Authorities in South Carolina arrested a former state trooper and charged him with “assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature” for shooting an unarmed driver who he suspected of not wearing a seatbelt.  In an America coming to grips with compounding evidence that some of its cops are out of control, it stands out at particularly egregious.

The first thing that is striking about this case is how trooper Sean Groubert quickly escalated from run-of-the-mill traffic stop to the use of potentially deadly force.  On 4 September, Groubert pulled up to Levar Jones as the driver got out of his sport ute.  Groubert orders Jones to produce his driver’s license.  Jones reaches for the license on his dashboard, and Groubert opens fire.  All in :04 seconds.

At this point, Levar Jones is lucky that Groubert was such a lousy shot.  He was hit in the hip, and required hospitalization instead of a coroner.  An apparent law abiding citizen, Jones even apologizes to the cop, perhaps trying to avoid a coup de grace from the panicky cop.

The second thin that’s striking is that South Carolina State Police didn’t coddle this guy.  Groubert was fired as of last Friday, arrested and charged this week.  All evidence was put on the table for the public to see.  Groubert faces up to 20-years in prison if convicted.  And although this wasn’t reflected in the charges, it should be noted that as in every other case of egregious police use of deadly force in America, the cop is white and the victim is black.

It recalls the case in Ohio in which a grand jury failed to indict two officers for fatally gunning down a black man who was carrying a pellet gun in a store that sells pellet guns.  Prosecutors kept video evidence from the public until this week.  US Federal investigators will look into that one.

And it bears uncomfortable similarities to the killing of Missouri teen Michael Brown, shot several times to death by a cop who tried to roust Brown for jaywalking.  Ferguson, Missouri police and local prosecutors have been extremely secretive with the evidence.

But, while the public waits for local and federal authorities to do something about killer cop Darren Wilson, who remains suspended with pay.  First, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson issued a videotaped apology to the parents of Michael Brown, the boy they had attempted to smear with false allegations of shoplifting weeks earlier.

“No one who has not experienced the loss of a child can understand what you’re feeling,” Chief Jackson said in a videotaped apology that aired on cable TV news and released by a public relations firm working with the city.  “I’m truly sorry for the loss of your son.  I’m also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street.”

Michael Brown’s body was left out on the street with a gaping head wound – uncovered – for several hours in front of horrified residents, enflaming the anger that led to days of a costly public uprising and a police riot in which cops abandoned their name tags, badges, and blue uniforms in favor of military drag.  The cops were condemned for the brutal treatment of citizens and journalists.  A few were fired.

But not every encounter between white cops and black citizens ends with an unanswered human rights violation.  And sometimes there is justice.  In Los Angeles, California, a woman seen in a viral video receiving a Mixed Martial Arts-style beat down from a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer agreed to a US$1.5 Million settlement. 

A passing motorist used his mobile video to record Officer Daniel Andrew pounding the living crap out of Marlene Pinnock, a grandmother who suffers from bipolar disorder and was off her extremely expensive meds for a couple of months prior to the incident.  People saw her walking at the side of the road, and called for help so she wouldn’t get hurt.  Instead, Officer Andrew took the call. 

He has agreed to resign from the CHP.  The settlement will go into a special needs trust for Mrs. Pinnock.