TexasCHLforum.com

cb1000rider wrote:

K5GU wrote:It never ceases to amaze me how there's almost always someone nearby to record a video of these incidents.

I'd reconsider. My guess is that the vast majority of these incidents are NOT recorded and you never hear about them.

Unfortunately, I think that you are probably correct.

wow...Officer Slager fired 8 shots at the back of a man running AWAY from him and killed him. If you had done exactly the same thing, you would have been arrested and charged with murder...he was...seems likes fair treatment to me. How is he being thrown under the bus or victimized?

I'm reluctant to even post this, because I am NOT a LE basher...I have several very good friends that are LEO's in my city and county. They were appalled by the SC video discussed in this thread. Today I saw a video taken by a TV news helicopter in San Bernadino county in California 2 days ago showing the officers chasing a man on a stolen horse who evidently had led them on a chase of several miles before they caught up with him when he fell off the horse as it reared up. As they officers approached he is hit with a taser as he was laying face down on the ground with his arms spread out from his body. It appears the officers tell him to put his hands behind his back so they could cuff him, and he does so. The first two officers get over him and start punching and kicking him. As other deputies arrive they join in the beating. 11 deputies are on the scene while they are unknowingly being filmed by the news crew in the chopper. 10 of them are shown repeatedly punching and kicking him for several minutes. It looks brutal. This is going to be all over Facebook, You Tube etc...just like this shooting in SC is. In the Sheriff's initial statement 2 days ago after seeing the video he said "It appears there may be a question about the use of excessive force, and we will conduct an investigation to determine if any violation of departmental policies took place". Anyone seeing the video would ask him if he was blind...did you SEE the video? WHAT question is there? There are 10 of your uniformed Deputies kicking and hitting a man laying face down on the ground for several minutes. HOW can that NOT be a violation of your policies? The Sheriff brought up that the man was known to many of the officers and had a criminal history and the chase lasted several miles in rough, rugged country and 2 deputies had to be treated for dehydration and 2 others were injured with bruises and abrasions from falling down during the chase. I assume that was intended to elicit sympathy for the officers actions. That doesn't matter...at the time he was being beaten he was already subdued and laying flat on the ground. It looks like something you'd expect to see in some third world totalitarian country where the police do whatever they want. This stuff has to STOP. People see these things and lose all respect for Law Enforcement and start to view them as "bad guys". I don't know how to link to something but you can just google "Deputies beat man on horse" and it'll pop up.

I think they have correctly stepped up and charged Officer Slager with Murder. There is no justification for what occurred. He was in no danger at all at the time he started shooting. As was stated earlier in the thread, running from an officer is not a capital offense...you don't kill someone just for running away from you. He executed the man over a minor offense, then blatantly lied about what happened and tried to cover it up by picking up the taser and dropping it next to the body. Every LEO I've heard discussing it thinks this guy is a rotten apple that tarnishes every one of them, and they are right.