Sacramento, CA - The California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) applauds the District Attorney and the police department of North Charleston, South Carolina for moving swiftly to press murder charges against Officer Michael T. Slager. On Saturday April 4, Officer Slager was caught on a cell phone camera shooting Walter Scott, an unarmed African American man eight times in the back. Mr. Scott died shortly after being wounded.
“It continues to disturb all sensibilities that what should have been a routine traffic stop ended with another black man laying lifeless. This unfortunately has become too common a scenario for black men in this country with stories such as Walter Scott, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Douglas, to name a few; reminding us that there still is a lot of work to be done and the need for better training and tools for law enforcement to ensure that all lives matter,” states Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Chair of the CLBC.
“The fact that video evidence emerged, which showed the officer using excessive and deadly force for no justifiable reason, promotes and supports the need for tools such as body cameras to be used by law enforcement, which the California Legislative Caucus strongly supports.”
The CLBC intends to work closely with both law enforcement and community organizations to ensure that the killing of unarmed black men become sad memories of our past.