The recent shooting here in Cincy of Samuel DuBose by a University of Cincinnati campus officer has barely made national news, even in the era of increased awareness of police brutality and murder of black lives, but all of that is about to rapidly change here in the Queen City.
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said he’s confident police are ready for whatever happens this week after prosecutors release video of a fatal shooting by a University of Cincinnati police officer.
Cranley said city officials are preparing for the video’s release, as well as the conclusion of a grand jury investigation, in two ways: They are making sure police have the resources they need to respond to any protests or unrest, and they are reaching out to community leaders to prevent trouble from getting started.
“I think we’re prepared,” Cranley said Tuesday. “Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate lawlessness.”
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has said he expects the grand jury investigating the shooting to complete its work this week, at which time he will announce whether UC Police Officer Ray Tensing will be charged with a crime and also will release video of the incident from the officer’s body camera.
Tensing shot and killed Samuel DuBose, 43, during a traffic stop on July 19. The officer stopped DuBose at Rice and Valencia streets in Mount Auburn for having a missing front license plate.
Many questions remain unanswered. The police incident report said Tensing was “dragged,” but there was no mention of the dragging in the police dispatch call. Deters has refused to release video of the incident until the grand jury’s work is done, saying it is part of the investigation.
Cranley and other city officials say they have not seen the video, but City Manager Harry Black said Monday he has been briefed on what it shows.
“My reaction is that it is not a good situation,” Black said. “Someone has died that did not necessarily need to die.”
The various reactions by Mayor Cranley, Police Chief Blackwell, and City Manager Black tells me that 1) the body camera video is explosively bad, and 2) that there’s little question that Officer Ray Tensing is in a world of trouble. For this administration to go into damage control mode before the video is even made public tells me Cranley, Blackwell, and probably the city council as well are all terrified of the city’s reaction to this, and after the 2001 protests they are painfully aware of what can go wrong.
Cranley in particular is arrogant, even when he’s beaten, full of bravado and noise. You have only to look at how he’s the champion of “fixing” Cincinnati’s streetcar program after running on killing the streetcar two years ago and the City Council told him to screw off. Now Cranley’s acting like he’s the voice of reason and is the one making the streetcar “work” when it would otherwise be a mess. He’s more than happy to take credit for “reforming” it these days, as a watchdog for taxpayers.
But for Cranley to go into damage control mode publicly without being pushed by protesters and national press? Cranley’s not even attempting to fight this. I don’t think Cranley is overreacting at all, because I think the body camera video of the stop must clearly show that Tensing murdered DuBose. Devil’s advocacy says Cranley is blaming the black community here for anything bad ahead of time and is engaged in epic obfuscation of his posterior region, but that’s so obvious and cynical a ploy that it’ll never work. What’s on this body camera footage has the ambitious mayor of a pretty decently-sized Midwestern city preparing for major unrest without a single second of video being public yet. That sounds like resigned defeat to me.
Usually you have local governments prevaricating and qualifying things, “I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation” or “We’re still looking at all the evidence” or “You’ll have to talk to UC President Santa Ono about this”, and for Santa Ono to be openly talking about reforming the campus police rather than having to be forced into reforms and the defense attorney for the University saying that he expects an indictment is amazing. Remember, this is a cop, and 99% of the time police are never convicted of murder of citizens, especially black citizens, and the trial, if there even is one, is just for show.
This is starting to look like it might be the 1% where justice actually happens. The Cincinnati Enquirer is suing for the release of the video, but the news now that the grand jury expects to wrap up this week and that the video will be released is very strange and almost too orderly. It’s like the entire city administration is getting out in front of something horrific that hasn’t gone public yet. This just doesn’t happen, even with Cincy’s history of post-2001 police reform, and Chief Blackwell’s crusade to make the police more accountable. You always deny, deny, deny and circle the wagons, not, you know, do the right thing.
All we can do now is await the video’s release later this week, and I’m betting it’s going to put Cincinnati in a very, very harsh national spotlight. But maybe that spotlight will see justice done for Samuel DuBose.
[UPDATE] Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters is holding a press conference on the DuBose shooting at 1 PM, followed by Mayor Cranley and Chief Blackwell giving a press conference at 2 PM.University of Cincinnati is cancelling classes today starting at 11 AM ahead of the press conference, which means that that grand jury decision may very well be coming down this afternoon, plus the video.
