Tag Archives: officer

Native Americans Get Shot By Cops at an Astonishing Rate

by yiszkj53 Posted on July 15, 2015

Mother Jones

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Nearly 100 people demonstrated in downtown Denver earlier this week after police there shot and killed 35-year-old Paul Castaway on July 12. Police said the man was coming towards an officer with a knife, but his family and witnesses on the scene dispute those claims and say he was pointing the knife toward himself.

The shooting comes a little more than a month after two Denver Police officers were cleared in the shooting death of Jessie Hernandez, a 17-year-old girl killed in January when the officers fired into a stolen car she was supposedly driving toward them in an alley.

According to his mother, Castaway struggled with schizophrenia and alcoholism. Witnesses say he was holding a knife to his own throat and didn’t threaten officers, according to the Denver Post. Castaway was shot four times and died later that night. Denver Police Department spokesman, Sonny Jackson, told the Post that the department is reviewing the incident, and that the officers involved will be named soon.

Castaway was a Lakota Sioux. His death brings up a rarely-discussed aspect of the ongoing conversation around police brutality in the United States: Native Americans are more likely than most other racial groups to be killed by police. Indian Country Today noted that according to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a nonprofit organization that studies incarceration and criminal justice issues, police kill Native Americans at a higher rate than any other ethnic group.

The center’s analysis relied on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics. It found that Native Americans, making up just .8 percent of the population, are the victims in 1.9 percent of police killings. When the numbers are broken down further, they reveal that Native Americans make up *three of the top five top age-groups killed by law enforcement:

Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice

“This is a reflection of an endemic problem in the perception of non-white people when it comes to the administration of justice,” Chase Iron Eyes, an attorney with the Lakota People’s Law Project in South Dakota, told Mother Jones. The group put out a report called “Native Lives Matter” in February discussing various ways the justice system disproportionately impacts Native Americans. He said the US Department of Justice needs to address police violence against Native Americans and that Castaway’s death is only the most recent example of the problem.

“You can tell they’re shooting out of fear,” he said. “If it’s not out of hate, for some reason they’re pulling the trigger before determining what the situation actually is. Something does need to happen. Somebody does need to take a look and we need help.”

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Native Americans Get Shot By Cops at an Astonishing Rate

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Murdered State Senator Clementa Pinckney Made This Haunting Speech About Walter Scott

by MichellSauer Posted on June 18, 2015

Mother Jones

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One of the victims of Wednesday’s horrific shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, was state Senator Clementa Pinckney, the church’s pastor. Much has already been written about Pinckney’s dedication to public service from a young age, and his rich life in the church. My colleagues are updating a full list of the nine victims as more information becomes available. In the meantime, here’s another memorable moment from Pinckney’s leadership in the South Carolina Senate.

Back in May, the senator delivered this stirring (and now haunting) call to action following the death of Walter Scott—the unarmed black man who was shot and killed by a white police officer in North Charleston, just six miles north of where Pinckney and others were murdered. Here’s Pinckney on the Senate floor, rallying support for the adoption of police body cameras. Watch and read below:

Transcript:

Today, the nation looks at South Carolina and is looking at us to see if we will rise to be the body, and to be the state that we really say that we are. Over this past week, many of us have seen on the television, have read in newspapers, and have seen all the reports about Walter Scott, who, in my words, was murdered in North Charleston. It has really created a real heartache and a yearning for justice for people, not just in the African American community, but for all people, and not just in the Charleston area, or even in South Carolina, but across our country.

…But the next week, Thomas was there, Jesus walked in, he said, “I won’t believe until I see the nails. I won’t believe until I can put my hand in your side.” And it was only when he was able to do that, he said, “I believe, my Lord and my God.”

Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, when we first heard on the television, that a police officer had gunned down an unarmed African American in North Charleston by the name of Walter Scott, there were some who said, “Wow. The national story has come home to South Carolina.” But there were many who said, “There is no way that a police officer would ever shoot somebody in the back 6, 7, 8, times.” But like Thomas, when we were able to see the video, and we were able to see the gun shots, and when we saw him fall to the ground, and when we saw the police officer come and handcuff him on the ground, without even trying to resuscitate him, without even seeing if he was really alive, without calling an ambulance, without calling for help, and to see him die face down in the ground as if he were gunned down like game, I believe we all were like Thomas, and said, “I believe.”

