OPINION

Opinion: If not for video, a different truth

Byron McCauley
bmccauley@enquirer.com

Milford resident Byron McCauley is an Enquirer community content coach and editorial board member.

Those inclined to give a police officer the benefit of the doubt might have believed University of Cincinnati Officer Ray Tensing was dragged by Sam DuBose's car, that Tensing's life was in danger, and that he had no choice but to protect himself.

But for the video.

A family might have lost its son, father and uncle at the hands of a police officer and been victimized twice. Once, because the legacy of a man they described as kind and charismatic would have been tarnished by a false accusation. Another, because the family would have to live with unanswered questions.

But for the video.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters might not have been able to stage an extraordinary Wednesday press conference announcing a murder indictment against an on-duty police officer for a shooting he called "asinine," "senseless" and "without question, a murder."

Without question, a murder.

I fought back tears as I watched the video of the incident. Tears because DuBose reminded me of one of my favorite uncles from Louisiana, the one who I'm told prayed for my life when I arrived home as a 4.6 pound preemie – tenderhearted but rough about the edges, loved by his friends and doted on by his family. He had been pulled over often. He had been arrested. He even served a little time. He and his friends spoke of harassment by police, but there were no cameras back then.

Tears for every African-American man with a story like DuBose's that was not recorded.

The video shows Dubose trying to answer the rapid-fire questions from Tensing. He handed Tensing an unopened bottle of liquor in his confusion. The questions continued. A driver's license was demanded, repeatedly. More confusion.

"I didn't even do nothing." DuBose pleaded.

More questions. An angry cop. A black man stopped while driving a car with a missing front license plate.

A "chicken crap" reason to pull a person over, Deters said in the press conference.

A single gunshot to the head.

These are among the greatest fears of an African-American man – to be arrested for a crime you did not commit or abused by law enforcement and not be believed, or not live to tell it at all.

As a boy who grew up in the Deep South, I know the fear that can become seared into your psyche based on our history of domestic terrorism.

At some point, we all learned the Emmett Till story. He was a 14-year-old Chicago boy visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi. As the story goes, he allegedly whistled at or flirted with a white woman in a store. Days later, Till was kidnapped from the home he was staying in, tortured, shot in the head and sunk to the bottom of the Tallahatchie River. His mother chose to show the world his damaged body at his funeral, an image that sparked the Civil Rights Movement.

All my life, I have been a defender of law enforcement, even to the point that some of my acquaintances call me naïve. I have never been stopped by law enforcement without cause. I have never been arrested. I have terrific relationships with friends of all races in law enforcement. It would be unfair to lump one officer's actions in with those well-trained professionals who serve and protect every day.

However, it's important to acknowledge the experiences of some of my family members, friends and others have been different. Those who are raising little African-American boys can seem especially perplexed, having to decide when to have "the talk," or to allow their boys to have their innocence for a little while longer.

But for that video camera, a moment of unspeakable violence might have been passed off as a good cop doing his job.

And today's conversation would have been a whole lot different.