Posted on 07/29/2015 7:53:44 PM PDT by ScottWalkerForPresident2016
A University of Cincinnati police officer was indicted Wednesday on a murder charge in the shooting of 43-year-old Samuel Dubose, an unarmed black man, during a routine traffic stop.
In conjunction with the indictment, Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph T. Deters released a video of the shooting from the body camera of the shooting officer, Ray Tensing.
“This is the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make,” said Deters during a news conference. “It’s an absolute tragedy in 2015 that anyone would behave in this manner. It was senseless. He lost his temper because Mr. Dubose wouldn’t get out of his car quick enough. When you see this you won’t believe how quickly he pulls his gun. Maybe a second — it’s incredible.”
“It was a senseless, asinine shooting … This office has probably reviewed upwards of 100 police shootings, and this is the first time we’ve thought, ‘This is without question a murder,’” said Deters.
“[Tensing] wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder, OK? He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate … This is, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken-crap stop, all right? And – I could use harsher words,” he added.
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Take Joe Deters on a ride a long and make him do vehicle stops all night long with only his smart ass attitude.
Can’t really argue with the DA here. Sometimes cops are wrong. And when they are, they need to be held accountable.
Deters has not learned from big mouth Mosby, just indict, not incite.
Of course, Cincy has been here before in 2001 and probably wants no more of that.
That’s right.
IMO, the body language of the guy in the vehicle says no threat.
Just driving off is not lethal threat to the officer unless he’s stupid enough to reach in the car and put himself in mortal danger.
Dumb, dumb, dumb...
I do think the DA was wrong to comment about the traffic stop. The law states the front license plate is to be there. Officers issue fix-it tickets for that sort of thing all the time. It’s legit.
And for the DA to put the officer down for stopping a guy based on that, reveals an attitude problem.
The officer was wrong. The DA is right to charge the officer, but he is not right to criticize the officer for doing his job.
I once asked a city police officer how he viewed the presence of officers on a local Jr. college campus. I had observed one making a traffic stop. He said he had no problem with it at all, that these guys were fully functioning police officer just like he was.
So I’m not real quick to dump on the campus officer for this stop. It was probably legit.
I note the officer didn’t go postal when the driver pulled out a bottle of gin. Too bad he couldn’t keep his composure later.
Joe Detters is no differentthan Baltimore prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby.
A press conference is no place to try your case. This stuff ticks me off no end.
75 arrests?
Before long we’ll have the Barney Fife rule, for real
“He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate”
And an arrest record of some 60 incidents.
And no drivers license.
And incoherent uncooperative demeanor.
And an open bottle of gin*.
And that bottle was at his feet.
And who attempted escape, possibly including vehicular assault.
The driver was, once again, not the angel some portray the perp as.
(* - The bottle was clearly marked “gin” and was clearly unsealed. The contents remain in doubt.)
I’m not hearing anything about riots and mayhem in that city for today. Maybe the police cooled the situation by quickly coming out and admitting one of their cops was wrong in this case. Of course, there are so darn many stories about that dead Lion, that other news maybe be blocked out for a while.
“The officer was wrong. The DA is right to charge the officer, but he is not right to criticize the officer for doing his job.”
Pretty much my thoughts at this point. I watched the camera footage several times on youtube, and it looks like a bad shoot to me. But the prior stop itself appeared to be perfectly legitimate. And it was just plain unprofessional (though likely politically expedient) for the DA to use the language he did.
Not one of those is a capital crime.
OTOH, while the indictment looks justified to me, the DA is way over the line is his public comments. He should try his case in the courtroom.
Driver is clothed head to foot in RED.
Just a color preference..?
It’s not like just a patch or two.
Won’t answer questions, booze bottle, gang colors.
That’s not a good combo.
This problem goes back to the 1980s as police forces were being upgraded because of perceived crime and drugs. As they hired more people....they didn’t really filter out the incompetent or unqualified or emotionally unstable guys. I’d call it the 66-percent-rule. We have 2/3’s of the cops in the nation who do a decent job and deserve some respect. The remaining 1/3 need to get themselves a guard job at the local mall and give up on being a cop as a career. It’s across the whole system....local, state and federal....even the secret service has hired losers.
Police have to make tough decisions. In this particular case, I think the result was _wildly_ excessive, but suppose that the guy was drunk (open bottle of gin being a clue) and there were kids playing in the street and he drove off erratically. Now what would one do?
In any event, the prosecutor should have simply stated that based on the initial facts of the case presented, he decided to go for these charges and all of the facts would come out in a courtroom. Anything beyond that is PR which is very inappropriate for that office. But I suppose that constitutes “riot control” these days.
“The driver was, once again, not the angel some portray the perp as.”
I’m sure that someone will come up with a picture of him in a band uniform.
Officer Tensing knew Dubose was getting ready to play the old name game with him. It happens thousands of times a day in this country. I have been a reluctant but skilled participant in it at least a hundred times, conservatively. It’s just a reality of police work.
The name game is “I have no ID, I will give you a name, not my real name, but someone elses who I have memorized, most likely a family member, in the hopes you won’t be vigilant in comparing the driver’s license photos.” Or “I will give you a social security number, not my real one, in hopes of throwing you off.”
Like I said, it’s a game and after a few times of seeing it, you get really good at shutting it down.
Dubose had no license with him, probably had warrants, was going to get hooked up, car towed, so he he was probably going to give false name. Officer Tensing, just like the Trooper with Sandra Bland, was going to have him step from the vehicle, hence telling him to take the seatbelt off and then starting to open the door. Dubose reacted by pulling and holding the door shut, then putting the car in drive. Officer Tensing told him to Stop, he refused, Tensing then made the “tactical” not “legal” error of reaching in to turn the car off.
The two primary case laws they will look at in regards to this will Graham vs. Connor and Tennessee vs. Garner. The standard they will look at will be whether another officer in a similar situation with a similar amount of experience and training, would do the same thing. The contention will not be whether they would shoot, but whether would reach in at all. However, as I mentioned before, that is not a legal issue, but a policy one or lack thereof.
People are saying he is lying. Well, all he has to do is convince one juror that he was doing what he said he was doing and go tangled in the steering wheel, and he is going to get a hung jury.
Remember, they are going to trot out about ten or twelve officers and paramedics from different agencies and each one will be asked if they believe that he was dragged and possibly injured. How many times did they ask him if he was alright without knowing he was recording?
Furthermore, his back up officer had a rookie trainee. He will be the first the feds go after for testimony on the fed side, since lying to a special agent is a crime, not so to a police officer.
“Can’t really argue with the DA here. Sometimes cops are wrong. And when they are, they need to be held accountable.”
The cop was wrong but there was something about the driver.
He was acting weird and started the car to run away. Was that out of fear of safety or fear of going to jail.
He produced no identification and first said the car was his but when informed it was registered to a female he said it belonged to his wife.
In Ohio they do not issue fix-it tickets. The license plate is a pretext for a drug search or just outright harassment. If they find anything else such as an unbuckled seatbelt then a citation is issued.
Express a little attitude about getting $300 worth the fines for a plate and a belt and you can watch the peace officer start losing his composure. He knows that he is engaging in chickensh@& and doesn’t want to be disresepected.
And a car that was registered to a female.
I see it pretty closely to the way you do. The officer had started to open the door, the guy pulled it closed then tried to drive off, the officer then reached in to try to shut off the ignition. A multitude of dumb tactical moves that put him in mortal danger. What followed, followed.
The prosecutor’s completely out of line, though. Determine the facts, accomplish the indictment and take the case to court. Grandstanding and character assassination have no place in a proper criminal prosecution.
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