It Won't Wash

The Charlotte police changed their minds and released some of the body com/dash cam video of Keith Scott being killed.  Just the "relevant" portions, as determined by those who did the shooting.  The whole thing stinks!

The cops were there to serve an arrest warrant on someone else!  "Wrong guy, but while we're in the neighborhood . . . "

The video doesn't show much -- just a small army of frenzied cops pointing their guns at Mr. Scott's car, screaming at him to drop his gun.  The video doesn't show Mr. Scott holding or brandishing a gun at all.  It does show him slowly backing away from his car.  Then it shows him shot dead.  For what?



The real issue in this instance and in all the others just like it is cops lacking in self-control, cops too eager to draw their weapons and fire them, cops who use lethal force unnecessarily and then excuse themselves with "evidence" and stories of feeling scared.

It won't wash.

It doesn't matter if he had a joint in his car, or if he looked like a "bad dude."  It doesn't matter if he was in possession of a gun (especially in an open-carry state like North Carolina).  It doesn't matter that he didn't immediately "obey orders."  And it certainly doesn't matter to discover after the fact that he had an arrest record.  We don't shoot people for those reasons! 

The cops nabbed the wrong guy.  The cops compounded their error with an unnecessary show of force.  Then they killed Keith Scott for no apparent reason.

The cops fucked up.  They do it too often.