mung wrote:
Given that the one barb is in Scott's leg it could simply be that Slager missed.
I don't dispute that Scott was resisting and trying to break free. Unless Slager says that he was hit in any way, there is no reason at all to even think he was.
As Chip and others have said, if Slager had shot while the two were still struggling, it wouldn't even be a question. But the fact that he shot not only as Scott was fleeing, but that he kept shooting, that is what makes this seem a lot less like a good shoot and a lot more like a payback for resisting.
I have been watching the short clip of the taser being thrown and Slager drawing his weapon. And it finally hit me. When have I seen a taser have no effect on a person. It is in two cases, when a perpetrator is morbidly obese (and possibly also on drugs/alcohol) and when a perpetrator is so impaired biologically that a drug coursing though their body makes them basically physically impervious to the taser.
Slager may not have known that Scott did not receive the full jolt from the taser and given Scott’s already irrational behavior, Slager may have thought that he was dealing with a very dangerous man who was impervious to anything Slager had to stop him, other than his gun. We don't know what Slager thought as he hasn't presented his case to the media (thank God for a wise attorney) . I can't condemn an officer who was polite at the stop, was justly suspicious of Scott, and so on and so forth. I'm still waiting for the evidence. Until then, given the totality of Scott's behavior, the BGI's insertion, the obvious obfuscation being put forth by those with the "Slager is a cold blooded killer" side, I will give the man who put his life on the line every day the benefit of the doubt. (I don't include you in the "Slager is a cold blooded killer crowd" )
If damning evidence comes out against Slagr I will accept it.
And on a side note I was in Chicago Tuesday and ran into about 30 FTP protestors marching down the sidewalk with idiotic signs blowing shrill whistles with their faces contorted with hate.
A little further up an ignorant fool was standing around with a clip board and asked me if I had 60 seconds to "Learn" about Systemic Racism ? I said "Do you have 60 seconds for me to explain to you why Trayvon Martin, Walter Scott and Mike Brown are dead because of their own behavior or sixty seconds to discuss with me how many young black men have killed other black men this year in Chicago? " He just stood there with his mouth hanging open so I turned around and went about enjoying my day.