More later today.
JPL
The Prosecutor is going to discuss DuBose at 1pm. How likely do you think, that the indictment comes down then?
JGabriel
Zandar:
So how long before Tensing is the new hero-martyr of Roger Ailes’ Conservative Propaganda Network?
Zandar
@JPL: It’s certainly possible. Again, they seem to be front-running this as much as they can. Yesterday he made it seem like the indictment decision was going to be handed down on Friday or Monday, but if the decision’s already been made and the grand jury has signed off on it, sure.
TriassicSands
And that, at last, is the question. Not, can the police somehow “justify” yet another killing, but was the killing “necessary?” If it wasn’t necessary, then the police officer responsible must be fired and face charges. Period.
kc
It sounds as if in addition to showing an unjustified shooting, this video could be really graphic.
JGabriel
@JPL:
Maybe. Certainly it would be the smart move to announce an indictment before releasing the video. That way Cincinnati can look like they’re already working on justice for DuBose’s family, and possibly forestall some of the outrage and violence Cincy is clearly anticipating in reaction to the body camera video feed.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I have relatives in Cincinnati.
They are ready to get their race war on against the uppity blacks.
I wish I didn’t have relatives in Cincinnati.
Ryan
““I think we’re prepared,” Cranley said Tuesday. “Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate lawlessness.””
Okay, so here’s a problem. You’re basically making a distinction between peacefully protesting and lawless conduct. That line needs to be adjudicated, and cops fill that role. The problem is that there are many who do not trust cops to do that fairly. Aside from brutality and murder, we’ve seen too many occurrences where judges have thrown out convictions because the police were in the wrong. Unjust traffic stops, searches, and the like. I don’t have a solution beyond the police actively working to instill trust and being a part of the community they serve. But I suspect police see things differently (at the most extreme, Fallujah).
different-church-lady
Am I being overly optimistic to think the reason it’s unfolding this way is because society actually is changing and the old lines of defense now seem obscene to even those in power?
debbie
Funny how the Ohio AG’s report on the lack of standards regarding Ohio’s cops has not gotten much attention.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/state-regional/ohio-ag-task-force-to-release-report-on-police-rel/nk2Rr/
JPL
This is good news for Kasich. He’ll ride in and save the day.
Dan
I live in Cincinnati. Chief Blackwell has been a pretty great police chiefand has really valued the progress that the PD has made in community relations by adhering to the Collaborative Agreement made after the 2001 uprising. I trust him to do the right thing, which is TOTALLY WEIRD to think about a police officer.
Also: bear in mind that the officer involved in this killing was not a CPD cop, but a University of Cincinnati cop. one of the things that Santa Ono, the UC President, has talked about is wanting to move the UC police under the Collaborative Agreement.
Cranley is a fucking asshat though, and a key reason why the 2001 uprising got as bad as it did. (he legendarily mishandled a community meeting when he was on city council at the time.)
Gindy51
@CONGRATULATIONS!: We were supposed to go to Costco in Cinci this weekend…. maybe not so much.
Belafon
@different-church-lady: I would like to think that this is a positive outcome of the protests in Ferguson and Baltimore. The mayor doesn’t want Cincinnati to the the newest ending to the sentence “___ may become the next ___”. Tolerating killing blacks and being seen as cracking down on protests doesn’t do a city much good.
mtiffany
@different-church-lady:
Probably less ‘obscene’ and more ‘politically indefensible come re-election time.’ But maybe (hopefully) the BLM protests and the lessons of the police response to protests in Ferguson and Baltimore are finally, slowly, getting through.
Woodrowfan
About 30 minutes after the video is released. got to have time to whip up a few taking points from their list of standard excuses…
Knowbody
This seems wildly speculative and inflammatory even for you.
How about we actually see the video before buying into the right wing bullshit that “it’s going to cause riots!” or something?
You’re not helping anyone and this is stupid clickbait even by your abysmal standards. “Coming conflagration?” Go fuck yourself.
Asshat.
shell
You know what would be a simple, easy way to avoid prepping for civil unrest and dealing with riots? NOT gunning innocent people down on the street for fuck-nothing!
