He did at first, but his story shifted quickly. A moment later he said he WAS dragged. See the difference?
BTW, why was Tensing’s arm inside the car in the first place? If he was trying to open the door, why? When I was pulled over and was discovered to lack a required document, the officer didn’t try to drag me out of my car. He didn’t even ask me to get out of the car. Why was it so important that DuBose get out of the car?
And that is precisely why cops are trained never to stick their arms into cars. If Tensing’s arm was inside the car in an attempt to turn the ignition off, or open the door, then he’s just an idiot.
He needlessly harassed DuBose, then got mad, and then as poetsheart said, he panicked.
Cops care, that’s who. It doesn’t take a lot of googling to find statistics on how differently blacks and whites are treated by police. Or you can look at some of the posts on this thread by people who’ve experienced it personally.
The cop began to open the car door. I do not know what his intentions were. This escalated the situation.
I do not see how anyone can argue that the drivers action of reclosing the door and turning on the car did not contribute to escalating the situation. In addition somehow the car was now in gear.
My only conclusion with those actions is that the driver was now going to attempt to drive away. Is there some other conclusion to make here that I am missing?
This conclusion is the same no matter what race the driver or cop were.
Should the cop now unholster his weapon? I don’t have any idea what he was trained to do at that moment. I will conclude from his statement that he “was being dragged” that he shot the man on purpose. I conclude it was not an accident.
Would the cop have shot this man to death in this exact situation if he was white? I have no idea.
I get so angry when I read about the senseless killings and injustices against minority groups. It is a crime in America today to be black, a child of an immigrant, female, poor, LGBT, etc. Just because we aren’t the majority (or have the strongest voice/representation) does not mean that are lives are of a lesser value than the big guys up on Wall Street or in Congress. No, we aren’t animals. No, we are not inferior. We are just humans forced to live with the deck we were dealt at birth.
I know, no it wouldn’t have happened. These stories are happening on a regular basis. But no matterhow many stories there are , there are some that refuse to believe cops have bias when it comes to us, and it’s even worse if you are on the lower economic rung. But don’t be fooled, those of us with six figure income suffer as well.
I’m glad you could finally admit that and agree with me. We are talking about how people have perceptions and can act on them even though they might be in error and how having the immense benefit of hindsight can reveal that.
The discussion of how peoples recollections, particularly about a traumatic incident, can change over time is different, yet.
“What the officer thought”, JustOneDad, or what the officer said he thought? He apparently thought he would be dragged, and then apparently thought he was dragged, because he said both after he shot a man to death. Do you know what Officer Brian Slager said into his police radio moments after he shot Walter Scott multiple times in the back?: “He grabbed my taser.” Do you know what he did with the taser Scott supposedly grabbed minutes later? Answer: dropped it next to the dead body he had just handcuffed. Just in case, you know…people doubted his word. But, police officers never lie, right? Moral integrity is intrinsic to the very DNA of a cop. It’s a mysterious infusion that happens the moment he’s issued his badge and gun. Kind of like immaculate conception.
Therefore, it’s not possible Officer Tensor could have had impure thoughts, like, "I can’t let this SOB get away."So why is the prosecutor’s office condemning the actions of such an inherently upright agent of governmental authority, calling it murder(!)? Surly it can’t have anything to do with the officer’s own bodycam video, right?
Seriously though, why did he reach inside the car?
What threat did he think that a person whose car is missing the front license plate posed to other people?
I’ve watched that stretch of video more times than I’d care to, and I still have no idea what he was thinking. It didn’t look like Dubose was grabbing a weapon, or starting to accelerate. And even if he was, in the same time taken to grab the gun, he could have pulled his arm out with more than enough time to spare.
And I can understand the other officers’ testimonies. Basically, your brain is a huge jerk, and your memory sucks, whether you like it or not. I’m just glad that this was caught on a body camera, and I’m very impressed with Cincinnati taking the initiative seriously.
Your post is 90% personal conjecture and details that have nothing to do with the incident involving Officer Tensing. You don’t even have his name correct.
Yes, because obviously, if I hadn’t miswritten his name, I’d have the ability to take such a fine, upstanding officer at his word, and totally ignore what’s on the video. 8-| Does the prosecutor even know how to spell the officer’s name correctly? Maybe that’s the problem.
Mr. Dubose was a huge animal activist. Its nice to see a story that doesnt try to make it seems like the victims deserved to die because of past crimes.
There was enough evidence to charge the officer with murder.
But I can honestly say that I am not convinced that this cop had any intention of killing this man ( until he pulled his gun). I think he made a HUGE mistake reaching into the car. Cops are not supposed to do this. I think the situation quickly got out of hand and that the cop pulled his weapon and shot him within one or two seconds of him putting the car in gear.
I really wish the driver had not reclosed the door and then start the car. I have no idea how the car was shifted into gear.
In that split second did the cop believe his arm was stuck or being held? Did he shoot out of fear or did he shoot out of anger? Big difference to me. And I have no idea.
Ppoetsheart. You can’t read his mind. As much as you would like to, you cannot read his mind. Any attempt to read his mind is projection on your part.
And to make it perfectly clear I do believe some cops target the black population and that they treat black people very differently than other people.
Also, it’s interesting that you’re accusing me of “90% personal conjecture”’ JustOneDad, when it’s you who seems overly invested in what the officer said “he thought”, while ignoring what’s actually in evidence via the officer’s own body-cam, and what the prosecutor’s office says about this case. According to your logic, we should just take the word of the cop who supposedly feared for his own safety and file this shooting away with the multitude of cases in which there is no video evidence, and the officer’s words were taken at face value. Hey, why didn’t we think of this before? There’s actually no need for dash-cams, body-cams, or cell phone video. We can just rely on what the officer says he was thinking in the moment, and save tax payers and police departments all the headache and expense. Please forgive me. I didn’t have my V-8 this morning, either.
I contradicted myself above. I have no idea how the car shifted into gear. Did the driver do it? Did he do it on purpose or was it an accident? Did the cop do it by accident?
Maybe the video shows it in slow speed. I just don’t know. And it’s the " I don’t knows" that are the problem in this case.
Why was it necessary that DuBose get out of the car? He was pulled over for a “chicken crap” (to quote the prosecutor) reason in the first place. Once stopped, he gave absolutely no indication that he was a menace to the cop or to anyone else. There was no reason at all to even ask him to get out of the car, much less to force the issue as Tensing did.
Oh, except that DuBose was DWB. That changes all rules.
Hold on. We do know. This officer escalated this traffic stop out of all proportion, for no reason. When the black guy seemed to question his big bad tough guy self, he got really really mad really really fast. And then when the black guy looked to be getting away (and believe it or not, it doesn’t matter how the car got shifted into gear), then the officer took it upon himself to prevent the black guy from escaping. Over a license plate violation, remember. A license plate violation. There was NO reason for the officer to have his arm inside the car. None whatsoever.
If you don’t understand this dynamic, look at the video from the Walter Scott murder in North Charleston. Exact same thing: 1. Chicken-crap stop. 2. Black man not quite compliant enough to make white officer feel big and tough. 3. White officer escalates. 4. Black man dead within moments of being detained for a code violation or misdemeanor.
Or look at the Eric Garner video. God knows, there are enough examples.