…We have a great opportunity to allow sunshine into this process. It is my hope that as South Carolina senators, that we will stand up for what is best and good about our state and really adopt this legislation and find a way to have body cameras in South Carolina. Our hearts go out to the Scott family, and our hearts go out to the Slager family, because the Lord teaches us to love all, and we pray that over time, that justice be done.

(Video h/t Michael Adams)

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Murdered State Senator Clementa Pinckney Made This Haunting Speech About Walter Scott

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What I’ve Learned Photographing "a Place Where You Could Get Away With Murder"

by VivienI6863996 Posted on June 14, 2015

Mother Jones

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I’ve spent the past seven years documenting the lives of people in Chester, Pennsylvania, a predominantly African American city of some 34,000 people located just southwest of Philadelphia. Three years into my time there, I realized that being an image-maker wasn’t having the impact I desired. Whenever I spoke with my best friend in Chester, Dee Dee, she always had the same stories: how someone shot up her street just the week before, or how she struggled to find a safe place for her children to sleep. People kept saying the same thing: Chester was a place where you could get away with murder.

So I began to investigate the high frequency of unsolved murder in Chester and how that reflects a national epidemic. As Edwin Rios and Kai Wright report in “Black Deaths Matter,” 144 killings in the city have gone unsolved since 2005. “Night now in Chester is night now in many places—night now in Philadelphia, in Camden, and every other place you can think of,” says Donald Newton, an activist and lifetime resident.

Why is it so hard for families of color to get justice when a loved one is murdered? Read our story from MoJo‘s May/June issue.

I have been collecting stories of families struggling to get justice following the murder of a loved one. This project is a deep investigation into the emotional, physical, and spiritual landscape that transpires from unresolved trauma. It consists of a series of portraits of each family affected by unresolved trauma, paired with an image from the murder scene captured around the time of day the crime was committed. I’ve also collected ephemeral material (letters, oral histories, love songs, drawings, diary entries, etc.) to involve the families in their depiction. By opening drawers and revisiting albums, this work aims to restore fragile memories and forge pathways to justice, healing, and restitution for the families of Chester.

This work is personal. When I was a teenager, my best friend, a young black man, was slain with a kitchen knife. The wealthy white man who killed him was never convicted. I witnessed my friend’s single mother unravel, my mother’s love the only thing holding her up. The questions that formed and went unanswered only lanced us deeper with time. The saving grace was our solidarity. With this project, I want to provide a safe space for families in Chester who are dealing with this same formation of loss, to connect and create understanding together.

The New York Times recently reported that 1.5 million black men are missing from American communities, mostly through imprisonment and early death. How does this missing generation affect the social landscape of the places they left behind? How do familial roles transform as a result? What does justice look like for families who are missing their beloved young men? I know the answer cannot simply be to put more black men in jail. With this work, I want people to understand the complexities of living in a community like Chester, and how everything is interlocked: a patchwork of trauma and courage, deeply rooted in the foundation of American society.

Right now, the immediate goal is to create an interactive, web-based platform that will serve both as a database of memories speaking to the collective experience of unresolved trauma and as an online space for conversations between community members. I hope to invite a larger audience to look beyond the stereotypes of a community in crisis and contemplate our commonalities—beliefs and biases—rather than our differences.

One issue does not define Chester. It is a multidimensional, changing landscape, and I’ve witnessed powerful moments of strength and beauty. Ultimately, in sharing this experience, I am optimistic at the prospect of disproving popular perception: Chester is not a place where you can get away with murder.

Jabril Bradley, 20; killed at Ninth Street and Avenue of the States
Bradley was riding his bike home from a friend’s house on the east side of Chester on September 1, 2011, when an unknown gunman opened fire. He was struck once in the back but continued to ride his bike home. Blocks later, he collapsed from blood loss. He bled to death on the street.

