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Clyburn: Young people should keep cameras on police

by Ben Kamisar - 04/08/15 1:43 PM ET

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), lamenting shooting death of a black man by a white South Carolina police officer that was caught on video, urged young people to turn cameras on law enforcement agents.

“I’ve advised young people, keep your cellphones tuned up, keep the battery charged and don’t hesitate to turn them on when you see things happening that’s unbecoming or you think may cross the line,” he said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Wednesday, the day after the officer was charged with murder and a video of the shooting became public.

“I think that we are going to have to do more of this, because I think that’s what it’s going to take for police officers to really think twice before pulling their weapons.”

{mosads}The New York Times released the video Monday night, which shows the police officer, Michael Slager, firing eight shots at Walter Scott as the man ran away from the officer.

Slager has said Scott took his stun gun, and he feared for his life, according to the Times, but the video shows Scott’s back to Slager as he fired, and reports have said he was unarmed.

Slager encountered Scott in a traffic stop over a broken taillight, and Scott took off running. Slager reportedly fired the stun gun at Scott, but it did not stop him.

The incident comes months after grand juries decided not to indict police officers in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., for their roles in the deaths of unarmed black men.

The Ferguson incident had not been caught on tape, leading to harsh disagreement about the lead up to the shooting. The death of Eric Garner in Staten Island had been caught on video, and the decision not to indict was met with criticism by many civil rights leaders in part because of the video.

Clyburn, who is black and serves as the assistant Democratic leader in the House, said accusations that he’s playing the race card miss the mark.

“I’m not playing the race card — I think that what is happening in too many of these instances, that these perpetrators are playing the race card,” he said. “We’re just responding to what they’re doing.”

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