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#SamDuBose: The videos that should have been released first | #BlackLivesMatter on Blog#42

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The Sam DuBose videos first released by Prosecutor Deters don’t show as much as what was released in the days following Deters’ press conference. See this unedited video:

Then, the UK’s Guardian newspaper published the following:

SynchedBodyCamDuBoseSamuel DuBose: body-camera video shows 360-degree view of police killing

Thursday, July 30, 2015

A synced-up video of body camera footage from three University of Cincinnati police officers – Ray Tensing, Phillip Kidd and David Lindenschimdt – reveals the dramatic aftermath of the police shooting of a 43-year-old unarmed black man.

It shows that both officers were behind Tensing at the time he shot DuBose, but both backed claims the officer had been ‘dragged’. These claims were used to justify the shooting, but were later dismissed as false by the county prosecutor who charged Tensing with murder. Kidd and Lindenschimdt have also been placed on leave

Then, there came news that the two officers with Ray Tensing will not be prosecuted in spite of the fact that not only did they corroborate Tensing’s story, but they, themselves, have been involved in police brutality incidents of their own. According to the LA Times:

Two University of Cincinnati police officers who arrived on the scene seconds after a white colleague fatally shot an unarmed black man will not face charges of lying about what they saw, prosecutors said Friday.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters said the two officers, who are on paid administrative leave from their university jobs, were “truthful and honest” about what they saw during formal interviews with authorities after the July 19 shooting of Samuel DuBose during a traffic stop.

The announcement came as a video surfaced showing the shooter, Officer Raymond Tensing, repeatedly insisting he had fired in self-defense. Another video emerged Friday on YouTube, showing Tensing in a verbal confrontation with a passenger and a driver during an otherwise routine 2014 traffic stop.

The same grand jury cleared his colleagues, whose body cameras captured the confusion after the shooting, as DuBose lay dead in the driver’s seat and officers began flooding the scene, asking one another what had happened. […]

The second video that appeared Friday brought complaints from another black driver, who raised questions about Tensing’s professionalism. Sexton Henley, 27, of Cincinnati, said Tensing escalated a routine traffic stop by demanding identification from a passenger and opening a passenger’s door.

Henley said he was stopped by University of Cincinnati police around 2 a.m. on May 5, 2014, for having a damaged bumper that was hanging too low.

After Henley provided identification to a different officer, he said, Tensing, who was standing by the passenger door, asked for identification from Henley’s passenger.

After the passenger refused to provide anything except his first name, Henley said, Tensing spooked the men by opening the door, which is when the passenger started recording the incident. […]

Read the full article on 2 backup officers at Samuel DuBose shooting scene won’t be charged at the LA Times

Officers at Sam DuBose scene involved in death of another unarmed black man

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Two police officers who corroborated a seemingly false account of the fatal shooting of Samuel DuBose in Cincinnati were previously implicated in the death of an unarmed, hospitalised and mentally ill black man who died after he was “rushed” by a group of seven University of Cincinnati police officers.

Kelly Brinson, a 45-year-old mental health patient at Cincinnati’s University hospital, suffered a psychotic episode on 20 January 2010 and was placed inside a seclusion room at the hospital by UC officers. He was then shocked with a Taser three times by an officer and placed in restraints. The father of one – son Kelly Jr – then suffered a respiratory cardiac arrest and died three days later.

In court documents obtained by the Guardian and filed by Brinson’s family in a civil suit against UC police and the hospital, all seven officers are accused of using excessive force and “acted with deliberate indifference to the serious medical and security needs of Mr Brinson”.

According to the lawsuit, before Brinson was placed in restraints he “repeatedly yelled that slavery was over and he repeatedly pleaded not to be shackled and not to be treated like a slave”.

Five years before University of Cincinnati officers Eric Weibel and Phillip Kidd corroborated the seemingly false account of an officer now charged with murder, they helped as Kelly Brinson was shocked and shackled. […]

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