Walter Scott was shot dead by a South Carolina police officer on Saturday April 4, the same day MLK Jr. was shot some forty-seven years ago. Martin’s death was ruthlessly carried out — as the video clearly shows — and the death of this once unknown man scrambling to make a life was as callously executed. The video is one you will not soon forget, but at what cost?
Here, we examine the startling visual’s contents and draw our own conclusions. And, by we I mean Sr. Features Writer Ural Garrett, Editor-In-Chief Justin Hunte, and, myself, Features Editor Andre´ Grant.
After Ferguson, What Does Seeing This Video Mean?
Ural: Yesterday was one of the most fascinating days in the DX offices in quite some time. It all began when we posted the news story on some GoFundMe page dedicated to helping Suge Knight with his bail. For a majority of the day, we all laughed at the prospects of people actually sending money to someone with that kind of criminal record. This is all between the moments of normal distractions, including New York Times articles and WorldStarHipHop. Making my way around to the NYT later in the day, what I saw actually didn’t surprise me much. Last year alone, three important videos showed two black men and one child essentially executed without mercy. What shocked me most was that Feidin Santana was able to record the murder clearly enough for the world so we could finally see the lack of respect law enforcement has for black lives while leaving with his life intact. Time will tell what happens to Santana in the following weeks as the guy who recorded Garner’s death, Ramsey Orta, was later arrested on trumped up charges shortly afterward and currently has to worry about rat poison in his prison food. This is what make the hyper connected social media generation so great at times. Because let’s be honest: Law enforcement and local media would have swept this under the rug without remorse.
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From the looks of things, South Carolina officials have already responded quite well. The officer involved Michael Slager has been arrested and charged, body cameras will be placed on every officer in the state and I believe that people are absolutely fed-up with the lopsided justice system black men (and women) have historical dealt with for decades. Respectability politics are out the window as this isn’t time to make a bull shit lessons on black-on-black crime; it’s about tax funded officials going beyond their scope of power. Scott’s outstanding warrant for neglecting child support payments are insignificant considering how much money Wall Street has stolen from American people. In fact, all of this is going on as sympathetic terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (let Rolling Stone tell it) is comfortably awaiting sentencing after assisting in the Boston Bombing. Hell, the guy involved in the 2012 movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado is still awaiting his trial he left thirteen people dead. Looks like black men who miss child support payments or are caught holding fake guns, wallets, cell phones, bootleg DVDs, Gucci Mane mixtapes, chicken dinners, watches, hairbrushes, Wiimotes, pizza, Bibles, pocket change, condoms or a sandwich are a lot more threatening.
Andre: There is no way to predict when you’ll be shot. Even as the trigger is squeezed and you hear the ring of the hammer clank back, there still seems to be some kind of hope, some kind of feeling that life may just continue. Firstly, there’s the propensity for users to err. Then there is the device itself jamming or something. And then there’s the last ditch hope for the miraculous. For the idea that you are special and chosen and anything will intervene on your behalf or that the universe will shift on its axis in that moment just enough to knock off the bullet’s trajectory. In the immortal words of Jigga, “Three shots close range, never touched me: Divine intervention,” or some such thing. Except when you’re talking the police in the United States. Their aim is the truest. And if you happen to be a black man and you’ve done something wrong or you haven’t, the cost of fleeing for your life is death. The cost of defending your life is death. The cost of daring to be alive seems to be perpetual, unwavering harassment. But let’s not speak in terms of hyperbole. The video evidence is egregious, yes, but some people are wicked human beings and nothing can be done.
Still, what is most present here is the banality of the injustice. The sheer willfulness of the procedures that render black life endangered. We always hear the results of those procedures. One in three black men are likely to serve prison time in America is what you’ll constantly be told. But will you be told that the United States has the largest prison population in the world? You’ll hear about the reverse racism of Affirmative Action, but will they then reveal that a black person with a degree is less likely to be hired for a position than a white person without one? And, of course, you’ll hear about the ghetto, but will you then hear about how systemic racism created them. About redlining? I’m not so sure, and these statistics are the most damning, for me, because they show a callous disregard for a large subset of a population awash in unfairness. Check the DOJ report about Ferguson for further evidence of the like. All of this is depressing, utterly. Still, here we are. And we must deal with this video being presented of a man being shot in the back until he was dead. You can never unsee it.
Justin: I’m happy that a good Samaritan had the courage to film Officer Michael Slager shooting 50-year old Walter Scott in the back eight times, then turned that video over to the media, family, and police. That unnamed person is a hero. Who knows how the headlines might’ve read without that visceral, undeniable evidence.
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I’m happy that the North Charleston Police Department terminated, arrested, and swiftly charged Michael Slager with murder. Sadly, the same never happened in the tragic death of Eric Garner, whose murder at the hands of the New York Police Department was also captured on video.
I’m happy with the statements released by the US Senators from South Carolina Tim Scott and Leslie Graham, as well as South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford. I’m happy that the state of South Carolina — my home state, a state where the Confederate Flag currently flies in front of the state house — ironically appears to be handling the most recent case of another unarmed citizen being murdered by another on-duty police officer much more effectively than Missouri, Ohio, and New York, at least in these tragic early days.
More than anything else though, I hate that I’m feeling myself growing more and more desensitized…
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
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Ural Garrett is an Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
Justin “The Company Man” Hunte is the Editor-in-Chief of HipHopDX. He was the host of The Company Man Show on PNCRadio.fm and has covered music, politics, and culture for numerous publications. He is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Follow him on Twitter@TheCompanyMan.
