Walter Scott Shooting: One Month Later

As one of the most prominent discussions on Exeter’s campus, racial discrimination by police officers in America continues to plague our country. Despite its prominence, many of us still feel distant from the events at Exeter. I, however, was recently brought out of my own “Exeter bubble” a month ago when another fatal shooting occurred, this time by a cop in North Charleston, S.C, the city next to my hometown.

About one month ago, on Apr. 4, North Charleston resident Walter Scott was shot and killed by officer Michael Slager. Scott, a 50-year-old African American who had served two years in the U.S. Coast Guard, was originally pulled over for a faulty brake light. Unarmed, he began to flee from the cop, prompting Slager to shoot him eight times in the back.

The shooting was caught on video by the phone of another person passing by. Submitted to the New York Times, the short clip shortly went viral, becoming another example of a likely race-influenced, cop-committed crime in America.

Yet a month later, the homicide has already faded from the minds of most. Many Exonians, and even residents of my hometown, heard little news of the event past the release of the original video. Considering the extreme vulgarness displayed in the short clip, why have discussions and protests for the event seemingly come to a halt, while the events like the Baltimore Riots and Ferguson still have a firm grasp over the media?

To me, the answer seems clear. Concrete video evidence followed by mature actions by both the Judicial Department and civilians of North Charleston kept the aftermath of the shooting from rising to damaging, “media-worthy” levels.

Addressing the former, without the video submitted to the New York Times, the events that followed could have easily become as big and influencial in the media as the events in Ferguson. One of the main aspects of unrest after the shooting of Michael Brown Missouri proved to be the lack of evidence. While many Americans argued Brown had surrendered to the cop with his arms up, others believed the little evidence available rather suggested Brown had been charging the cop, prompting him to shoot.

These two different perspectives started intense discussions between the citizens of Missouri, which eventually rose to the level of riots. While many peaceful protests and powerful discussions based off the shooting helped push along the fight against racism, the large riots, on which the media seemed to center, only worsened the race gap. These riots were damaging to parts of the surrounding communities and further angered Americans who were both for and against the charge on Brown’s shooter.

These riots were further fueled as the lack of evidence surfaced another problem. After examining Brown’s shooters charges, the grand jurors ruled that no probable cause existed to indict Wilson. Without any clear ways to prove the jurors decision as right or wrong, many Americans stuck with their original theories and expressed distaste toward the juror’s decision if it contradicted their ideas.

However, in North Charleston, no split in the community occurred. With hard evidence from the video, it was clear to the majority of the residents that the shooting was jail worthy. In fact, the judicial actions that followed expressed the same opinion—Slager was swiftly charged with murder.

The community of North Charleston also showed great maturity in their reaction to the shooting. While a movement against racism started, it was filled with peaceful protests and controlled discussion. In the end, there was minimal damage to the community during the aftermath, and the shooting seemed to unite different races over the cause rather than fueling more tension between them.

To top it all off, the mayor of North Charleston also took immediate action to help avoid similar cases in the future. The city supplied more than 200 body cameras for the police force just after the shooting in hopes constant cameras would discourage abuse from cops, as well as provide a constant source of evidence when events like these occur.

While the death of Scott was a truly tragic incident, I was glad to see such a sophisticated response by all parts of the North Charleston community. If more shootings were handled this way, instead of spiraling into dangerous amounts of controversy, I feel like the effect would be more powerful and signs of racism might finally begin to slow.

However, there was one part of the aftermath that I was disappointed with. A month later, one will hear nothing about the shooting. If Exonians and the media focused more on the beneficial movements brought about by these grim events, rather than concentrating on the fighting they incite, the fight against racism might take a bigger step forward then burning buildings.

So for Exonians interested in bringing light to racial issues, I encourage you to look at the positive side of things and to try and build on some of the possible stepping stones for enacting change these shootings have provided, rather than arousing more drama and tension across the community with a message that’s right, but actions that won’t build toward it.