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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 2016)
December 14, 2016 The Skanner Page 9 News Black Community Shocked by Michael Slager Mistrial By Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Newswire Contributor L ast week, the na- tion was shocked to learn that the jury for the trial of Mi- chael Slager, the North Charleston police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Black motorist as he jogged away from a traffic stop in 2015, could not agree on a murder or manslaughter convic- tion or any punishment for the officer. “I don’t have anything new to say,” tweeted De- ray Mckesson, a promi- nent activist associated with the Black Lives Mat- “ Ferguson, Missouri, was not the only person who expressed disbelief on Twitter. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of “Between the World and Me” and a national correspon- dent for “The Atlantic,” commented about the Charleston County chief prosecutor’s opening statement, where she “ac- knowledged from the be- ginning of the trial that she thought Mr. Scott had contributed to his own death by running away,” according to “The New York Times.” “Re: Walter Scott. When DA sounds like the defense, can’t really be surprised by a mis- ‘It’s not over. [God] will get his just reward’ ter movement. “I mean, we have a video of an ex- ecution and planting evi- dence and even that’s not enough.” After a brief struggle off-camera, a passerby recorded Slager, shoot- ing Walter Scott in the back from nearly 20 feet away. Then Slager walked back to where the initial struggle took place and picked up what looked like a Taser. Slager then returned to Scott’s body and dropped the Taser, contradicting his initial police report. Mckesson, who gained national attention in 2014 for his social media presence and citizen re- porting in the aftermath of the shooting death of Michael Brown, an un- armed Black teenager in trial. This is incredible,” Coates tweeted. During an interview last week on the “Today” show, Dorsey Montgom- ery II, the jury foreman from the Slager trial, said that several jurors had doubts about convicting the former police officer. “Initially it was going to be murder,” Montgom- ery said. Then jurors requested additional in- formation about the ev- idence presented in the case and about the pos- sible charges and “the things that were present- ed to us by the judged, we had come to find out he didn’t do anything mali- cious.” Since the 2014 murder of Eric Garner in Stat- en Island, N.Y, dozens of videos have surfaced showing violent, some- times fatal, interactions between police and Black men and women. The ease of use of video tech- nology in the informa- tion age has brought into public view a problem that has for decades been ignored and dismissed by mainstream media and White society at large: police brutality in the Black community. Despite the brutal vi- sual evidence, the Amer- ican police uniform has consistently shielded of- ficers who commit mur- der from prosecution. The case of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, Phi- lando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn., and John Crawford in Beaver- creek, Ohio, are only a few examples of police shootings caught on cam- era, where the officers in- volved escaped murder convictions. The mistrial in the Scott case comes on the 61st anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boy- cott, which started on December 5, 1955. The boycott began four days after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a White man on a Mont- gomery bus. For doing so, she was arrested and fined. The boycott lasted 381 days and a decision in a case that went be- fore the United States Supreme Court forced Montgomery to inte- grate it’s public bus sys- tem. Months before the Montgomery Bus Boy- cott in late August 1955, Emmett Till was mur- Americans Spend Almost $10,000 Each Year on Health Insurance Experts attribute spike to chronically ill people seeking treatment for the first time in years Judy Scott, center, Walter Scott’s mother, is comforted by her son Rodney Scott, as the family attorneys, Chris Stewart, left, and Justin Bamberg, right, hold a press conference after the mistrial was declared for the Michael Slager trial Dec. 5 in Charleston, S.C. dered in Money, Missis- sippi at the age of 14. Till was beaten, tortured and mutilated by two White men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. Both men were acquitted in Till’s mur- der by an all-White jury and some would suggest that police officers are given the same prefer- ential treatment by the criminal justice system today. Civil rights lead- ers have suggested that it will take the same type of sustained economic pressure of the Mont- gomery Bus Boycott to force real reform in the criminal justice system. During a press confer- ence following the an- nouncement of the mis- trial, Judy Scott, Walter Scott’s mother said that, “justice will be served, because the God that I serve is able. Injustice will not prevail.” Scott continued: “It’s not over. [God] will get his just reward.” We honor the many accomplishments of African Americans. It is our primary goal as a labor union to better the lives of all people working in the building trades through advocacy, civil demonstration, and the long-held belief that workers deserve a “family wage” - fair pay for an honest day’s work. A family wage, and the benefits that go with it, not only strengthens families, but also allows our communities to become stronger, more cohesive, and more responsive to their citizens’ needs. Our family wage agenda reflects our commitment to people working in the building trades, and to workers everywhere. In this small way, we are doing our part to help people achieve the American Dream. This dream that workers can hold dear regardless of race, color, national origin, gender, creed, or religious beliefs. By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor H Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters Representing more than 5,000 construction workers in Oregon State. Do you want to know more about becoming a Union carpenter? Go to www.NWCarpenters.org IMAGE BY 401(K) 2012 VIA FLICKR ealth care spending in the Unit- ed States grew at a rate of 5.8 percent last year and reached $3.2 trillion, or $9,990 per per- son, based on new analysis from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Baltimore. One of the factors driving the spend- ing is the 136.3 million Americans who visited the emergency room last year, officials at the Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention said. Further, Latinos are twice as likely as the general population to use the emergency room for non-emergen- cy treatment and Latinos and Afri- can-Americans are nearly twice as AP PHOTO/MIC SMITH Writers, activists reflect on Sputh Carolina jury’s failure to convict the man who shot Walter Scott See INSURANCE on page 11 Health spending in America has reached $3.2 trillion. PORTLAND OFFICE 1636 East Burnside, Portland, OR 97214 503.261.1862 | 800.974.9052 HEADQUARTERS 25120 Pacific Hwy S, Suite 200, Kent, WA 98032 253.954.8800 | 800.573.8333
