He did not fire
a shot. He is black, not white.
But Clarence W.
Habersham Jr., the first officer to arrive on the scene after the fatal police
shooting of an unarmed black man named Walter L. Scott, is drawing intense
scrutiny both for the questions surrounding his response to the shooting and
for what his role has illuminated about the pressures and expectations black
officers face in largely white police departments.
Critics of
Officer Habersham, 37, including black leaders and lawyers, have called for him
to be prosecuted for what they say was his failure to provide adequate aid to
Mr. Scott, 50, and for appearing to go along with what many viewers of a video of the shooting believe was an attempt by
Michael T. Slager,
the white officer who fatally shot Mr. Scott in the back, to plant a Taser
by his body."
You also may remember an earlier shooting when an officer ran up to a fatally wounded suspect and told told him, in effect, it was his fault because he ran.
What both of these officers seem to have neglected is their legal duty to render immediate anyone who is hurt by any officers. The legal duties do
What both of these officers seem to have neglected is their legal duty to render immediate anyone who is hurt by any officers. The legal duties do
If there was any heroics in this story, it was Officer Habersham's first-ad effort. The only racial aspect to this case was a fully armed white police officer shot an empty handed black man in the back. What damned sense does that make?
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