For the love of god, y’all. I am watching the just released video of the shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte, NC. His wife shot and narrated the video. Okay, not so much as narrated, but was trying to intervene.

From LoveBScott.com
From LoveBScott.com

So, imagine if you will — God this is traumatizing — coming up upon the scene of our husband surrounded by police officers and your first thought is that the police will shoot her husband. She decides to video tape the encounter and shout at the police, Don’t shoot him! Don’t shoot him!

What it means to be black in America is just horrific. Horrific. Every encounter with the police could result in being shot.

Traumatic Brain Injury

traumaticbraininjury2010The poor dumb son-of-a-bitch had a traumatic brain injury. I don’t know exactly what damage had been done to his brain, but often TBI results in a diminishing of rational control, an increase in emotional impulsiveness, and seizures. Often, the medication that you’d be taking a year after a TBI is an anti-seizure medication.

Can you imagine being in that situation and pleading for the life of your husband knowing that he is impaired by his TMI? The absolute frenetic franticness that you would feel? The helplessness?

She’s trying to tell them that he had a TMI, has taken his medication, and that he doesn’t have a gun. She pleads with him to get out of the car. It seems like the situation is escalating… but why? You have his wife here telling them that he is impaired. Why wouldn’t they deescalate the situation at that point. Back off a moment. He’s contained. He’s not going any where. For fuck’s sake why?

Some common side effects of seizure medications are:

  • Sleepiness or fatigue,
  • Worsening of balance,
  • Lightheadedness or dizziness,
  • Trembling,
  • Double vision, and
  • CONFUSION

Escalating Confrontation

You can hear it in her voice. She knows it is escalating. She knows that the police are likely to murder her husband. She can see that her husband is not responding as the police would like. Can you imagine? Absolutely helpless to stop what is going on.

Then, you hear the police shouting Drop the gun! Over and over. Are they covering their ass so they have a defense for shooting him? Like when cops say over and over Stop resisting as they laugh and beat people who are pleading, I’m not resisting. Are they gearing up to murder him?

She says, Keith get out the car! several times. And, then with rising alarm, Don’t you do it! Don’t you do it! Is she talking to Keith or the police?

kiethscottvideo
Charlotte Shooting Video

Four shots ring out in rapid succession all fired by one officer. She is running and shouting, Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him?

It is sickening to watch that video because it absolutely does not seem like it needs to escalate whether Keith Scott is armed or not.

As needless a death as there ever has been.

Ulterior Motives

Why did she hold on to her video without turning it over to the police? Why did she release her video now? The video gave her control over a situation that she had no control over the situation as it unfolded.

sagerdropstasernearwalterscott
From Slate article, Slager Charged with Murder in Death of Walter Scott

We saw the police plant a gun at the scene of Walter Scott in South Carolina a year ago. Would it surprise anyone that the police would plant a gun in this situation? Given the absolute absences of transparency in Keith Scott’s murder, you have to question the claims of a gun being present, the finding of a gun, and the absence of a book. From the video, you can see the police tossing things found on or near the corpse one of which becomes the infamous so-called gun seen in a photo.

Terence Crutcher & Gunning People Down in the Streets

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Between the shooting of Terence Crutcher who had his hands up and was not threatening anyone — how does that happen? And, now watching this.

Police are gunning people down in the streets like mad dogs, and we argue over institutional racism and implicit bias. Please God, can we get at least a plurality that agrees that there is a problem with how the police — white, black, brown officers — react to black people.

 

Post Edit

  • Saturday 24 September
  • The Morrisey Restarurant
  • Vancouver, BC, Canada

Howdy y’all!

I realized that I had misspelled Keith repeatedly. My apologies. No disrespect was intended to Mr. Scott or his survivors; I’m just a terrible speller and overly reliant on the spell checker, which, for some reason did not pick up on it. Also, I thank the many readers of this article for not pointing out the misspelling!

The lesson, as always, is that I’m an idiot.

Huzzah!

Jack