Walter Scott shot and killed in cold blood by Officer Michael Slager
We've seen this before.
In its largest police brutality settlement ever, the city of North Charleston paid the family of Walter Scott $6.5 million because of his wrongful death at the hands of Officer Michael Slager. Aside from discussing how the cost of a life is calculated, we've seen this before.
The family of Freddie Gray just settled for $6.4 million.
The family of Eric Garner just settled for $5.9 million.
Rekia Boyd: $4.5 million.
Laquan McDonald: $5 million.
Jonathan Ferrell: $2.5 million.
This list could have thousands of names on it.
New York City alone has paid billions of dollars in settlements for police brutality, and Chicago is not far behind.
Wanna know the one consistent theme in all of those cases?
Not one officer was found guilty of a crime. Not one.
How could it be that billions of dollars are spent in an admission that wrongdoing took place, but nobody is ever held truly responsible for that wrongdoing?
Even the officers who fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo were found not guilty. The city paid millions for it, but the officers all got off.
It's simply not enough for these families who are destroyed by police brutality to receive huge taxpayer-funded settlements. Officers and departments must be held truly accountable for their actions.
This isn't justice. These are payoffs.