NorthLeft12
I would think that being prepared for a bad situation is a good idea, but I think a lot of the anger and resentment could be defused if they announce that the campus cop has been indicted for murder. If he is given a pass and the video seems to contradict that decision, then yes people will be highly upset.
And you know what? Who could blame them?
Germy Shoemangler
Why does a campus officer care if a man is missing his front plate? Also, I thought that was legal; I thought it was the rear plate that had to be on display at all times.
I see cars all the time with no front plates. Sometimes only a dealer plate in the back window.
shell
And not to get all easy self-righteouse, but lets hope DeBoise does get more attention than Cecil the lion.
dedc79
So when you talk about the coming “conflagration”, are you being literal or figurative?
Gin & Tonic
@Germy Shoemangler: When I was in college, it was always assumed the primary job of campus police was to keep us from being arrested by city police.
mak
One guy who has seen the video is Police Chief Blackwell, and he’s said “”The video is not good,” Blackwell said. “I think the city manager has said that also publicly. I’ll leave it there.” And yesterday, he said he expects the cop to be indicted.
Even the prosecutor – who has refused to release the video – has made noises that sound like an indictment for the cop: “we have to sort out . . . if it was justified, and if it was not, . . . what charges need to be brought.” Not the kind of language I would expect from a prosecutor (like that St. Louis fuck) intent on protecting the cop. In addition to brains flying everywhere, the cop must be screaming something like “Die Ni(clang)!, Die!!”
Knowbody
@dedc79:
Either usage is irresponsible given the city’s history.
Germy Shoemangler
@Gin & Tonic: I thought campus police were primarily concerned with student safety and enforcing student parking rules.
Was Samuel DuBose a student? If not, why did a campus cop bother him over something so trivial as a missing front plate?
Bobby Thomson
Silent KKK is back.
p.a.
Think the cops ever get this lecture/threat?
Kathleen
@Zandar: Cranley, Cincinnati Police Chief Jeff Blackwell and UC President Ono attended the funeral. Mr. Dubose’s family said they appreciate the right to protest but want no violence. The DuBose family hired George Zimmerman’s attorney (you read that right) to represent them.
UC police have been problematic before, so this does not surprise me, though it seems this policeman was out of his jurisdiction here.
What I’m finding interesting is that some of my very conservative neighbors in my high rise are questioning the officer’s story and think stopping DuBose because he had no front license plate was bogus.
different-church-lady
@Knowbody: “Irresponsible?” Zandar’s got some kind of responsibility in that his choice of words on a third-tier blog while describing government’s concerns are going to affect how things unfold in Cincinnati?
C.V. Danes
It is not ok for law enforcement to act as judge, jury, and executioner. There is a reason we have a legal system. When the cops take it upon themselves to execute someone on the spot, they subvert that system. They need to be reminded of that.
Scott S.
@Knowbody: Racist, Zandar-obsessed troll says what?
Thoughtcrime
@Germy Shoemangler:
Driving with a black pate is what got him pulled over.
Kathleen
@Dan: Also, too, Charlie Luken (mayor at that time) was an abysmal failure.
C.V. Danes
@Gin & Tonic: Seriously. What’s next, getting gunned down by mall cops?
Zandar
@Kathleen: Yeah, everything I’ve heard about this makes me think the video must be blatant on the part of the UC cop, and that the entire traffic stop was nonsense.
For my part, I think Chief Blackwell is sincere.
Dan
@Kathleen:
oh, no doubt. Luken left that meeting and put a very young and inexperienced Craneley in charge of shepherding an extremely volatile situation. It went poorly.
different-church-lady
Hmmm… my hope expressed at #9 is now tempered by the realization that it’s “someone else’s cop” that’s gonna go down. If this creep were genuine CPD I doubt they’d be signaling that he’s gonna get hit by the bus so readily.
Zandar
UC is cancelling classes today starting at 11 AM.
Things are moving fast ahead of that 1 PM Hamilton Co. prosecutor presser.
Kathleen
@Zandar: I agree. I also want to point out that the fact a Cincinnati police officer was killed by a young African American man in Madisonville (suicide by cop) did not become a national story either. The young man and his family were not demonized by the police or at least some in the news media (I watched channel 5). The young man’s parents said he understood why the police did what they did. Also, Channel 5 provided interviewed community activists to provide context for the problems they’re having with young people and guns. Chief Blackwell credited the young man’s mother for helping make the situation not as bad as it could have been. And the policeman who was killed loved the community, felt his duty as a cop was to serve people, and taught karate to kids.
