Charlston

Jury Appears One Vote Short of Convicting Ex-Police Officer in Walter Scott’s Death

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A jury signaled here on Friday that it was within a single vote of convicting a white former police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man. But confusion reigned in the courtroom as the jury wavered about whether it was hopelessly deadlocked about the killing, which was recorded on video and became a symbol of the nation’s heated debate about race and policing. Over the misgivings of a defense lawyer, Judge Clifton B. Newman, who presided over a four-week trial, did not declare a mistrial in the case of the former officer, Michael T….

Charleston isn’t really about gun control. It’s about racial violence.

The debate about guns ignores the major crisis we’re facing. It’s been just a day since a gunman burst into the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine. But already, the media is abuzz with its usual response to mass shootings. On the one hand, pro-gun proponents bemoaned “pistol-free zones” like churches, where guns aren’t allowed. If the victims had been armed, they argue, this violence could have been prevented. Gun control advocates, on the other hand, lamented that easy access to guns emboldened criminals to carry out “unthinkable” crimes. Even President Obama linked the shooting to gun violence,…