Jury Can't Decide If Shooting A Fleeing, Unarmed Black Man Five Times In The Back Is A Crime

You debase yourselves if you let this man walk free.

BlackLivesMatter signRemember when I said that Dylann Roof, the alleged Charleston Church shooter, might get off because I wasn’t sure that you could find 12 people in South Carolina to say that killing black people is illegal? Remember when you thought I was being hyperbolic or joking or otherwise thinking too little of white people in America?

A South Carolina jury said on Friday that it was deadlocked in the case of Michael Slager, the police officer who shot Walter Scott in the back while Scott was fleeing from a traffic stop. You might remember this video.

Yeah, a South Carolina jury can’t decide if that police officer illegally shot somebody. The judge has asked them to keep trying. He’s also let them consider a manslaughter verdict against Slager, instead of just murder. But still, as of now, they’re deadlocked.

Walter Scott was murdered. On video. In broad daylight. The only question is whether the murder of black people by police is illegal. The South Carolina jury cannot reach consensus on that point. White people cannot achieve broad-based agreement that the murder of black people is wrong.

There are many competing intellectual viewpoints that a person must tolerate in order to live in a pluralistic society. Should the top marginal tax rate be 35% or 39%? What’s the best focus for a K-12 curriculum? Should we require Adam Levine to wear a full-body condom when he’s out in public? These are questions where reasonable people can disagree.

But if you think Michael Slager acted legally when he shot Walter Scott, you’re not a reasonable person. Your disgustingly bigoted worldview should not be tolerated. We can’t be “friends,” and frankly I don’t know if I can be friends with people who are willing to be friends with you. A just God would smite you, a just society would shun you.

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The jury deadlock says way more about the state of white America than it does about the actions of Michel Slager. You debase yourselves if you let this man walk free.

You get that, right? Letting cops who murder black people go free has nothing to do with the black community, and everything to do with the moral failure of white people in America. Slager’s verdict is not going to change a thing about my life. I already know who you are, I already know what you are, and I already know that my job is to avoid detection by your terrorist forces. #BlackLivesMatter, to me. I don’t give a flying f**k if they matter to you, because I already know they don’t.

I already recognize your system of justice as a farce. I already hold your police in contempt. I already know how to hide in plain sight from the people who hunt me.

Being unable to convict a cop who shot a fleeing man reflects on YOU. You are the ones who have to go to sleep at night, with new knowledge of how evil this country has always been. It’s your veneer of civility that is being stripped away. It’s the bulls**t lies you tell yourselves about your commitment to equal justice that is laid bare every time this happens.

People are going to say that I “hate” white people or I “hate” the white people of South Carolina. No, I don’t. At this moment, at least, I don’t hate them, not even the jurors holding out for Slager.

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They are entirely too pathetic for me to hate.

UPDATE (12/5/2016, 2:25 p.m.): On Monday, the judge denied the defense’s request for a mistrial (again), answered some questions from the jury, and sent them back to continue deliberating.

UPDATE (12/5/2016, 3:50 p.m.): The judge has now officially declared a mistrial in the case. Great job, America.

Jury Says It’s Deadlocked in Trial of Officer Who Shot Walter Scott [NBC News]

Earlier: Dylann Roof To Represent Himself; Could He Get Off?


Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.