North Charleston Murder: The Thurber Brigade once more goes wildly off topic

If you’ve been following this blog for some time, you’ll know that occasionally it will take a slight side-step and discuss something other than relationships or the differences between men and women.  This happened after the Ferguson incident and so, for pretty much the same reason (I’m agitated about bad police behavior), we’re going off topic again. 

 As a writer it’s my passion to tell stories (Jay's Place) and when watching a TV show or movie mystery, I try to guess the outcome or perpetrator.  So here's a dramatization of what I have theorized happened in North Charleston on Saturday, April 4th.

The Players:

Policeman— Michael Slager

Victim—Walter Scott

On a cool spring night in North Charleston, Walter Scott is calmly driving down the street listening to the local news on the car radio.  Police officer Michael Slager notices him as he drives by his parked patrol car. The first thing Slager notices is that the driver has a very, very dark tan.  He then carefully scans the driver’s car and discovers it has a broken taillight.

Within minutes Slager has pulled over the car and told Scott to get out of the vehicle.  The two men are soon standing face to face.

“What you doin’ on my street, boy?” Office Slager asks.

“I’m just driving home from work,” Scott replies.

“Welp, ya’ll got a broken taillight,” Slager says sternly.

“Oh, sorry, but that is a minor thing. I’ll get it fixed tomorrow,” Scott answers.

“You talkin’ back to me *black person?” Slager said, raising his voice.

“Hey, don’t be a *jerk, man.”

Officer Slager becomes incensed at this blatant resistance to his authority and pulls his Taser stun gun off his belt.

“What you doin’ *man?” Scott asked.  “I ain’t done nothing. There’s no reason for that.”

This really inflames Officer Slager’s mood and he shoots Scott with the stun gun.  This hurts Scott and knocks him to the ground, but it also energizes him enough that he understands this could get a lot worse.

Scott jumps up and turns away from the policeman and begins to edge away. “Man, you *evil guy.  I can’t believe you shot me.”

“That’s right *dark-skinned person, you better run,” Slager sneers. “I’m going to shoot your sorry *black person ass!”

Scott begins to run as fast as he can, but as he’s still sore from being stunned, he can barely limp away. Slager pulls his service revolver and fires repeatedly in the back of the fleeing Scott.

Scott falls to the ground mortally wounded and Slager hurries to his position.

“Told you *black person. Now put your hands behind your back!” Slager shouted.

“Ahhhhhhhh,” Scott replied softly as he slowly lost consciousness.

Slager handcuffed the lifeless Scott, then noticed he had forgotten to bring his stun gun with him. He quickly retraced his steps, retrieved the stun gun and brought it back to the body of Scott and dropped it beside the corpse. 

Very shortly, a second police office arrives.

“God, I was so frightened,” Office Slager told the other policeman. “I thought for sure this guy was going to harm me. He was almost like a wild animal!”

More police eventually arrived and wrapped up the event in standard procedure. Slager continued to state how he feared for his life and filed a report attesting to that. Since the other officers believed him and didn’t believe any thing was out of order (as this sort of thing happens often with *dark-skinned men they told themselves) so all carried on with their usual lives.

Of course, unlike other situations, this one was filmed. Luckily, the person who filmed it was brave enough to release it to the public. Normally this can be a very risky business as many times the witness can become a victim too. Eventually the evidence became too overwhelming for authorities to ignore and so many days after the incident, Office Slager is arrested for murder.

And so ends our little dramatization.  Of course, this is just conjecture, but more than likely, something very similar to this transpired. Will Officer Slager be convicted of taking the life of an innocent, unarmed man?  If history is repeated, probably not. However, that may be a future tale for The Thurber Brigade.

* Colorful metaphors have been replaced with less offensive words

The Thurber Brigade apologizes for once more veering off the road of the War Between Men and Women and assures everyone that it will return to the straight and narrow soon. Um, maybe. 

Ahhh, James Thurber

The Ferguson Incident: The Thurber Brigade goes wildly off topic

The last blog at The Thurber Brigade was a sidestep about writing. However, what transpired in Ferguson, MO on August 9th really agitated me due to the police behavior. So this blog goes completely off topic and dips into an even more volatile world then relationships.

 As a writer it’s my passion to tell stories (https://sites.google.com/site/jaywinaustin/home) and when watching a TV show or movie mystery, I try to guess the outcome or perpetrator.  So here's a dramatization of what I have theorized happened in Ferguson.

The Players:

Policeman—Darren Wilson

Victim—Michael Brown

On a warm Missouri night Michael Brown and a friend are walking down a street instead of using the sidewalk. This might be a new youthful trend as while vacationing in Jackson,Wyoming last year, I noticed a lot of young people doing this. At that time I decided it was a fad, but didn't see any police stop them either.

Police officer Darren Wilson didn't see this action as a harmless fad though. He passed by the two kids and pulled his cruiser over and jumped out to confront the wayward pedestrians.

"Hey, you boys* need to get off the street right now," Wilson yelled.

"Screw* you! We ain't doin' nothin' wrong," Brown answered.

Officer Brown didn't like being talked back to, especially by a punk kid. His macho police instincts slowly began to kick into gear. He stepped up to the large teenager and grabbed the kid's arm.

"Ya'll* come over here!" He said and began pulling Brown back toward his patrol car.

"Leave me alone you turd*!" Brown shouted at the officer.

This inflamed the policeman even more, as he wasn't about to let this young "thug" sass him. He assured himself he wasn't being a racist, but his constant exposure to his fellow biased officers played into his thinking and he had come to believe that any black person who didn't do as told had to be a "thug."

This angry white policeman yelling at him and yanking him toward his car frightened Brown. After all, he had plenty of friends who had been taken into custody and came back home bruised and battered. So he pushed at Wilson's chest, causing the policeman to lose his grip and fall back onto the seat of his car. While falling back, his head hit the top of the doorframe and his arms the side of the door. This added pain enraged him even more.

Brown, seeing he now had a gap between himself and the officer, began to back away. Furious at being pushed, Wilson sprang back out of the car and simultaneously pulled his pistol from its holster.

"Stop right there you damn black person*!" Wilson screamed.

Brown saw the gun and panicked. He began to run away. Wilson fired a shot that nicked Brown. This so shocked the young man he fell to the ground. He suddenly realized he couldn't get away, so turned while on his knees to face the officer. He suddenly threw his hands up in surrender.

"Don't shoot mister*, I surrender!" He cried.

Wilson, seeing the sudden turning movement panicked. It was a thug after all and he could have just pulled a gun.  Wilson’s only thought was to protect himself.  He promptly fired the remaining rounds in his gun at the kneeling young man.

And so concludes our little tale. A young man walking harmlessly down a city street at night gunned down for the simple offense of putting up resistance and frightening a man who had a rigid stereotype of this type of person. Frightening the officer enough that any sudden movement could cause the officer to panic and respond the only way the police in the United States are trained to handle people who resist—with violence.

* Colorful metaphors have been replaced with less offensive words

The Thurber Brigade apologizes for once more veering off the road of the War Between Men and Women and assures everyone that it will return to the straight and narrow soon. Um, maybe. 

Ahhh, James Thurber