To a certain extent, I can understand Officer Slager’s actions during this routine traffic stop of Walter Scott. Think of yourself in his situation…you’re a white cop who pulls over a 50-year old Negro for a broken tail light. The Negro is driving a Mercedes Benz featuring big, shiny rims like you’d see in a rap music video. Before exiting your patrol car, you look at the license plate, run the numbers, and see that the Negro in the car has been arrested about 10 times in his life. You approach the car, the Negro gives you a problem, and you ask him to exit the vehicle. You exchange words in a relatively secluded, wooded area on a side street adjacent to “Craig Road.†You see that the Negro has a teaser, he drops it and flees. You panic (thinking that he also carrying a gun) and blast him. Sure, in hindsight, it wasn’t the right decision…but there is a very good reason that “routine traffic stops†frequently take a turn for the worst whenever white police officers pull over Negroes. They mouth off, they almost always have drugs/guns/warrants, they usually have a long history of arrest (that the cop can read about before even approaching the vehicle), and they fail to cooperate with instructions.
I’m my 12+ years of driving, I’ve been pulled over by the cops several times. Speeding twice, snow tires on past April 15th, headlight burned out, broken window, lumber sticking out too far from end of a trailer, etc. I was ruthlessly fined for each of these offenses, which angered me to no end. Did the situation escalate? Hell no. That’s the difference between someone with impulse control and someone with none.
[video=youtube;VQgjAY-Mm8s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQgjAY-Mm8s[/video]