Michael Slager Released on Bail! (Corrected, Revised, and Expanded)

 

Michael Slager in chains. “Former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager, who has been charged with murder in the death of Walter Scott in April, is led into court in September in Charleston.” File/Grace Beahn/Staff
 

By Nicholas Stix
 

Since last night, Michael Slager is free, at home, after almost nine months in solitary confinement in jail, free for the first time to see in the flesh, and to hold and kiss his eight-month-old son, Isaiah. Slager is on house arrest, and may only leave his home to go to court, his attorneys, the doctor, and to church.

Slager was arrested on April 7 for the April 4 killing of black petty criminal, Walter Scott, after an incident in which Scott fled Officer Slager, because Scott knew that warrants were out for him for over $18,000 in unpaid child support. Scott may also have been in possession of a stolen car, as he had no title or registration for the vehicle he was driving, and his story of how he had “bought” the car was full of contradictions. Scott repeatedly assaulted Officer Slager, and fled him as many as three times. (Solicitor Scarlett Wilson has shown no interest in determining whether the car Scott was driving was stolen.)

Officer Slager was arrested on April 7, based on a videotape made at the scene of the shooting by passerby Feidin Santana, inconsistencies in Officer Slager’s report of the incident, and the widespread war on white policemen.

As far as black Third Circuit Judge Clifton Newman, who was selected to preside over the case in April for obviously racial reasons, is concerned, Slager has already been convicted. Judge Newman had no intention of ever letting Slager out on bond, and went so far as to lie, in asserting that Slager was somehow a threat to the community, when in fact it was the “community” which was a threat to Slager and his family. That Judge Newman finally let Slager bond out, while giving some patently ridiculous story to do with the Dylann Roof trial, was a fig leaf serving two purposes: 1. To continue to tie the two unrelated cases in the public’s mind, so as to preserve the racial fairy tale, whereby Slager is a racist monster, and 2. To hide, I believe, political machinations. I think Judge Newman got a telephone call, telling him to let Michael Slager bond out.

(Although the South Carolina Supreme Court has barred Solicitor Wilson from trying the Slager case until after trying the Roof case, Wilson and Judge Newman had been sandbagging Slager for months already, and have been violating his constitutional right to a speedy trial, all along. Anyone remember that right anymore?)

Most people are unaware that the average judge is nothing but a clubhouse political hack. The rare judge who isn’t—e.g., Robert Bork, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Janice Rogers Brown—is made to suffer. And even hacks sometimes get ordered to change their minds, as President Bill Clinton ordered the late moronic, leftwing federal Judge Harold Baer to change his mind, in a notorious 1996 case. It could have been an elected politician or a robed politician who gave Judge Newman the order to bond out Michael Slager. Judges get phone calls.

The media have continually lied about the case. Even in the story below, NBC News operative Alex Johnson asserts that Slager shot Scott “eight times.” Slager shot Scott five times. NBC News is well aware of how blacks love to shout out—in unison with the MSM—the number of times a white policeman shot a black man—the more, the better. (Blacks and the MSM likewise get histrionic over a white policeman’s shooting a black man in the back, as if once a black man runs away, the cops are not permitted to shoot him.)

Weeks and months after the April 4 incident, Yamiche Alcindor (April 18), in USA Today, and Rikki Klieman on CBS This Morning (June 8) have gone so far as to lie, in asserting that Slager shot Scott in the back eight times. In fact, Slager fired his service weapon eight or ten times (the exact number is in dispute), hitting Scott three times in the back, once in the ear, and once in the butt.

NBC’s Alex Johnson is so histrionic in his embellishments that he emphasized that Scott had not only run from the policeman, but that Scott “had turned his back and fled,” as opposed to running backwards.

NBC’s Alex Johnson fails to mention any of the issues regarding the ownership of the vehicle Scott was driving, alleged improprieties of the crime scene investigators, the prosecution, Judge Newman, or the actions of Walter Scott himself. Either he is unfamiliar and indifferent to the case, or hostile to the facts.

The NBC News got the number of times Slager shot Scott wrong; said that Slager had shot Scott with the Taser (my understanding is that it was Scott who had shot Slager with the Taser); that Slager saw passerby Feidin Santana, who was shooting the video; and that the black officer who was with Slager had not been identified, which was also untrue. He was Clarence W. Habersham Jr. Although Slager looked for a split second in the direction of Santana, it is not clear that he saw him.