Terrance Webster, 2; killed at Chester Apartments, Ninth and Lamokin Street
Terrance Webster, son of Tisheta Green, was killed on June 14, 2010 at 2:30 a.m. The incident occurred as the family returned from another relative’s house. As they entered their apartment, several shots were fired at the father, who was carrying Terrance. The child was struck in the head and died shortly after in the hospital.
In photo: Tisheta Green (mother) with two of her sons

Karim “Cutty” Muhammad Alexander, 29; killed on Patterson Street, close to Penn Street
Alexander walked around the corner from his house on August 5, 2008, talking to a friend on the street when he was shot multiple times by an unknown gunman.
In photo: Sherrice Alexander Hill (mother), Robert Hill (father), Karim Alexander (son), Tara Watts (sister), Ayla Muhammad (sister), Sharifah Muhammad (sister)

Karim Alexander’s photos and letters

Gary Brightwell, 30; killed at Sunoco gas station, Ninth Street and Kerlin Street, pump No. 5.
Brightwell got a phone call and went to get gas in his car. He was shot once, killed at pump No. 5 in front of a number of people.
In photo: Shanell Brightwell (daughter), Jabrae Davis (grandson), Brezhae Davis (granddaughter)

Arthur “Art” McElwee, 23; killed in alley off Ninth Street, between Booth and Clover Streets
McElwee was shot multiple times in an alleyway and was pronounced dead at the scene of the crime.
In photo: Elena McElwee (mother), Elena Jo McElwee (twin sister), Dawn McElwee and Aisha McElwee (sisters).

Art McElwee photos and childhood mementos

Emill Smith, age 22; killed at the Green Bar on East Seventh Street, between Caldwell and McIlvain Streets
In the early evening of March 11, 2008, Emill Smith was leaving the Green Bar. According to accounts by witnesses at the scene, he kissed a friend on the forehead and was getting into a car when he was shot multiple times. He wore a chain that was worth upwards of $10,000. It was stolen from him the night he was killed.
In photo: Valerie Maxwell (mother), Janiyah Van (daughter), Khaneef Taylor (brother), Ka’Marion Tayler (brother), Ka’Tavion Tayler (brother)

Valerie Maxwell’s Facebook page, where she regularly posts to her son, Emill Smith

MacMatherson Miller, age 25; killed on West Seventh St., between Booth and Harwick Streets
Miller received a call from a friend on October 7, 2009, and was told to meet on the corner of Seventh and Booth. As he waited in his car, someone opened fire, killing him instantly. Miller had great promise in high school, where he was the star quarterback for Chester High School. (He was inducted posthumously into the Chester High School Hall of Fame.)
In photo: Tareeah Garrett (girlfriend), Asir Hudson (girlfriend’s son)

James Hamler III, 30; killed near American Legion Bar, West Seventh and Lloyd Streets
Late on the night of June 17, 2007, Hamler was outside the American Legion bar when a car drove up and opened fire on the crowd. Hamler was hit and died on the scene.

James Hamler photos and memorial

Eddie “Fast Eddie” Swain-Lane, 29; killed at Third and Palmer Streets
Swain-Laine died after trying to save his girlfriend, Shanae Bailey, and her three-year-old daughter, Anaija Bailey, as a fire ripped through their home. He was down the street when he realized his home was on fire; he ran to the house and made the decision to go inside the burning house. The death was ruled suspicious but no investigation was completed.

Linda Rose Brown, 44; killed at Edwards Street, corner of Highway 291
In late March 1998, Brown went missing. Her body was found two weeks later in an abandoned building. The day Brown’s body was found, her son Tyrone King was called by a police officer at the scene and was told to come and identify the body. Based on physical evidence, the police told King she was strangled to death by a wire hanger, then shot in the head and later dumped.
In photo: Tyrone “TK” King (son), Hammenah Rollie (daughter), Amin Rollie (son)

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What I’ve Learned Photographing "a Place Where You Could Get Away With Murder"

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BREAKING: Tamir Rice Investigation Results Released by County Prosecutors

by MarylouBozeman Posted on June 13, 2015

Mother Jones

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The long-awaited findings of a probe into the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by a police officer in a Cleveland park last November, were finally released Saturday afternoon by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.

