Posted on 07/31/2015 7:03:21 AM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
A car can be used as a weapon, but he was not using the car as a weapon at the time he was shot.
This case boils down to one piece of old wisdom for me.
Don’t pull out your gun unless you intend to shoot.
There was no reason that I can see from that video for the cop to draw his weapon.
A gun is not a negotiating tool.
I have seen other incidents of drivers attempting to flee where the police taser them in their cars, but they don’t shoot them in the head with a pistol.
I still tend to think that the shot was an accidental discharge. But the man is dead as a result, and the cop is going to have to answer for that round he fired, he is responsible for it.
And as I understand it, there is no distinction in Ohio regarding murder charges, so the cop is in trouble to be sure.
It looked like the guy was taking his seat belt off when the shot was fired and then he drove off. If I saw that correctly-— this was a trigger happy cop.
Here's an even more novel idea, apparently. Have police follow procedures relating to deadly force and don't try and lie their way out of it.
DuBose was of no threat to the officer or anyone else. There is no evidence he was armed. There is no evidence he tried to harm the officer. Running away from a stop shouldn't be a capital offense. The officer should have called it in and then get back in his car and pursue. He had no justification in shooting him.
Hey, here's a novel idea. Police only use deadly force when their life or others are in danger...
Samuel DuBose should have, could have, doesn't matter.
He never put the campus cop in danger, cop executed him. plain and simple...
He could have been easily picked up later or the campus cop could have followed him in his patrol car, they had his rear tag information...
I understand that, and came to the same conclusion in the post you replied to. The first rationale doesn't appear to hold water, plus it is weak because the video appears to make all three living witnesses out to be liars.
-- Yes, go to court on that defense. See how well he does. --
It has a better chance than going to court on the easily falsifiable fabrication of "I was being dragged." Not saying it's a good chance, just a better one.
Cops are usually better liars than this. This department needs more training.
Yeah. Chris Rock told you exactly what to do.
But seriously, if that @$$wipe State Police quitter had been making off campus stops and elsewise showing himself a chickenshit wannabe of the worst kind, give him the exact justice that’s coming to him. I’m all for the cops, until they become rude, hardass, trigger happy blights on the reputation of REAL police....like the scum that beat up Sandra Bland.
The possibility always exists, intentional or accidental, when the firearm is out, safety off, and finger on the trigger.
Tensing went down. He had his hand/partial arm in car grabbing the steering wheel.
Perp took off, Tenging fired as he was falling.
IMO the worst charge should be a lesser manslaughter.
BTW, what is the common thread running through these officer involved shootings?
Resisting arrest. Just do what the officer tells you and get over it.
The woman last week would likely gotten a ticket if she had just kept her mouth shut but noooooo, she has to piss off the officer, resist . Try to exercise her status as a special segment of society.
And to be clear, I think the choked out guy in NY selling singles was waaay over the top and the officers should be prosecuted.
I'd just add, there are two ways to answer that question.
Can they do it? Yes. And if they hit you, you will be seriously injured or dead.
If they do it, will the courts side with the cops? That's a fact intensive inquiry, but it is strongly biased in favor of the state.
“Can they shoot me just because I drive away from a traffic stop?”
If you did this Florida, I wouldn’t rule it out of the question.
(half sarcasm)
The video shows the card opening into the cop and plowing him down.
And if that doesn't scare people about some police being out of control then it should.
I watched it several times and what I saw was this:
Dubose becomes uncooperative and the cop moves to open the door. Dubose puts his hand on the door to keep it from being opened and moves to start the car, or shift it to drive. Cop tries to grab Dubose’s far hand to stop him and also has a gun pointed at Dubose. Based on the cops angle at the time of the shot the car couldn’t have moved more than a couple of inches, if at all, when Dubose was shot.
I think what is most likely is that the cop drew his pistol when Dubose became argumentative, practiced poor trigger control, and fired when surprised by the movement of the car. Still a crime but with mitigating circumstances.
Unfortunately that is the case. As in this case you have two cops lying to protect the third. But fortunately in this case you have the unbiased witness of the body cam that clarifies the matter.
Where I come from - 'citizens' do not have 60 plus arrests, 13 children by god knows how many baby mama's, drive drunk with suspended licenses, disobey legal and prudent LEO orders and attempt to flee with a gun pointed at their head.
At best, this cop might be guilty of falsifying a police report.
But simply because DuBose was black, it's now a huge racist issue. And because Tensing was a cop, the FR "Cops are scum" crowd is blathering on and on and - in effect - are no better than the Black Lives Matter thugs who are also blind to the realities.
No, at worst he is guilty of 2nd-degree murder, which is not a death-penalty offense.
Could this be a case of micro aggression on the part of the driver? I have heard this term used by collegiate type “thinkers” but dismissed as bogus. But if it is true it should be all the time.
Thank you for this second by second breakdown of the facts. I’ve never seen anything that so clearly proves that Tensing was dragged, but was after a few seconds able to fire before he was knocked to the ground.
This clearly proves Tensing didn’t “accidently” fire his weapon and most certainly proves that he was assaulted with a deadly weapon.
"Fortunate" or "unfortunate" depends on whose ox is being gored. With better training, the cops will learn to be better liars, and choose a lie that is not easily falsifiable. The courts will have their backs. But, when the lie is easily falsifiable, the cops make it tough for the courts to give cover.
FWIW, we live in a society where violence by cops is the norm, and lying is an approved legal strategy. That's reality. Adjust yourself to it, or risk serious injury or death by cop.
If you think the lesson that cops draw from this is to be less trigger happy, you are wrong. The lesson is to learn to be better liars, to choose a lie that is difficult to falsify.
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