White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that the video showing a white South Carolina police officer fatally shooting an apparently unarmed black man was “awfully hard to watch.”
“I can tell you that the reaction from others that I’ve talked to around the White House today is that the video is awfully hard to watch,” Earnest said in a press briefing. “I think that is the kind of human response that we’ve seen from people across the country.”
Earnest said that while he hadn’t spoken with President Barack Obama about the video, he wouldn’t be surprised if the President had seen it already given the video’s prominence in the media.
He also pointed to the impact of the video on the case itself. After the video surfaced in the media, North Charleston Patrolman Michael Slager was charged Tuesday with the murder of 50-year-old Walter Scott. The city’s mayor announced the next day that Slager had been fired.
“I do think that is an example of how body cameras worn by police officers could have a positive impact in terms of building trust between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve,” Earnest said.
Watch below via CNN:
Interesting… Anyone want to put odds on the first FoxNews contributor to say this comment is gubmint overreach and a deprivation of our freedumb?
And how outrageous it is for this White House to BLAME LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WHO RISK THEIR LIVES EVERY DAY etc. etc. etc. with the obvious subtext if not explicitly stating how they’re the real racists for dividing rather than uniting the nation!!! The first rule of Racist Club is do not talk about Racist Club! Seriously, it writes itself, that stuff.
Fox News’ James Rosen during the same press conference…
The cop is entitled to have the burden of proof at his trial treated as a societal norm that everyone must adhere to in their thoughts and statements even in the face of video evidence of the crime. However, whenever a black person is gunned down by a cop, any evidence of any misdeed by the victim in the last twenty five years is incontrovertible proof that the dead black male was a “thug” who had it coming.
It is hard to imagine anyone looking at that video and seeing “presumed innocence.” This was flat-out murder. Slager pretty much denied himself “presumed innocence.” But on FOX, up is down, etc. Does anyone know if FOX has shown the video?