The publication of hundreds of pages of documents marks a significant milestone in the long and complicated search for answers surrounding the boy’s death. County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney’s office took over the investigation from the Cleveland police department in January. Then, five months later, the sheriff’s office handed over its findings to county prosecutor, Timothy J. McGinty, who has led the efforts since, and released today’s findings. Next, McGinty’s office will decide what additional investigation might be required, after which prosecutors will present evidence to a grand jury to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

“The death of a citizen resulting from the use of deadly force by the police is different from all other cases and deserves a high level of public scrutiny,” McGinty said in a statement accompanying the trove of documents.

Here are some of the major findings contained in today’s report. We’re making our way through the report now and will update this list:

Sheriff’s investigators interviewed 27 people, including the officers who arrived after the shooting, the 911 caller, paramedics, friends of Rice, and workers at at the Cudell Recreation Center, which is near the site of Rice’s death.
Officers Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shots, and Frank Garmback, who drove the squad car, have yet to speak to investigators, despite multiple attempts to interview Loehmann and Garmback since the Cleveland police department handed over the case in January.
Rice’s mother, Samaria Rice, also declined to speak with investigators.
The 911 dispatcher who relayed the message to Loehmann and Garmback “refused to answer questions (per her attorney) about not relaying specific information related to the 911 call.” A county official familiar with the case confirmed to Mother Jones that the dispatcher did not answer questions as to why she failed to mention that Rice was possibly a “juvenile” and that his weapon was probably “fake.”
According to witness interviews, it remains unclear whether Loehmann shouted commands at Rice from inside the police car before firing his gun. A weapons inspection showed that Loehmann fired two shots at the boy within one to two seconds of exiting the vehicle.
One witness, who said she was about 315 feet from the scene, said she was getting into a car when she heard, “Pop pop…Freeze let me see your hands…Pop.”

Saturday’s release comes days after community leaders in Cleveland filed affidavits asking a municipal judge to seek charges against the officers involved. The judge responded on Thursday saying he believed there was probable cause to bring charges including murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Since Rice’s death on November 22, 2014, questions have mounted about why it has taken so long to investigate the incident. As Ayesha Bell Hardaway, a former Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor, told Mother Jones, “Half a year is an extremely long time,” especially given the video of the shooting, the details of the 911 calls, and “the questions raised about Officer Loehmann’s fitness for duty.”

See the original article here – 

BREAKING: Tamir Rice Investigation Results Released by County Prosecutors

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Jon Stewart Slams the “Asshole” Cop Who Pulled a Gun on Unarmed Black Teens at a Texas Pool Party

by Brandon72H Posted on June 9, 2015

Mother Jones

Jon Stewart is just as horrified as you over the shocking video footage that emerged over the weekend showing a white police officer pointing a gun at a group of black teenagers during a Texas pool party.

Dubbing the segment “Assault Swim,” Stewart took to the Daily Show on Monday to address the violent party, asking viewers, “How do you go from a pool party to this?”

The video from Friday’s pool party, which shows officer Eric Casebolt waving a gun at the teenagers and even throwing a 14-year-old girl to the ground while she cries for help, has provoked national outrage over what many say is another example of excessive, racially-motivated policing.

But Jessica Williams, dressed in full-body armor, appeared on Monday to point out rather depressingly, the incident is actually an improvement in terms of police-community relations.

“It’s progress Jon because a cop pulled a gun on a group of black kids and no one is dead.”

Credit: 

Jon Stewart Slams the “Asshole” Cop Who Pulled a Gun on Unarmed Black Teens at a Texas Pool Party

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A Ground-Level View of Baltimore’s Protests: Hope, Anger, and Beauty

by JeffreyBaylebri Posted on May 1, 2015

Mother Jones

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Eyewitnesses: How the Baltimore riots really started

On April 12, Freddie Gray was arrested by Baltimore police. One hour later he was comatose. A week later he was dead, succumbing to spinal injuries inflicted while in custody. On Monday, Gray’s funeral was followed by peaceful protests as well as looting, arson, and confrontations with police.

