something that is far outside of proper procedure or the law, which is to in effect use lethal force on apparently a fleeing suspect, if he was fleeing, in the context of a traffic stop. people actually can flee police officers and if they re not dangerous and if they haven t committed some kind of serious felony, as the prosecutor said you let them go you don t kill them. we recall the walter scott case where there was, once again, video reflecting that an officer shot somebody who was leaving in the back. same kind of outcome there. that s also charged as a homicide. so i think it s evident that while these are tough cases and while the grand jury can react on probable cause to get a jury conviction to the exclusion of a reasonable doubt where you ve got it on video, you ve got a real case. yeah when you look at motive, obviously this is a complete overreaction to what is a disproportionate response of a
criminal manner here. it eludes me why police officers do that. that s part of the culture of police departments, the blue wall of silence. officers often back each other up. we saw that in the walter scott case. yeah. officers are willing to plant evidence, willing to lie on statements. this guy said he almost got dragged by a car and later on said he was almost hit by a car. and as you were watching it, as i had to several times, you see the officer pull out a gun and shoots samuel dubose and then because he s shot and killed his body falls forward and assuming he hits the gas pedal and goes forward and maybe takes the officer forward a little bit. that s just to explain if you re confused by the jumbling of the video. let me also bring in cedric alexander alexander, your read? the video is very clear and anyone who is watching the video
what really stands out for you in this case as it does for family and friends? what can t you get away from? when you someone who didn t put on a traffic signal, there is no reason for them to be taken into custody. how did it get to that level? the sandra bland was telling the plivers you re pushing my head into the concrete, you re hurting me, stop. it looks like to me it shows a prelude to murder. this person was being harmed by the police and luckily there is a cell phone video to show that this has happened. one of the reasons that people are very concerned with police and don t believe police is the walter scott case. without video of the police actions, then that narrative would be exactly what the police officer wanted. right. i want to stop you quickly so we can show our viewers what you re talking about here. we have more of this cell phone video of sandra bland s arrest
questions in south carolina serious questions about how we re going to deal with health care and criminal justice disparities, don t forget that we are dealing with the walter scott case right there in charleston where reverend pinckney and i did a prayer vigil two months before he was killed. i hope but i don t have a lot of faith that people think we took the flag down so let s not talk about voter see prugsuppression, let s not talk about the employment problem or the criminal justice system. we cannot let taking the flag down answer everything. this is important. it is symbolic. but if it is used to mask the substantive debates, then i think it becomes something that backfires on those of us that want this flag down. can i ask you something? a lot of the debates we thought about race in the last 12 to 24 months have been polarizing. do you see the leadership of republicans like nicky haley and then jenny thorn, a state rep
conversation we re having nationwide. when a church burns down, you shouldn t be taking a deep breath and praying to your dear lord that it s lightning instead of someone with an ill heart or malice in their heart. we re hopeful. we will take a deep breath if it is lightning, if it is some natural cause so we can move forward. but this community has been through so much. is we re not far from north charleston where you had the walter scott case, we re not far from mother emanuel ame church where you had nine slain two weeks ago. so it s just been a troublesome, troublesome time where all we have is resiliency and all we have is prayer. eddie, can you speak to that. because i know that when it wasn t maybe so clear that this could be just an act of nature, you said if there was someone who intentionally set this fire they need to know hate won t stop us again. describe the state of things