BRACK: What was done right and what still needs work

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | North Charleston, the state’s third largest city, has never been an easy place in which to live. With large pockets of poverty and schools that face inner-city conflicts not found in suburbs, daily life — even today — can be a struggle.

Back in the late 1980s as a police reporter, I headed to North Charleston often to find out what was happening. The police culture was insular, tough and tight-lipped. There was a particular way of doing things in North Charleston and often, it seemed, it involved knocking heads.

In 2006 and 2007, a total of 54 people were murdered or killed in North Charleston, which led to the city being named one of the nation’s most dangerous.

The city, which has roots as a working man’s offshoot of tonier Charleston, responded by cracking down even more on crime. Within years, violent crime and murder dropped to half of what it had been. And while many say the city was safer and more open because of police outreach throughout the community, a lingering question is whether vigorous traffic stops of a lot of black residents for broken tail lights or expired registration ran roughshod over civil liberties.

Maintaining safety while protecting liberties is delicate. The balance is rightfully getting more airtime these days in North Charleston and across the country after the shooting of Walter Scott last week made global headlines. An officer, who first maintained he feared for his life in a struggle with Scott, found himself in jail Tuesday on a murder charge after a video surfaced showing him shooting eight times at Scott, who was apparently fleeing after being zapped with a taser. Scott’s death was ruled a homicide by the county coroner, who said an autopsy revealed he “sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the back of his body.”

The video could have created a powder keg that turned North Charleston into a place like Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland or New York City where high-profile deaths of blacks by white officers led to protests or violence. But fortunately, that hasn’t happened so far in North Charleston — probably for two good reasons.

First, Scott’s family called for calm and change. They displayed an unfathomable amount of grace in what is an unimaginable circumstance.

Second, North Charleston officials acted decisively and quickly. Even before the video bounced across the world on traditional and social media, authorities charged the officer involved in the shooting with murder and put him in jail. The law, Mayor Keith Summey essentially said, is the law — for police officers and everyday citizens. And if you make a bad decision, you have to live with it, he said. The day after the murder arrest, Summey announced patrol officers on the city’s force would be outfitted with body cameras, which advocates say may help defuse situations involving confrontations.

But while the city is to be commended for handling things well so far, there’s a long way to go still. Body cams may help, but technology will not solve the root at what’s eating at police departments across the state, which has had other highly-publicized officer-involved shootings in recent months.

“Requiring officers to wear body cameras to record stops can – can – help document what goes on, but they aren’t a panacea,” notes the ACLU’s Victoria Middleton. “It’s possible that they could de-escalate interactions with citizens, but cameras alone won’t solve problems of institutional bias, conscious or unconscious.”

Communities and police across the state need to build more bridges. City council members and state legislators have to determine whether more resources are needed to pay police better and get better-quality recruits. Officials should work on ways to thwart racial profiling. They need to involve citizens to determine whether police need more and better training. Citizens need more confidence in police, who can earn it by taking complaints seriously.

And more than anything, South Carolinians need to confront decades of silence, ill will and tension involving race and prejudice. If Walter Scott’s tragic death teaches us anything, it should teach us to work together so any man stopped for a broken tail light doesn’t die from being shot in the back.