Photographer Andrew Renneisen was on the streets that night and the following day as the city took stock of the riots’ aftermath, capturing images of violence and destruction, but also hope and courage.

All photos by Andrew Renneisen.

A protester picks up a tear gas canister after it was fired to disperse a small crowd that stayed past a 10 p.m. curfew.

Baltimore residents watch the scene of a fire at Baker and North Mount Streets.

A car burns on Fulton Avenue.

Residents watch the fire at Baker and North Mount Streets.

Freddie Gray’s friends and family pray at the New Shiloh Baptist Church the night of the riots.

A police officer across the street from the fire at Baker and North Mount Streets.

The fire’s aftermath.

Citizens clean up a CVS that was looted and set on fire during protests.

A protester on the morning after Monday’s massive protests.

Police create a wall on West North Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

A peace walk in honor of Freddie Gray Andrew Renneisen

A helicopter hovers over a rally following the peace walk. Andrew Renneisen

Protesters link arms together after bottles were thrown at police.

Black baby dolls hang from a tree to protest Gray’s death.

Police form a line and deploy tear gas to disperse protesters.

Roller skating amid the protests.

Tear gas floats behind a protester.

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A Ground-Level View of Baltimore’s Protests: Hope, Anger, and Beauty

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The Time Baltimore’s Police Commissioner Put a Gun to a Suspect’s Head

by FranzisIXZ Posted on April 29, 2015

Mother Jones

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Baltimore police chief Anthony Batts was riding along with a patrol last May when his officers spotted an object in the shape of a handgun bulging out of the pocket of a man they’d stopped. As recounted later by Baltimore’s CBS affiliate, the man struggled with the officers, and pulled his gun. In response, Batts drew his service weapon and put it to the suspect’s head. When the suspect attempted to move Batts’ firearm out of the way, the city’s highest-ranking law enforcement officer punched him in the face—and secured the illegal firearm in the process. A triumphant police department quickly took to Twitter to boast of its boss’ exploits:

The move was typical of Batts, a hands-on chief with a history of leading troubled police departments who now finds himself at the center of the unrest ignited by the death of Freddie Gray in his department’s custody. Batts took over the Baltimore Police Department in 2012 shortly after the death of Anthony Anderson at the hands of arresting officers, and set about attempting to rehab his department’s image while establishing his own cred as an outsider in a new city. He came up through the ranks of the Long Beach, California, police department, and arrived in Maryland fresh off a tumultuous four-year stint as Oakland’s police chief, where he took over a department that had been subjected to federal monitoring as part of a 2003 court settlement over rampant abuses. Batts was tasked with curbing the Oakland Police Department’s excesses. The results were mixed.

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The Time Baltimore’s Police Commissioner Put a Gun to a Suspect’s Head

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"Violence Is Not the Answer": Baltimore Icon Ray Lewis Calls For Peace

by InesSochaak Posted on April 28, 2015

Mother Jones

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Athletes and celebrities have taken to social media to call for an end to the Baltimore riots that flared overnight after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody having suffered a spinal cord injury.

Ray Lewis, who played for the Baltimore Ravens for 17 years before retiring in 2013, posted this fiery speech to residents on Facebook on Tuesday, asking for peace: “Young kids, you gotta understand something. Get off the streets. Violence is not the answer. Violence has never been the answer.” (Ray Lewis was charged with murder in 2000 after a brawl in Atlanta, but those charges were later dropped.)

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I’ve got a message for the rioters in Baltimore. #BaltimoreRiots

Posted by

Ray Lewis on Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Professional basketball player and Baltimore native Carmelo Anthony delivered this message to his hometown.