A very sad, tragic loss on so many levels.
Kathleen
@Dan: Yes! I didn’t vote for Cranley (streetcar position) but he definitely gets the importance of good relations between police and the community and actively courted the African American vote. He and Council (and many others in the city) are actively working to remove the stain of racial intolerance which, sadly, has been to much a part of its heritage.
Yatsuno
@Knowbody: Bitter ex is bitter. Didn’t you get smacked around already?
Patricia Kayden
@different-church-lady: Ignore him. He’s not worth your blood pressure. And this is not a third-tier blog. BJ is top dog.
artem1s
@Germy Shoemangler:
Ohio requires front and back plates. It’s a pretty typical ticket trap in OH for cops to troll for missing plates in OH then look for additional charges like lack of insurance, seat belts and what not.
Zandar
Now this:
debbie
@artem1s:
I’m in central Ohio, and I see a fair number of cars without front plates attached or on the dashboard.
debbie
@Zandar:
That’s an even stupider move, if there could be one. It’s now obvious something bad went on and they think keeping a lid on the tape for an extra day would be a good idea?
JPL
@Zandar: If the video disputes the officer’s account, he should have been arrested immediately without the grand jury convening.
coin operated
@Knowbody:
Are you a jilted ex-lover or something?
I used to reserve that level of animosity for ex-lovers…then I grew the fuck up.
rikyrah
I heard this story and it just made me sad.
Eric S.
@Germy Shoemangler: “I see cars all the time with no front plates.”
The law varies state to state. Illinois definitely requires a front plate. My mother lives in Cinci and has one so I’m assuming Ohio does as well.
gvg
@Germy Shoemangler: “Why does a campus officer care if a man is missing his front plate? Also, I thought that was legal; I thought it was the rear plate that had to be on display at all times.”
Some states require front plates just like back plates. I knew that vaguely but just looked it up. turns out most states do, just not mine and per the top hit on google I found it’s normal to assume that which ever way you are used to, is how it is elsewhere.
https://www.cars.com/articles/2013/10/how-many-states-require-front-license-plates/ 31 require it. Apparently the requirement gets people mad because its not just an extra cost for the 2nd plate but is used by various automatic ticket and billing systems such as catching people running tolls or not paying parking garages. It also makes people angry for aesthetic reasons which seems kind of too much to me but whatever. Ohio requires them. I assume its some kind of ticket.
I have never heard what the legal issues are for someone out of state driving into a 2 plate requiring state. I will guess it is ok as I am sure we would have heard if that was a ticket.
jon
Another slam dunk case? Nobody ever fucks that up.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@artem1s: CA does too. I’ve never had a front plate, been driving for 32 years. My wife’s most recent car doesn’t even have a spot for one. Neither one of us has ever been pulled over for it. Neither one of us has been cited for missing front plates even when pulled over for other things.
We are both white and affluent. Do you think that has something to do with the lack of charges? I sure do.
burnspbesq
@Germy Shoemangler:
I can’t speak directly to the situation in Cincy, but it’s not unusual for urban university cops to be fully empowered to police not only the campus but the surrounding neighborhood. When I was at USC, USC Security was the police force in University Park; we never saw the LAPD.
As far as the missing front plate, state laws differ. Ohio may be one of those states where cars are required to have both.
chopper
@Knowbody:
“Mr. Koufax, don’t you think
FlandersZandar is a big jerk?”Elizabelle
Shame about the loss of Samuel Dubose. Had not heard the details. RIP.
Reminds me: have we heard anything about North Charleston cops in trouble for falsifying the Walter Scott police response reports? Obviously, the murders at Mother Emanuel took that off the radar.
Eric S.
@gvg:
It just doesn’t belong there.
burnspbesq
@JPL:
Based on what? Please explain, with specific reference to known facts, how you reached your conclusion that there was probable cause to arrest the officer prior to now.
Allan
@Knowbody: Keep commenting. You’re making a difference!
JPL
@burnspbesq: If the video is as bad, as the Police chief thinks, wouldn’t that be enough evidence?