But it gets better. The video that NBC News now calls “A Closer Look at the Walter Scott Shooting,” is fraudulent. It lacks the police dashcam video of Officer Slager’s initial encounter with Scott, which includes Officer Slager’s calm response to Scott’s lack of title and registration for the vehicle he was driving, Scott’s contradictory explanation for said lack, and Scott’s flight from Officer Slager. What NBC News shows is the Feidin Santana video, but a version that has been edited, to cast Officer Slager in the worst possible light. Walter Scott’s first assault on Officer Slager, after Officer Slager catches up to the fleeing Scott for the first time, has been deleted. NBC News has learned nothing from the media abuses of the Rodney King and George Zimmerman cases, including its own defamation of Zimmerman. But that is because its motives are evil.

I was unable to reach anyone at the Savage Law firm this afternoon—attorney Andy Savage was out of town, and his paralegal was in a meeting—but left a message with the following questions:

Could you confirm the release of Michael Slager on bond? (Reporters often must ask the obvious.)

Why are Slager’s bond conditions so Draconian?

Has he received any indigent funds?

What should people do who want to help defray Slager’s defense costs?

The Video Transcript

Dissecting the Walter Scott Shooting

Officer Michael Slager has pulled over Walter Scott for a broken taillight.
He later said he feared for his life during the ensuing scuffle.

[There was no “scuffle.” What happened was that Walter Scott repeatedly assaulted Officer Slager, in the course of resisting arrest.]

Slager claimed that Scott was reaching for his taser

[Johnson or his editor uses “claimed,” to make it sound like Slager was lying, when the videotape clearly shows Scott fighting with Officer Slager for the latter’s Taser.]

As they separate, something hits the ground.

[They don’t “separate”; Scott flees Slager’s custody. Talk about raping the English language!]

Scott has been hit by Slager’s taser.

[That is not clear. If anything, Scott had shot Slager with the latter’s own Taser, according to a frame-by-frame analysis by The Last Refuge.]

eight shots fired

Slager sees the camera

Slager [to Scott, prone on the grass]: “Put your hands behind your back.”

Slager handcuffs Scott.

Slager: “Shots fired, subject is down.”

“He grabbed my taser.”*

[That appears to be true.]

*quoted dispatch call made by Slager

Slager: “Get your hands behind your back now.”

Slager: “Put your hands behind your back.”

Slager picks up unidentified object.
Slager handcuffs Scott

A second, as-yet-unnamed officer arrives

Officer: “Someone grab me a kit.”

Officer: “Over behind the pawn shop.”

Slager drops object next to Scott

The second officer puts on latex gloves but does not appear to provide CPR as incident report claimed

“Slager picks up the object and returns it to his belt.”

Slager checks for a pulse

Scott died at the scene.

Slager was charged with murder.

 

Michael Slager, S.C. Cop Who Killed Unarmed Motorist Walter Scott, Released on $500,000 Bond
By Alex Johnson
Jan 4, 2016, 7:42 p.m. ET
NBC News

Michael Slager, the North Charleston, South Carolina, cop who killed Walter Scott as he was running away — all dramatically captured on chilling cell-phone video — was freed on bond Monday night after a judge expressed concerns that it was taking too long to bring him to trial.

A grand jury indicted Slager, 34, on a charge of murder after the video surfaced of him shooting Scott, 50, eight [sic] times after Scott had turned his back [sic] and fled after a daytime traffic stop on April 4.

Scott was black and Slager is white, and the shooting renewed tension in the coastal town over alleged excessive police use of force and systemic racism.


A Closer Look at the Walter Scott Shooting 3:36

Slager was denied bond in September, but state Circuit Judge Clifton Newman, whom the state Supreme Court appointed to oversee the sensitive case, said Monday that he could go free on house arrest on a $500,000 surety bond.

The Charleston County Sheriff's Office said Slager posted bond at 7 p.m. ET.

Slager's trial isn't scheduled until Oct. 31 — more than a year and a half after Scott's death — because prosecutors said they had to give precedence to the trial of Dylann Roof in the June shooting deaths of nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is scheduled for July.

Slager's lawyers argued that keeping him in jail that long without trial was tantamount to punishing him for a crime he hadn't been convicted of yet.

Under a typical surety bond, Slager would have to put up 10 percent of the order — in this case, $50,000 of personal funds — to engage a third party to guarantee he will show up for court appearances. Newman said Slager would be able to leave his home only for court hearings and to visit his attorneys, doctors or church.