Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Trevor Noah vs. Tomi Lahren

In a divided nation it’s important to try to communicate with people who have different viewpoints. Last night Trevor Noah gave it a try on “The Daily Show” by inviting very conservative TV host Tomi Lahren to be his guest.

Trevor and @TomiLahren discuss Black Lives Matter, the KKK, and Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest. https://t.co/3ZXncZSVdm pic.twitter.com/8YrybRYRBX

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) December 1, 2016

What was impressive: how both of them could keep cool despite having such different views.

What was less impressive: how Lahren tried to walk back her own opinions. She said her statement that Black Lives Matter is the new KKK is not based in racism at all, since she doesn’t “see color.” But then, regarding her loud criticism of Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem, she said: “So because I don’t agree with what he did, I should shut up because I’m white? I should shut up? I shouldn’t be able to talk about black issues because I’m white?” Noah’s clever reply: “No one brought up white at all […] I don’t see color.”

Tomi Lahren: “what did the kkk do?”

All black people in North America: pic.twitter.com/SZpwGBwe9i

— Lil jesse (@smokingdick) December 1, 2016

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post RantCrush Top 5: December 1, 2016 appeared first on Law Street.

Brentley Vinson, the Charlotte police officer who shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott in September, will not face charges, a county district attorney said on Wednesday. “Officer Vinson acted lawfully when he shot Mr. Scott,” Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said in an hour-long press conference. He said the evidence points to Scott possessing a firearm during the incident–which officers at the scene said at the time, but some witnesses refuted–and that Vinson acted in self defense.

“A police officer or any other person is justified in using deadly force if he reasonably believed, and in fact believed, that he or another person was in imminent danger of great bodily injury or death,” Murray wrote in his report of the investigation. Fifteen total prosectors unanimously agreed to not press charges on Vinson.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, which spurred impassioned protests in Charlotte, officers, witnesses, and enraged protestors debated about whether Scott had a gun on him. Officers said he had a loaded .380 semiautomatic handgun, and a holster strapped to his ankle. In his report, Murray listed the evidence that supported that claim: Scott’s DNA was found on the grip of the handgun; the person who (illegally) sold Scott the gun admitted to doing so; and convenience store footage preceding the incident shows Scott with a bulge on his ankle.

BREAKING: Officer who shot and killed #KeithLamontScott acted lawfully, district attorney says https://t.co/ZShJiEFGR1 pic.twitter.com/9BC3zrk4el

— CNN (@CNN) November 30, 2016

On the afternoon of September 20, officers pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex in Charlotte’s University City neighborhood, searching for someone with an outstanding warrant. Scott was sitting in his car, holding a gun and a marijuana blunt, according to the officers’ accounts. He exited the car, repeatedly ignored demands to drop his gun, and Vinson opened fire. A video recorded by his wife Rakeyia did not clearly show Scott with a weapon.

Scott’s family was “gracious,” when they were briefed about the prosecutor’s decision, Murray said. In a statement, they said: “While we understand that many in the Charlotte area share our frustration and pain, we ask that everyone work together to fix the system that allowed this tragedy to happen in the first place.” They also addressed the sometimes violent protests that erupted following Scott’s death in their statement: “Responding to violence with violence is never an appropriate response.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post No Charges for Charlotte Officer Who Shot and Killed Keith Lamont Scott appeared first on Law Street.

Footage from a dashboard camera and a body camera on one of the police officers involved in the shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte last week have finally been released. It turns out the one officer who wore a camera didn’t turn it on until after Scott was already on the ground.

Two videos were released late Saturday after mounting pressure and some violent protests that left people wounded and one dead. The footage from the dashboard camera shows a plainclothes officer aiming his gun at a car. The officer in the car with the dash cam gets out and joins him. Then Scott is seen exiting his car and backing away, and the officer without a uniform fires four shots. Since the video is from inside the police car, there is no audio to prove what was said. But it’s clear that Scott did not aim any gun at the officers at that point.

The body camera footage is grainy and jumpy and shows an officer standing behind Scott’s car, as the officer wearing the camera comes up and knocks on the window with his baton. Scott is then seen getting out from the car but disappears from the video. Next time he’s in the picture, he’s on the ground. The sound on the camera is not turned on until this point, which is why it’s unclear what happened and who said what. It’s also impossible to see from that footage whether Scott had a gun or not. When the sound is turned on, the officers are heard yelling “handcuffs, handcuffs” and asking each other whether they are okay, while Scott is moaning and lying on the ground dying.

Body camera footage shows Keith Scott shooting https://t.co/W0NhU5sBn8 pic.twitter.com/t44YKbjFlK

— Ruptly (@Ruptly) September 25, 2016

Charlotte was the first major city in North Carolina to start using body cams for officers in 2015. The cameras are always on, but they don’t save the footage until the officer presses a button to activate it. That’s when the audio sets in, and it also automatically saves the last 30 seconds of video from before that.

According to protocol, all patrol officers should wear a camera and must activate it as soon as they anticipate any interactions with civilians. But the officers who first approached Scott were wearing plain clothes and therefore did not have any cameras. They claim they realized Scott had a gun, so they retreated to put on police vests and wait for a uniformed officer. That officer was wearing his camera, but he waited to activate it until after Scott was shot.

This news upset many.

Yet another example of why body cameras are not the way to end police shootings. Sometimes, cops don’t turn them on. https://t.co/Q1jNRKYYkU

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) September 26, 2016

But this might be the last footage you see from a police shooting in North Carolina. A new law goes into effect on October 1 that will prevent the public from obtaining footage from body or dashboard cameras. According to Governor Pat McCrory it’s about: “respecting the public, respecting the family, and also respecting the constitutional rights of the officer.”

