This is the real key to fixing this. If we can break the blue wall of silence, then the Officer Tensings of the world might think twice before they blow people away without cause.
I served on a jury some years ago, and we convicted based almost entirely on the arresting officer’s testimony. We assumed that he was telling the truth when he testified. It never entered our minds that a sworn officer, testifying under oath, might lie. Now – I really have no idea if we wrongfully convicted that guy. BTW the officer was white and the defendant was brown.
That’s something I found intriguing when I watched the video. When Tensing ran up to the car after it had crashed and said, “I thought he was going to drag me” or something along those lines about dragging, the second officer said, “Yeah, I saw.” It made me pause because the lie was so swift. I’m not sure if it’s from a place of protecting Tensing or something else…
maybe both were confused, thinking that the driver had begun to drive before he was shot. But i don’t think the tape supports that; to me, his foot hit the gas only after he was shot – so, involuntarily and while literally dying.
Maybe the officer really did believe the guy was going to drag him. I find it more likely that he was extremely jumpy, fearful, irrational with race based biases than purposefully setting out to murder a black man. But ultimately it doesn’t matter, at least in terms of being criminally negligent and liable to some degree to be determined. And I doubt his hair trigger was unknown before. Those are the exact qualities that need to be screened when evaluating job applicants. This guy should never have been given the badge.
I do think training is the key, while we wait for society to catch up here. Our young people give me hope, but until then, these guys are going to have to be forced out of the departments and also screened out to begin with.
Yes, that’s one of the options I’ve been thinking of. That the second officer was just agreeing to agree and was focused on assessing the situation and thinking about what was to come from it.
The claim that he thought he was going to be dragged is completely bogus, because, other than a brief moment when his hand was just inside the completely open window of the car, his body was entirely clear of the vehicle. The car was moving very slowly when he opened fire on the motorist, and only picked up speed after the wounded driver lost control as he died. Tensing can lie through his teeth as loudly as he pleases, but the footage shoot by his own body cam negates every word. The condemnation of the prosecutor’s office should clue him in to how little help he’ll be getting from the usual channels in his case. Let him rot in a cell alongside the cop that shot Walter Scott in the back.
Something to consider… Police are usually hired from the metro area. If the metro area is highly segregated or otherwise has a high level of racism, then the candidate pool of police officers may reflect that tendency, making the screening and training processes more difficult (assuming that the leadership wants to avoid racism in the department - not always the case).
Also, though not in this particular case, not all racial profiling is done by police. Some is done by *people who call the police *about a “suspicious person”. Where there is a high level of racism in the area, people of the disliked race may find excessive encounters with police for this reason.
@Niquii77 The lie was very swift. He initially says that he thought he was going to be dragged, and within seconds the story had changed to was dragged.
Maybe “Yeah I saw” was a stock answer, maybe not. But remember the Walter Scott murder? The cop retrieves his taser and casually drops it near Scott’s body, so that he can claim in his report that Scott had grabbed the taser, justifying the murder. The other officer who is standing right there doesn’t bat an eyelash. Not a word is exchanged. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that this is standard operating procedure – the murdering officer staging the scene or otherwise presenting his story to the other officers, and the other officers not objecting and then backing the murderer up in their own reports. This is how the blue wall of silence works.
Tensing wasn’t dragged. We can see that with our own eyes. So I suspect that when the other officer said “Yeah I saw,” that was blue-wall shorthand for “Yeah, I’ll back you up.” And in fact, he did.
What would were the charges being considered, if any?
Also, are there any employment disciplinary actions (e.g. demotion or dismissal) being considered for the other officers who appear to be trying to cover up the problem?
Well, maybe they both thought he was going to be dragged. People think all sorts of things in the heat of the moment and even if they turn out to be incorrect, the fact is they thought that way and acted on it. Looks like he will get a chance to put it to the jury test.
maybe, then, the “yeah I saw” was just to appease Tensing at the time. Maybe the cop was a bit afraid of Tensing given that he had just shot a man in the head. So rather than confront him with, “Dude, are you nuts? Why did you shoot him? What did he do?” and risk being shot by a man who is an emotional wreck, they smile and nod, so to speak.
Don’t mess with the crazy guy…
At least they told the truth under oath, or so we can presume.
Dragged by which means? Tractor beam? Because there was absolutely no physical mechanism by which Tensor could have been constrained and carried along during this encounter.
In which case, this dude is hosed. Thank God for the video. Even “law and Order” conservatives can do little more than work their mouths open and closed like fishes in the face of the bald-face facts.
^^^I’m not a lawyer, but it would seem that the best course would be to encourage his client to make a plea deal. But maybe not; perhaps the prosecutors don’t need to bargain.
As I understand it there was a vehicle in close proximity. You can clearly see the officer with his hand in the car. Police officers have been known to be dragged in similar situations.
We have not been able to create a “tractor beam” as of yet.