UPDATE!

The District Attorney has announced that no charges will be filed in the officer involved shooting death of Keith Scott. Despite repeated warnings from multiple officers Scott refused to drop a pistol he was holding. Contrary to his wife’s assurances that he was holding a book, no book was found at the scene, just a pistol. Multiple videos recorded at the time support the officer’s version of events.  Charlotte-shooting-protests/article117921218.html

The local newspaper tried to tease out some controversy but was largely unsuccessful. It had to settle for a professor from Dallas, who found fault with the timing of the release of the video, not the shooting.

Robert Taylor, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas and a former police officer in Portland, Ore, said clearing Vinson of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting was an easy call.A person with a gun under those circumstances, represents a danger to officers and the public, Taylor said.“This is pretty cut and dry,” he said.

Taylor said CMPD likely intensified public outcry by initially refusing released video footage that captured the confrontation. Given the outrage in recent years about police use of force, Taylor said, it remains baffling why CMPD didn’t make the video public sooner.

If Taylor is baffled, a student would do well to steer clear if Taylor offers a course on Evidence. The reason for the delay was due, in part to actions of the defendant’s wife. The newspaper points out that: CMPD was the original agency investigating Scott’s shooting, but the State Bureau of Investigation took over when his wife, Rakeyia Scott, exercised her right under N.C. law to have the independent agency do the inquiry.

Evidence has value dependant of the “continuity of evidence”that is can it be shown that the item placed before the court is the same item recovered at the scene? Can it be demonstrated that the item is unaltered and fairly represents what it purports to be. If the item has passed through multiple hands can those individuals be identified and can they provide an explanation for why that item came into their possession?

This turned into a multi-agency investigation. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department shot the original tape and secured it. Chances are Internal Affairs still has first dibs, for their purposes. The defendant’s kin called for an independent investigation, which made the State Bureau of Investigation the lead agency. You can bet the FBI has been sniffing around and they would get their copy. The District Attorney will eventually receive a report and the video will be part of the report.  Oh wait, the District Attorney got his report, made his decision and released the video. Guess the system worked.

Remember, when you are dealing with the press their first priority is to sell you tampons and toilet paper, everything else is secondary.

Police Shooting Charlotte Observer. Damn, I thought body cams were the solution to the problem of white cops shooting black men. I know! I know! maybe the solution is black men ought to stop acting like felons, they are not very good at it.

I don’t think that I want a bunch of white liberals  defending me. People might get the impression my only competence is incompetence.

About the only thing I get from the video is that team was relatively calm and disciplined. I probably would have reached the same conclusion without the video.  It is not unusual with an undisciplined team that when one guy fires others will fire also.  There is no indication that there were multiple shooters

The Pen is mightier than the sword, but the book isn’t worth a shit against a Glock.