Under the new law, police videos like the ones in Scott’s case would no longer be considered public record.

The day before the footage was released, Scott’s wife published her own video of what happened, in which the officers are heard yelling “drop the gun” to Scott inside his car. She repeatedly says, “he doesn’t have a gun,” and also points out that he has a traumatic brain injury and just took his medicine. In the video she begs the officers not to shoot her husband, right up until they shoot him.

Wife of #Charlotte police shooting victim #KeithScott films encounter https://t.co/kL9M8WjC4P

— YouTube Newswire (@ytnewswire) September 23, 2016

The attorney for the Scott family, Justin Bamberg, argued that the officer not activating his camera is both a violation of department policy and also meant there was little evidence to show what had actually happened. He said:

Information that we could have had is forever gone because of this officer’s failure to follow department policy and procedures. Those policies exist for a reason, and there is a reason the CMPD equips its officers with body cameras–because body cameras provide visual evidence so that when tragic things do happen we don’t have to question exactly what happened.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Officer Did Not Turn on Body Camera Until After Keith Scott Was Shot appeared first on Law Street.

On Tuesday night violent protests erupted in Charlotte, North Carolina, over the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott earlier that day. The protests came the day after police in Oklahoma released video footage of the shooting of another man on Friday, Terrence Crutcher.

The protests started peacefully, close to where Scott, 43, was killed. They went on until late at night, with people chanting “Black Lives Matter.” In the early morning hours of Wednesday, demonstrators started blocking traffic on the interstate and even opened up backs of tractors and trucks to take out the cargo and set it on fire in the streets. Others broke into a local Walmart. Police used tear gas and flash grenades to interrupt the riots, during which at least 12 police officers and 11 civilians were injured.

#Charlotte #cmpd pic.twitter.com/LJVfhRcgUc

— Adam Rhew (@AdamRhew) September 21, 2016

On Tuesday afternoon police looking for another man with an outstanding warrant approached Scott, who was sitting in his car outside of an apartment complex. Police say Scott got out of the car carrying a gun, and then got back in. When they got closer he got out again, and according to the police statement, the officers felt their lives were in danger and felt compelled to shoot.

But according to Scott’s family, he was unarmed and disabled, and was reading a book in his car while waiting for the school bus to drop off his son.

Here’s the man’s sister. She says he did not have a gun. @CMPD says he did. @WBTV_News pic.twitter.com/JwHMixy9m7

— Sarah-Blake Morgan (@SarahBlakeWBTV) September 20, 2016

His brother said the cop that shot Scott was undercover and dressed in normal clothes. He was shot four times and pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The brother of the victim in the officer-involved shooting says that the cops were undercover. pic.twitter.com/PBrDwkjEdm #Charlotte

— Beatrice E. Peterson (@MissBeaE) September 21, 2016

The family claims Scott didn’t own a gun, but the police say they did recover a firearm at the scene. Police Chief Kerr Putney said that although the police officer who shot Scott was dressed in plainclothes, he also had on a police vest and there were uniformed police at the scene. But he couldn’t say for sure whether Scott aimed his weapon at anyone, nor did police specify what brand or model of gun they had found.

The man who was shot on Friday evening was Terrence Crutcher, 40. He was waiting for assistance next to his car that had broken down on a road in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when female police officer Betty Shelby, who responding to a domestic violence call, found him. When she asked what had happened, he didn’t answer, and according to her attorney, he kept ignoring her questions. When he reached toward his vehicle, she thought he was grabbing a weapon and shot him.

The video that police released on Monday show the man surrounded by several other officers before he falls to the ground. In another video from a police helicopter circling the scene, one officer is heard saying Crutcher is “looking like a bad dude,” and “looks like time for taser.”

“Looks like a Bad Dude” why don’t you Say his name instead #TerrenceCrutcher pic.twitter.com/USSL3TjBzE

— The HBCURoundTable (@HBCU_Roundtable) September 20, 2016

According to the Crutcher family’s lawyer, it is impossible that he reached inside the car for a gun, since the window was rolled up and blood stained on the outside.

Both officers involved in the shootings of Crutcher and Scott have been placed on paid administrative leave.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Protests in Charlotte Sparked by Shooting of Keith Lamont Scott appeared first on Law Street.

Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

History Teacher Stomps on an American Flag

You know it’s going to be an effed up day when you’re sitting in class, learning about freedom of speech and your teacher pulls down the American flag and stomps on it. Lee Francis, a teacher at Massey Hill Classical High School in Fayetteville, N.C., said he took down the flag, took two steps, and almost immediately students left the classroom.

Mr. Francis at Massey Hill Classical HS in Fayetteville stomped all over the American flag…”it was teaching first amendment rights” pic.twitter.com/f8dAR0zPlc

— (@TheMrsH_) September 20, 2016

Residents of Fayetteville have since called him unpatriotic and one observer said that he could stomp on the flag on his own time, but not in the classroom.

Francis maintains that he was simply teaching a lesson and didn’t mean any disrespect. In fact, he’s pretty shocked by the backlash.

He said: “Just because I step on the flag doesn’t mean I step on their graves. It doesn’t mean I step on their bodies as they return from overseas. It means I step on a piece of fabric.”

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The post RantCrush Top 5: September 21, 2016 appeared first on Law Street.