We all want Justice. And our city will get the answers we are looking for. My deepest sympathy goes out to the GRAY Family. To see my city in a State of Emergency is just shocking. We need to protect our city, not destroy it. What happens when we get the answers that we want, and the media attention is not there anymore? We go back to being the same ol Baltimore City again. If not yourself, then Think about the youth. How this will impact them. Let’s build our city up not tear it down. Although, we want justice, let’s look at the real issues at hand. For example, When was the last school built in Baltimore? That’s just one example. I know my community is fed up. I’m all about fighting for what we believe in. The anger, the resentment, the neglect that our community feels right now, will not change over night. Continue, fighting for what you believe in. But remember, it takes no time to destroy something. But, it can take forever to build it back up. Peace7. #Thisonehitshome #BeMore #LetsNotFallForTheTrap “Please Understand What State Of Emergency Mean”(Destroy and Conquer) #StayMe7o

A photo posted by @carmeloanthony on Apr 27, 2015 at 8:16pm PDT

Washington Wizards forward Paul Pierce also denounced violence, recalling the Los Angeles riots after the 1992 beating of Rodney King by police, which he witnessed as a teenager in Inglewood, California:

Comedian Cedric The Entertainer, who was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, linked the upheaval to what happened in Ferguson (near his hometown), after the death of Michael Brown, a young unarmed black man shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson.

At least 15 police officers were injured in Monday’s riots. On Tuesday morning, about 2,500 residents responded, sweeping debris throughout the city left in the wake of buildings destroyed by fires and looted businesses.

Continued – 

"Violence Is Not the Answer": Baltimore Icon Ray Lewis Calls For Peace

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Driving While Black Has Actually Gotten More Dangerous in the Last 15 Years

by XYDGusnzjc Posted on April 15, 2015

Mother Jones

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Walter Scott’s death in South Carolina, at the hands of now-fired North Charleston police officer Michael Slager, is one of several instances from the past year when a black man was killed after being pulled over while driving. No one knows exactly how often traffic stops turn deadly, but studies in Arizona, Missouri, Texas, Washington have consistently shown that cops stop and search black drivers at a higher rate than white drivers. Last week, a team of researchers in North Carolina found that traffic stops in Charlotte, the state’s largest city, showed a similar racial disparity—and that the gap has been widening over time.

The researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill analyzed more than 1.3 million traffic stops and searches by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers for a 12-year period beginning in 2002, when the state began requiring police to collect such statistics. In their analysis of the data, collected and made public by the state’s Department of Justice, the researchers found that black drivers, despite making up less than one-third of the city’s driving population, were twice as likely to be subject to traffic stops and searches as whites. Young black men in Charlotte were three times as likely to get pulled over and searched than the city-wide average. Here’s a chart from the Charlotte Observer‘s report detailing the findings:

Michael Gordon and David Puckett, Charlotte Observer

Not only did the researchers identify these gaps: they showed that the gaps have been growing. Black drivers in Charlotte are more likely than whites to get pulled over and searched today than they were in 2002, the researchers found. They noted similar widening racial gaps among traffic stops and searches in Durham, Raleigh, and elsewhere in the state.

Frank Baumgartner, Derek Epp, and Kelsey Shoub

Black drivers in Charlotte were much more likely to get stopped for minor violations involving seat belts, vehicle registration, and equipment, where, as the Observer‘s Michael Gordon points out, “police have more discretion in pulling someone over.” (Scott was stopped in North Charleston due to a broken brake light.) White drivers, meanwhile, were stopped more often for obvious safety violations, such as speeding, running red lights and stop signs, and driving under the influence. Still, black drivers—except those suspected of intoxicated driving—were always more likely to get searched than whites, no matter the reason for the stop.

Frank Baumgartner, Derek Epp, and Kelsey Shoub

The findings in North Carolina echo those of a 2014 study by researchers at the University of Kansas, who found that Kansas City’s black drivers were stopped at nearly three times the rate of whites fingered for similarly minor violations.

Frank Baumgartner, the lead author of the UNC-Chapel Hill study, told Mother Jones that officers throughout the state were twice as likely to use force against black drivers than white drivers. Of the estimated 18 million stops that took place between 2002 and 2013 in North Carolina that were analyzed by Baumgartner’s team, less than one percent involved the use of force. While officers are required to report whether force was encountered or deployed, and whether there were any injuries, “we don’t know if the injuries are serious, and we don’t know if a gun was fired,” he says.