Roger Moore
@Allan:
Soon, everyone will know the importance of pie!
Frank Wilhoit
[then-Governor] George Voinovich ordered the State Highway Patrol to stop enforcing license plates — rear, that is — in 1994, following a militia incident near Canton — one of those “sovereign citizens” with a little 6×12-inch hand-lettered manifesto on cardboard “I don’t have to obey any of your fucking so-called laws yada yada” instead of a tag. They got stopped and they shot the cop. After that, the militia vehicles were strictly hands-off statewide.
Double standards and all that, but a piece of background.
Kathleen
@burnspbesq: Ohio requires front and back plates, and UC does have jurisdiction over the campus area, which is in the heart of the city. Sometimes the boundary is blurred, but in this case I believe the UC cop was definitely out of his jurisdiction. There was another incident awhile back where UC cop did some egregious shit. But as Zandar pointed out, UC cops do not operate under the same terms of the Collaboration Agreement as Cincinnati police. That agreement came about as a result of the Timothy Thomas shooting in 2001, which led to the “riots” (which I think were not as bad as what some have said, though the Thomas shooting was horrible. Another case in which an African American male was being chased for bench warrants having nothing to do with violent crimes.)
mark
I’m here in cincy, am not white, and work with MANY police officers daily. just want to point out, they have been quick and vocal that this was a UC cop, not Cincinnati Police, and liken them to folks like the Amberly Police Department. they know police are police in the eyes of the public, but it’s well known UC police are a different breed….
Kathleen
@Frank Wilhoit: Thank you. I did not know that. Sadly, it does not surprise me. But as I said earlier in the thread, I’m surprised that even my typical West Side Cincinnati Republican neighbors are calling foul on this one.
catclub
@NorthLeft12:
This makes sense. And if an indictment is coming, and they know it, why are they still expecting demonstrations that verge onto lawlessness? From white policemen?
Now if NO indictment is coming, AND the video is horrible – then it would pay to be very prepared for demonstrations. This explains better, to me.
Kathleen
@mark: Right. I know there was another questionable incident involving a UC cop a few years ago and I can’t find it.
smintheus
Rice St. is a fairly long way off campus. What was a UC police officer doing patrolling city streets and pulling over a driver for a license plate violation off campus?
Roger Moore
@catclub:
Maybe they feel there’s enough underlying tension that anything could set the city off, and they’re afraid that even an indictment won’t be enough to mollify people once they see the video. I think that’s generally the case with rioting. The riot is always a response to a larger pattern, and the incident that people are nominally rioting about is just a trigger. You don’t want to play with matches when you’re standing on a tinder pile.
Kay Klingman
I haven’t read all of the post yet, nor any of the comments. I jsut wanted to get my chit in for “trace amounts” of marijuana in Samuel DuBose’s body. And I’m sure he was “no angel”. And he probably wasn’t as obsequious to the policeman as he should have been. And… well, you get the picture. All his fault. Couldn’t be helped. Just one of those things. It wasn’t About Race because, as Charlie Pierce says, it’s Never About Race.
Meepers
I happen to know Santa Ono from a previous academic appointment. While he’s a nice person, and making all the right noises with turning down yearly bonuses, etc etc, I don’t expect any major changes to fall out from this. That said, I’d be extremely happy to be wrong.
Another Holocene Human
@burnspbesq: Yeah. And it’s bullshit.
The campus cops are wayyyyy worse than the city cops here and that’s saying something. And you always see them pulling somebody over well off campus for no discernible reason and somehow the driver is always Black.
They harassed a coworker of mine for 45 minutes over some untrue bullshit. The man is a pastor.
Fuck state university cops!
Kathleen
@smintheus: Good question. The incident happened in Mt. Auburn (about 4 minute from downtown) and the UC campus is in Clifton. They’re not that far (I run between them all the time) but it’s definitely not even part of the UC business district adjacent to the campus. I see Cincinnati Police patrol that area all the time.
Kathleen
@Meepers: I think he will get a lot of pressure from the city to have the police adopt the Collaborative Agreement which, especially given Cincinnati’s sorry past history of race relations, has worked fairly well all things considered.
Another Holocene Human
@Frank Wilhoit: What the actual fuck.
