politicartoons | Walter Scott's murder by a South Carolina police officer (Reply)

CNN - In both cases, a white police officer kills an unarmed black man. But the outcomes so far have been wildly different. So what's changed between the shooting deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina? Here are some of the stark differences in the cases, the lessons learned by both police and the public and concrete changes that could help mend tensions in the future.

Video footage:
It's unlikely North Charleston police Officer Michael Slager would have been fired and charged with murder so quickly if not for video shot by witness Feidin Santana. Even North Charleston's police chief said he was disgusted by the footage of Scott's shooting."I watched the video, and I was sickened by what I saw," Chief Eddie Driggers said. "I have not watched it since."

Not only does the video show Slager firing eight shots at Scott as he is running away, it also shows Slager picking up a dark-colored object that had fallen to the ground and later placing a dark object next to Slager's lifeless body. That could be significant because Slager initially said Scott had taken his Taser stun gun and feared for his life. But if investigators determine the object dropped next to Scott's body was actually the Taser, Slager could be accused of planting evidence.

The takeaway: Ferguson resident Alexis Templeton said what happened in her city helped people across the country to feel empowered to stand up for themselves. And that includes having the courage to film police in tense situations. "Now people have phones," she said. "People aren't scared to hold police accountable."The video of the North Charleston shooting, she said, is vital. If there is no video, folks don't believe it because it sounds so asinine that something like this would ever happen in this country, she said. "But with a video, you can't say it's not happening."

Source