Let's all get shoulder-to-shoulder on this one:
A South Carolina state trooper named Sean Groubert shoots a guy. The guy (Levar Jones) was reaching for his wallet. The last shot was fired as the victim was actually raising his hands and surrendering.
Oh, and the victim was black, with the trooper was white.
The race of the victim may or may not have influenced the trooper's perception of what the victim was doing, but if so, this cop was so badly out of check that nothing was going to correct it.
There is nothing redeemable about this shooting. This trooper needs to be fired (done), charged (done), convicted (soon), and condemned by all cops. This isn't us. This was a fool who should never have been allowed to slip between the cracks and be a trooper.
Labels: apologies, dumb cop tricks, in the news, shooting, video
posted by Matt G @ 9:41 AM
4 Comments:
One more reason to live in a state where a missing seatbelt is not a primary offense.
Not really. The reason for the stop wasn't the reason that the trooper shot the guy. If it hadn't been the seat belt (was that the reason for the stop? I hadn't bothered to check), it may have been a tail lamp, or a turn signal, or an obscured license plate, or any of a hundred other things.
There's so MUCH wrong about that situation, it's difficult to find a starting place.
I'm usually the one who says you need to look at the situation from all angles, from everyone's perspective. But here, I can't see any of the usual mitigation or justifications for overreaction or excessive force.
There had been no car chase or lengthy foot pursuit to overstimulate the officer. It wasn't a pitch-black, stormy night with ultra poor visibility. There was no mob of bangers in the suspect's car, no gang affiliation indicators present. The surroundings didn't seem to show a "bad neighborhood." The trooper hadn't just witnessed the motorist commit some outlandish crime.
Perhaps it will be revealed that the trooper had recently undergone some immensely traumatic event, or seen a co-worker killed or injured. There may have been some grim incident in his personal life that made him oversensitive. But I can't come up with any reason that can even faintly approach a reason for such behavior
I viewed the video several times, both raw and edited. The trooper doesn't appear to be shaky or unusually nervous, except for the poor marksmanship. He fired four shots, only one of which was a marginal hit. The range appears to have been well under 20 feet.
starting before I could make out exactly what the motorist had in his hand(s.) He also waited just short of two minutes after the last shot before requesting medical aid.
I'm glad there was no lengthy delay in dismissing the trooper, and felony charges were filed pretty promptly. The entire situation seems so clear cut that it will take some sort of powerful defense to keep the trooper from serving some time. We're all well shed of him, and all peace officers will be a long while living down his actions.
Exactly right Matt. Dammit...
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