taken of the incident. It clearly shows Scott running away from Slager and instead of giving chase, he pulls out his taser and then his gun.

This week I came across an awesome Washington Post editorial titled, "What if every police encounter were recorded?" by the Editorial Board. This editorial uses the Walter Scott murder as an example of why we need body cameras on all police officers. All too often police brutality is going unchecked and we're leaving the job up to bystanders to provide evidence in critical cases. The Editorial Board goes on to comment on how body cams would keep police in check and hold them to a better standard. Another example that I can recall happened a few months ago in Austin when two officers had forgotten they had left their dash cam on and they were making rape jokes about a woman walking in front of them. I was horrified. Luckily, they were dumb enough to leave their camera on and were promptly suspended. My point is- these are the people who are supposed to be protecting us and they're honestly becoming more terrifying than actual criminals because they're more likely to get away with it. I agreed with so many of the things that were pointed out in this editorial and I absolutely agree that we need to keep our police in check. The abuse and mistreatment of minorities by the police is disgraceful and we cannot allow for innocent people to be murdered by the police who have sworn to protect us. The good news for Walter L. Scott's family is that thanks to the video turned in by a bystander, Michael Slager was fired from his police department and sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder. Sometimes justice comes through, but we can't leave it up to chance or luck. Let's make body cameras for police a new policy.