WHAT THE… I GIVE UP
Post Hurr
icane Katrina, at a fundraiser for the victims of the devastating storm which hammered New Orleans in 2005, Kanye West exhorted, “George Bush (U.S. President at the time) don’t like Black people.”
Real or perceived, that’s how Kanye felt at the time, given what was perceived by the victims of the disaster in New Orleans—many or most of whom were Black people—as the federal government’s seeming indifference to the urgency of the situation and the victims’ plight.
So, watching the news a couple weeks ago and seeing another Black male being gunned down, point blank, by another white policeman (the incident took place on July 19), I didn’t know whether I should be sad, angry, frustrated…
Yes, in another case of “self-defense” a 25-year-old white University of Cincinnati policeman, Ray Tensing, shot 43-year-old Samuel Dubose point blank, in his head, because, according to Tensing’s lawyer, he “feared for his life.”
The shooting, during a ‘routine’ traffic stop, had another tragic outcome; something about Dubose, who was driving somewhere in a car missing a front license plate and closing his car door after Tensing opened it (to make his point: that he’s the law). It was nothing less than a gangland-style execution in broad daylight.
This latest case of white police brutality of Black men captured by police body cam has become a routine, almost weekly… monthly incident, police body cam notwithstanding. It suggests that the officers don’t give damn about chants like “Black lives matter.”
White policemen don’t like Black men…
[Incidentally, 28-year-old Black Sandra Bland was lucky (she was a female) when she was pulled over on July 10, by Texas trooper, Brian Encinia in Smalltown, TX, for allegedly “failing to signal while changing lanes…” As we saw on the police video cam words were exchanged, and she failed to comply with his orders to “put out her cigarette… get out of her car…” at which point Encinia brandished his Taser and threatened “I will light you up…” What if he had made a mistake like that cop in Oklahoma back in April and pulled the gun with bullets… In any case, along the way, stuff happened which we don’t see on the police cam. On July 13 Sandra Bland died, er “committed suicide” in a county jail cell. Hmmm…]
White policemen don’t like Black men… Black people. So the killings continue almost with impunity despite all that has been said in the wake of the spate of recent killings.
Again, the evidence of another police murder… is irrefutable, but once again questions are being raised about the chain of events, what really happened. Tensing’s defense team has already began to frame the story (the sequence of events… him “being dragged…feared being run over…feared for his life…”) If he was dragged it’s because he was still holding on to the car when the man with the bullet in his head was dying, his foot pressing the accelerator.
Self defense? See the video and decide.
Said Tensings lawyer in the wake of the shooting and his client’s arraignment on a murder charge, “Nine days ago he was wearing a police uniform, today he’s wearing a prison uniform.”
And two of his University of Cincinnati police colleagues who arrived on the scene (and lied about the incident) will not be charged. Another reason why all police should also be wearing cams to record the truth.
Which is why the victims sister, apparently impressed with the work of attorney Mark O’Mara (a tinge of irony, with a twist?) during the George Zimmerman trial… have commissioned him to represent her family and “make sure we get justice for Samuel…”
Said Mark O’Mara, […] the community has a “right to know” what happened when the unarmed Dubose was killed…after being pulled over for having a missing front license plate.
This bit from O’Mara is interesting, “Some people look and say, “Well, wait a minute, he represented the guy who killed a young Black male and that’s the opposite of what we have here today.” O’Mara said in a radio interview. “Well, honestly, I don’t think it is. I represent people who are within the court system, who are grieved in one way or another…”
The man’s a lawyer; his job is to defend the accused (the innocent and/or the guilty)—Black, white, brown, yellow…
By taking on this latest police murder case (unlike his defense of would-be-policeman George Zimmerman, who was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of Black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin), O’Mara is on the path to redemption. Maybe once this latest murder case goes to trial he will be batting 50-50, making those who were “hating on him” for successfully representing George Zimmerman less angry.
Here’s what the County prosecuting attorney, Joseph T. Deters, said about the shooting: “Mr. Dubose did not act aggressively or pose a threat to Officer Ray Tensing, and that Officer Tensing had lied about being dragged by Mr. Dubose’s car. A grand jury, Mr. Deters announced, indicted the officer on a murder charge, punishable by life in prison, and a voluntary manslaughter charge.
“It was a senseless, asinine shooting,” he said at a news conference, in denouncing the July 19 killing, the officer’s claims and the officer himself. “[…] People don’t get shot for a traffic stop… Officer Tensing “should never have been a police officer…I think he lost his temper because Mr. Dubose wouldn’t get out of his car…”
Wonder if Kanye’s feelings about the police today are the same way he felt about George Bush back in 2005.
