Pigs Push Back at Scrutiny of Fatal Shootings....

Police Push Back at Scrutiny of Fatal Shootings

New Pew survey finds that six in 10 Americans see a broader problem in police killing of black men

Police groups are pushing back against what they say is unfair scrutiny of fatal police shootings of black men this month in Charlotte, N.C., Tulsa, Okla., and El Cajon, Calif., which have brought outrage and condemnation from community leaders and some politicians.

Prosecutions against police are still rare, yet more officers and local police unions are signing up for insurance that covers legal costs because they say they fear being charged criminally in shootings, police union officials say. Some are speaking out for new laws and proposals they say would offer them more protection.

Many officers point to the unsuccessful prosecution of six police officers accused in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore as an example of a type of the rush to judgment they fear.

Six in 10 Americans say that police killings of black people are a sign of a broader problem between blacks and police, while 39% say they are isolated incidents, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday. Nearly eight of 10 black people said these deaths signal a larger problem, compared with 54% of whites.

Even in states like North Carolina, where police have tended to enjoy the benefit of the doubt, police today face questions that put them on the defensive. After the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott on Sept. 20, a Charlotte city council meeting this week devolved into chants of “Hands down, shoot back,” and numerous calls for the resignation of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney.
Chief Putney has said his officers only shot Scott after he repeatedly ignored commands to drop a gun he was holding. Attorneys for Mr. Scott’s family say he wasn’t holding a gun—and it is unclear from video released by the police department whether Mr. Scott was holding anything.

Chief Putney said police expect scrutiny, but also expect to be allowed the discretion to do their jobs.

“The fear of unrest leads to prosecution where it may not be warranted,” said Steve James, president of trustees for the Fraternal Order of Police Legal Defense Plan, referring to protests of recent fatal police shootings of black men. Mr. James said the plan has enrolled 3,500 new members this year, an unusually brisk pace, and is now approaching 55,000 members.

Some police groups also are renewing their push for a Law Enforcement Bill of Rights, and touting a “Blue Lives Matter” law in effect in Louisiana and proposed in a dozen other states which make attacks on police hate crimes.

Much of the heightened public skepticism of police is attributable to the ubiquity of video, from civilian cellphones to police body-cams and dash-cams, said David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. People now expect quick access to the footage of any fatal police shooting.

Video is prompting a public and vocal reassessment of police use of force, even when it is defensible under current policy, as police say is the case in Charlotte, Mr. Harris said: “I think we’ll look back in 5 years, in 10 years, and we’ll see in this arc of 2 or 3 years that things began to change, and the use of force was thought about differently afterward.”

In North Carolina, police groups are defending a new state law taking effect Saturday that would require a judge to decide whether to release any police body-cam or dash-cam footage. The state Fraternal Order of Police is also asking backers “to speak out actively on the behalf of the police via social media,” particularly in defense of the new law.

The April 2015 fatal shooting of Walter Scott by a North Charleston, S.C. officer illustrated vividly how video can contradict an officer’s account of a fatal shooting and aid in prosecution. Officer Michael Slager initially said he felt threatened when Mr. Scott took control of his Taser. But a citizen cellphone video showed Mr. Slager firing multiple times as Mr. Scott slowly ran away from him.

Eighteen officers, including Mr. Slager, were charged with murder or manslaughter in fatal on-duty shootings in 2015—the most in any year going back a decade, according to Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Eleven have been charged in such cases so far this year, including Betty Shelby, the police officer charged with manslaughter in the shooting of an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Okla.

Police ? an estimated 1,000 people annually, according to Mr. Stinson.

In Baltimore, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby previously said she didn’t overreach when she prosecuted the officers who arrested Mr. Gray, a black man who suffered a broken neck in a police van and later died. She said the police department hindered the prosecution case by conducting an incomplete investigation with “an obvious bias” during its probe of Mr. Gray’s death. After three of the officers were acquitted by a judge, she dropped all charges.

In Charlotte, the State Board of Investigation has taken over the Scott shooting. Neither state investigators nor local prosecutors have commented.

But Chief Putney has said he would “absolutely not” recommend charges against his officers. He said witness interviews and physical evidence, including a gun and a marijuana joint photographed at the crime scene, made a strong case that police acted appropriately, even if body-cam and dash-cam video was inconclusive.