“There goes another one.”
Weekly, those words leave my lips as I have to restart the stages of grief when another person of color in the United States is shot, harassed, killed, or ends up “mysteriously deceased” by the hands of law enforcement. Quite frankly, it appears as though people of color are unable to have even a full week of mourning our fallen brothers and sisters before another one joins the tragic list.
Amid last week’s public outcry for justice for Sandra Bland—the African-American woman found dead in her jail cell (ruled an alleged suicide by hanging, according to a preliminary autopsy) in Hempstead, Texas—the African-American community could barely catch its breath before having to mourn yet another unarmed Black person killed by an officer. Bland’s death occurred after being pulled over for a minor traffic violation and subjected to an overzealous officer’s illegal three-day detainment. Similar to the Bland situation, on July 19, 43-year-old Samuel Dubose was pulled over by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing for a minor infraction – missing a front license plate.
Captured on Tensing’s body camera, you see Tensing ask Dubose for his license, which he did not have with him, inquire whether he had a suspended license and, soon after, reach into Dubose’s vehicle while telling him to get out of the car. Seconds later, Samuel Dubose has a gunshot wound in his head while his body slumps over the steering wheel and the car accelerates.
The entire encounter took less than 2 minutes.
It was later discovered that Tensing filed a false report of the incident, claiming he was being dragged by Dubose’s vehicle, which is why he felt it necessary to fire his weapon. He also stated that he was nearly run over by Dubose’s car. The bodycam footage displays none of these claims.
One would wonder what a University police officer was doing pulling over a civilian off-campus, but, according to the University of Cincinnati Police Department website, their officers have the jurisdiction to monitor each of the University’s campuses as well as working with local law enforcement to patrol surrounding campus neighborhoods. Though it is a question as to whether University police receive the same level of training as local law enforcement, one must ponder why would UCPD give a gun to an inadequately trained officer?