And that’s why they call it the Invisible Empire.
smintheus
@Kathleen: Yes, I know the area. I taught at UC for a few years a decade ago.
And there seemed like there was enough trouble right on campus to keep the University police busy. I once saw a guy wandering along in front of campus with a bleeding head; he’d just been shot, maybe accidentally, but still it left an impression.
Meepers
@Kathleen: I think he’s susceptible to pressure, based on my recollections of him, but I don’t anticipate he’d initiate a lot of sweeping reform. He’s a good person and I think he’d do the right thing, especially if it were already laid out for him to agree with.
Scott S.
@Frank Wilhoit: Good grief, any governor who takes an incident like that and reacts by saying “Ohh, they’re too tough for us, let them all go” instead “Time to wipe out a bunch of sovereign citizen assholes” deserves to get beaten up by six-year-olds.
Kathleen
@Meepers: Adopting the agreement would be a good first step. Thanks for the insight. I don’t know much about him or UC (I’m not a native and did not go to school here).
Another Holocene Human
WTFITS
Btw storeowners, if you have paraphernalia like this in your store, I will not be spending my money there and I will make sure as many people as possible in my circle do not as well. Sadly, there still are a lot of violently racist asshats with money out there so hope you enjoy your new clientele.
Kathleen
@smintheus: Do you still live here? Crime is pretty bad around the campus so it would behoove them to worry more about that.
Cacti
@Eric S.:
I’ve lived 3 states that required front and back plates, and 2 states that required back plates only. The split nationally is 31 front and rear/19 rear only.
A car w/o a front plate could easily be one from another state, and if a cop takes the time to check both your front and back plates, they’re trolling for a ticky-tack reason to pull you over.
It’s especially ticky-tack in Ohio, when just across the river is Kentucky, a rear-only license plate State.
Calouste
@Eric S.: Say what?
http://www.porsche.com/
Kathleen
UPDATE – Deters releasing video today after DuBose family has finished viewing it.
Ohio Mom
@Gindy51: I think you’ll be fine at either Costco, they are both a good twenty miles out in the suburbs. I am Blue Ash and am not expecting my day to be impacted at all. But then I grew up in New York City in the 60’s and 70’s, so I am not a stranger to um, civil unest.
Zandar
@debbie: Looks like somebody at City Hall figured that out and made some phone calls.
burnspbesq
@JPL:
I haven’t seen it (and, I suspect, neither have you), so I’m not going to speculate.
? Martin
@Kathleen: If it’s like the campus police here, the police may be employed by the university but they are sworn officers to the city PD which means that they carry the same responsibilities as the city PD. Our campus PD also patrols areas where a lot of our students live, etc. off campus. They exist in part to soak up a lot of the college-level activity (parties, etc) to not distract the city PD proper too much and they often apply a bit of a lighter touch in those cases. Consider the difference in response between a UMich post-game sofa burning riot and something like Ferguson. They each present a pretty similar threat, but the police response is completely different (whether and how different is a valid point of argument).
Now, that of course will vary from school/city. I live in a very low-crime area with a quite good city PD budget so there’s a VERY soft touch here, plenty of officers, good relationship between city and campus, and relatively low stress all around. One common problem area is when the city cuts resources and expects the campus to pick up the slack. Might be seeing something like that in Cincy.
Another Holocene Human
Indian woman dies in custody as jailers ignore her cries of pain.
Starfish
Steve Jobs didn’t have any license plates.
JPL
@burnspbesq: Agree.
different-church-lady
@Starfish: If there had been a requirement for him to have a plate, there’s a solid chance we’d all be driving around with digital iPlates right now.
Kathleen
@? Martin: Martin, I think there have been other issues with UC cops relative to citizens who are not students. There was another questionable incident involving a UC cop a few years ago and I can’t find it.I think the cop was not in jurisdiction. UC has had a lot of crime issues in the last year. Don’t know if UC cops are “trolling” for “suspects” or just being assholes.
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: If any video, once watched by law enforcement, shows the officer just executing someone (shot to back of head while they are kneeling with arms on head or something like that), then I’m sure you would agree that immediate arrest is the only valid step that can/should be taken.
smintheus
@Kathleen: No, I only lived there while teaching at UC.
Eric S.
