North Charleston officers’ support for Michael Slager seen as strain on police, community ties

Officers’ courtroom show of support this week for the North Charleston police officer who killed Walter Scott has stirred tensions among some people who interpreted it as an endorsement of the fatal shooting.

At least five members of the city’s police force, including two supervisors, stood when former officer Michael Slager’s attorney asked supporters to rise during a bail hearing Monday. They were not identified as officers. They wore no uniforms or badges. None of them spoke.

But to some who recognized the officers, the display served as a worrisome sign that others at the North Charleston Police Department agree with Slager, who fired eight times as Scott ran away after a traffic stop. Slager now stands charged with murder, largely as a result of a bystander’s video of the shooting.

Activists said the courtroom scene illustrated a need for an examination of whether civil rights abuses are rampant at the department.

“It demonstrates a kind of culture in North Charleston, and it sends the wrong message across the nation,” said Ed Bryant, president of the NAACP chapter in the city. “It seems like we have a whole quagmire with officers who believe in that kind of behavior.”

Police advocates and academic experts, though, cautioned people from reading too much into the show of solidarity, drawing a likeness to someone backing a family member in court while not necessarily supporting the loved one’s alleged actions. Still, it threatens to expand a fractured relationship that local activists say exists between the police and North Charleston’s poor black residents who have long decried unfair treatment by officers.

Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina law professor and former Florida officer who studies the regulation of police, said the routine aspect of the justice process cannot be seen as a broad policy statement. It’s a “very human thing” to support a friend even when that person may have done something wrong, he said.

“It has a lot to do with the bond between officers and their desire to support other officers,” he said. “But at the same time, it can send a message that the community finds repugnant. It can undermine police-community relations when officers are seen as supporting another officer’s bad act.”

None of the officers were on duty at the time of the hearing Monday afternoon, police spokesman Spencer Pryor said. Aside from confirming the identities of the lawmen who attended, Pryor refused to respond to several questions from The Post and Courier about the episode, including whether department officials have advised officers on expressing support for Slager.

U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors from Washington and the FBI also have been investigating the shooting with an intent to seek Slager’s indictment on civil rights charges. The Justice Department has not announced any plans to look for a pattern of abuses in North Charleston, and the agency did not immediately respond to a request for further comment as a result of this week’s court proceeding.

A judge decided to grant $500,000 bail, and Slager was released hours later.

‘Not an official stamp’

Even as activists and protesters this week continued to call for his resignation, Police Chief Eddie Driggers has made few public comments since the initial weeks after Scott’s shooting.

James Johnson, the National Action Network’s president for South Carolina, said the department, meanwhile, has become divided largely along racial lines. He said six black officers had spoken with him about the atmosphere that pervades the force “from the top on down.”

The police spokesman would not say if the department was dealing with such division.

Historically, the agency has struggled to attract minority officers. About 18 percent of the city’s officers are black, though its population is 45 percent black.

Seeing the officers, including a lieutenant and a captain, in court on Monday contributed to Johnson’s fears, he said.

“We have a group of officers who — after seeing the videotape — support Michael Slager. Those people are sworn to protect the community,” he said. “I think they can’t do a good job of protecting the community with that type of attitude. ... We need new people to come in with new vision.”

But as police-involved deaths continue to attract close scrutiny nationwide, support for officers who wind up in jail has been common among their colleagues in law enforcement. Police unions in Baltimore and Chicago last year voiced favor for the officers charged with murder in the deaths of Freddie Gray and Laquan McDonald.

“It’s like if my brother was being accused of a horrific crime. I’d still be in court to support him even if he’s on this video,” Stoughton said. “That’s what you do for a brother, and policing is a very strong brotherhood. It doesn’t mean I’m happy about my brother’s action. It’s not an official stamp.”

In Slager’s case, John Blackmon, president of the support group Tri-County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3, said people have been quick to “convict him and hang him” in the public sphere instead of waiting for a trial. Taking that a step further by labeling any officers supporting Slager as participants of systemic abuse in the police department is “ludicrous” and “defies logic,” he said.

“Just because we put on a badge doesn’t absolve us of our thoughts, our feelings,” said Blackmon, a retired officer. “We also don’t know all that happened. Everyone has seen this video. But that’s just a fraction of the evidence. Sure, you gasp a little bit when you see it. But you have to know there’s more to it.”

Slager’s attorney, Andy Savage, has contended that the opening frames of the bystander’s footage show a struggle in which Scott beat his client and grabbed Slager’s Taser. The officer fired to stop that threat, his lawyer has said.

Savage made that argument during Slager’s first bail proceeding in September, but a judge also heard a prosecutor dispute it. The judge denied bail, calling Slager a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Earlier this week, though, Savage again requested bail, this time citing a delay in the trial schedule. Among the factors a judge considers in a bail determination are a defendant’s community and family ties.

The attorney asked all community supporters who weren’t related to Slager to stand up. About a dozen people rose from their wooden pews and, after a few seconds, sat down at Savage’s command. Slager’s wife and parents later stood.

Cameron Blazer, an attorney who works on the defense team, said that it was not a surprise for officers to be there but that Slager also enjoys broad support from others.

“He does have a lot of support from the community both in law enforcement and beyond,” she said. “That support tends to come from people who know the whole story.”

‘Outcry of wrongdoing’

Email messages requesting comment from the five officers at the hearing were not returned Wednesday or Thursday.

At least one of them has been outspoken publicly on the steady criticism of police in modern times.

In a public Facebook post about the Cleveland police shooting of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy who had been pointing a toy gun, Lt. Victor Buskirk called on others to speak out against unjust police criticism that could hamper officers’ proactive approach to fighting crime. He said a “loud minority” was using news media to encourage others to “jump on this national band wagon of police haters.”

“Police across this country are being demonized and criminalized anytime they are FORCED to utilize any use of force to protect themselves,” he wrote. “It would appear that as long as Police are using force to protect someone else, all is well. However, when officers use the same force to protect themselves, there is an instant outcry of wrongdoing. This has got to stop!”

Christina Elmore contributed to this report. Reach Andrew Knapp at 843-937-5414 or twitter.com/offlede.