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Driving While Black Has Actually Gotten More Dangerous in the Last 15 Years

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White Police Officer Is South Carolina’s Third Charged in Past Year for Killing an Unarmed Black Man

by DelbertHaskell Posted on April 8, 2015

Mother Jones

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Michael Slager, the North Charleston police officer who on Tuesday was charged with the murder of 50-year-old Walter Scott, is one of at least three white officers in South Carolina over the past year to be charged in the shooting death of an unarmed black man. The South Carolina cases, all of which are ongoing, seem to stand in contrast to proceedings around recent high-profile killings by police in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City, and Cleveland, including the swift reaction by authorities in North Charleston to harrowing footage of Scott’s killing that surfaced Tuesday. “I have watched the video and I was sickened by what I saw,” police chief Eddie Driggers told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, not long after the city’s mayor announced Slager’s firing.

More MoJo coverage on police shootings:


Exactly How Often Do Police Shoot Unarmed Black Men?


The Cop Who Choked Eric Garner to Death Won’t Have to Pay a Dime in Damages


Philadelphia Cops Shoot and Kill People at 6 Times the Rate of the NYPD


Here’s What Happens to Police Officers Who Shoot Unarmed Black Men


Congress Is Finally Going to Make Local Law Enforcement Report How Many People They Kill


Hereâ&#128;&#153;s the Data That Shows Cops Kill Black People at a Higher Rate Than White People

But data shows that the response to Slager’s case is a rare exception. Between 2010 and 2014, according to Columbia, South Carolina’s the State newspaper, at least 209 suspects were shot at by police in South Carolina, including 79 people who died. In only three of the 209 cases were officers investigated for misuse of force, and none have been convicted. Among the suspects killed, 34 were black and 41 were white (in four cases the suspect’s race is unclear), and about half of all suspects shot were black, according to the data gathered by the State.

This mirrors what we know about the national landscape, although data on officer-involved shootings is far from comprehensive and broad patterns are difficult to discern. As Mother Jones has reported previously, officer-involved killings seldom lead to a charge, let alone a conviction. L. Chris Stewart, an attorney representing the Scott family, told the Los Angeles Times he believed that the video was the only reason Slager is facing charges.

There are key differences between the eyewitness video from Scott’s case in North Charleston and the one that captured Eric Garner’s death in New York, says Delores Jones-Brown, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The video of Scott’s shooting “makes it almost impossible to claim that the victim was resisting arrest with violence,” she says, or to suggest that the victim’s general state of physical health caused his death, as police did in Garner’s case. The video makes clear that Scott was running away when he was gunned down, she says. “So, where is the threat that would justify such a violent police response?”

Here are the two other recent cases in South Carolina:

In what appears to be a coincidence of timing, on Tuesday a grand jury in North Augusta charged police officer Justin Craven for the February 2014 shooting of Earnest Satterwhite Sr., a 68-year-old black man who’d driven away after Craven tried to stop him for a traffic violation. A prosecutor had sought to charge Craven with voluntary manslaughter, but the grand jury reduced the charge to a misdemeanor: firing a gun at an occupied vehicle. According to a report from the Associated Press, Satterwhite had been arrested and convicted multiple times for traffic violations, including DUIs, but he had no record of violence nor physical altercations with police on his criminal record.

In December 2014, a grand jury indicted former Eutawville police chief Richard Combs for murder in the May 2011 shooting death of 54-year-old Bernard Bailey. Combs had issued Bailey’s daughter a traffic ticket, and when Bailey went to the town hall to contest it, he and Combs got into a physical altercation. Combs shot Bailey twice in the chest. The US Justice Department cleared Combs of criminal wrongdoing in 2013, but last August, after Eutawville agreed to pay a $400,000 wrongful-death settlement to Bailey’s family, a local prosecutor brought the murder case to the grand jury.

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White Police Officer Is South Carolina’s Third Charged in Past Year for Killing an Unarmed Black Man

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