The cases, which seem so similar at first glance, are vastly different in almost every imaginable way.
In Charleston, once video evidence surfaced of Slager’s pursuit and execution of Scott, officials acted swiftly. Slager was arrested and charged with murder within hours of the Charleston Police Department’s review of the video.
As reported in a previous Diverse article, the surfacing of the video and swift action of officials were key in suppressing the violence that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore.
“The Charleston Police Department and the local prosecutor, as well as the mayor of North Charleston, have done a very good job of receiving, respecting and responding to community concerns,” said Seth Stoughton, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law. At the time, Stoughton added a caveat, “With that being said, we haven’t gotten an indictment yet; there’s still a lot of process that has yet to come.”
He also noted that the reason the arrest came swiftly was “because a bystander happened to be walking by and happened to have the presence of mind to turn on his cell phone camera.”
But now an indictment has come down and Charleston is on its way down the road of “process,” absent of much of the drama that has encircled Baltimore.