@Calouste: You and your silly modern Porsches. :)
It seems that a lot of cars from European manufacturers are well designed for the long narrow European plate. The wider U.S. plate doesn’t fit well and often requires a bracket to be screwed into the bumper.
For that matter many U.S. cars aren’t well equipped for a front plate either. My 2005 Caddy didn’t have a spot designated for a license plate. Corvettes have never had one that I can recall.
Note, I’m not saying the front plate requirements are good or bad, just a lot of cars aren’t designed to easily accept the plate.
JPL
@Paul in KY: We’ll find out soon.
burnspbesq
@Paul in KY:
Assumes approximately a metric fcukton of facts not in evidence.
evodevo
@Another Holocene Human: Welcome to the conservative sense of humor !! Sixth grade locker room bully level of jokes, Hee Haw level, jokes that are cruel or demeaning, or in this case, downright nasty. I don’t know why, but none of my conservative friends have any sense of parody or satire either – I guess that’s why very few of them “got” Colbert.
Paul in KY
@JPL: It’s probably not that blatant. Just trying to see if there are limits under which he could see the officer being immediately arrested.
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: It’s a hypothetical, silly lawyer. I thought lawyers dealt with hypotheticals.
the Conster
Murder indictment
SteveKnNKY
Wow, there are a lot of Greater Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky folks that read this blog.
JPL
The prosecutor is obviously upset. The officer fell backwards after he shot Dubose in the head and was never dragged.
It was murder.
Kathleen
Police officer indicted for murder.
rikyrah
Follow
Brandon SahoVerified account
@BrandonSaho
#BREAKING University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing INDICTED for murder in shooting death of #SamDubose.
Patricia Kayden
@Another Holocene Human: So sad. It’s draining how many people of color die in jail on petty charges.
Patricia Kayden
@Kathleen: Good.
J R in WV
Finally, one would say, except that the video in N Charleston SC also resulted in this action. Multiple cops getting indicted, tried and convicted is what American needs to happen.
Cops need to know they can’t just shoot someone when the cop gets upset or emotional.
Botsplainer
My youngest daughter has interacted with this officer in the past, and tells me he’s a dick.
Happily, she’s working tonight, which will keep her from any riots for now.
Elizabelle
You’ll be happy to know I did not see any coverage of this story on CNN. A piece of aircraft debris has washed up near Madagascar; they’re orgasming over “Could it be MH 370?”
Plus Mullah Omar reported dead.
No reason to cover another dead black dude.
JPL
@Botsplainer: Hopefully, they won’t riot.
Kathleen
@Botsplainer: Deters implied as much. Said he should have never been a police officer.
chopper
@Paul in KY:
burnsie’s a tax lawyer, he’s familiar with different hypotheticals.
Paul in KY
@chopper: You’d think someone as opinionated as Burns would say yea or nay on my hypothetical. Is he that far up the po po’s butt that if there was video of any police officer executing an unarmed person, who is at their mercy, that he would not agree that the police officer should be arrested immediately?!
brantl
@Knowbody: I think I speak for many here when I say honestly and sincerely, GFY.
Carl Nyberg
“We will not tolerate lawlessness [except by cops & prosecutors].”
brantl
@Scott S.: 2nded.
DCinME
I went to college with Cranley and he was a loud mouthed idiot back then so I am not too surprised he hasn’t changed. Douchebag.
West of the Cascades
Good work by this prosecutor not only to get the murder indictment but to handle the video carefully so it didn’t come out ahead of the indictment (good for keeping tensions down, good also to take away any argument by the murderer that the grand jury pool was tainted).
It’s interesting that, rather than guns making everyone more polite, it may be body cams and smartphones that make everyone more polite. Then we can get rid of the guns (and all get unicorns).
coin operated
@Paul in KY: Dude…fucking chill. This isn’t the first time burns has stayed non-committal before evidence was produced.
Just what axe are you grinding today?
Lee
I was curious what that campus email was about…it had no context to it. I didn’t realize till just now that it was because this happened here. I guess Cleveland doesn’t have a monopoly on Ohio-based bullshit.
Paul in KY
@coin operated: I don’t give a crap what he has stayed ‘noncommittal’ on before I gave my hypothetical. He went to Duke, should have the balls to agree/disagree here.
What are you, his counselor?