Jordan Edwards & Cops Using Cars As License to Kill

Jordan Edwards, shot & killed by Balch Springs PD

Given the high profile announcements of bold policy changes from America's revamped Department of Justice over the past few weeks, the DOJ's silence in recent days has been deafening.

Particularly in the wake of the shocking death of 15-year-old Mesquite High School freshman Jordan Davis late Saturday evening in Texas at the hands of police officer Roy Oliver.



As multiple media outlets, including the Dallas News, are reporting, Jordan was one of what witnesses said were about a hundred teenagers who were attending a party at the home of a woman named Lisa Roberson on Saturday night in Balch Springs, Texas about 15 miles from Dallas.

Roberson was out of town, and like millions of other American teens (including your's truly) have done on occasion, her son threw a party.

But problems arose when large numbers of teens began milling about in neighbor's driveways on Baron Drive, and a resident named Dora Daniels called police because she was concerned about underage drinking.

When members of the Balch Springs PD arrived, teens naturally began scattering and at some point multiple witnesses heard what sounded like gun shots - which, given the conservative Republican-majority Texas state legislature's efforts to allow people to openly carry firearms virtually anywhere in public, isn't all that surprising.

Hearing the shots, Jordan Edwards, his two brothers Vidal and Kevon and two other friends jumped in a car and tried to drive away, but according to witnesses, a Balch Springs PD officer Roy Oliver approached the vehicle and was heard cursing loudly before he fired three shots from a rifle into the passenger side window - striking Davis in the head and killing him.

Edwards two brothers and their two other friends were roughly handcuffed and arrested as their brother and friend lay bleeding in the front seat of the vehicle.

Heartbroken parents Charmaine and Odell Edwards
at a press conference on Monday 

The specifics of this latest example of excessive use of force by police against a young unarmed man are painfully familiar to most Americans.

Jordan Edwards wasn't committing a crime.

He was unarmed and he'd done absolutely nothing to threaten or harm anyone, including the police officer who shot him in the head with a rifle.

The officer who shot him initially tried a tactic familiar to Americans too:


He lied to investigators to try and make it seem like he "feared for his personal safety" in order to try and justify taking the life of an unarmed American child.

The unnamed officer's initial claims that the car in which Edwards and his friends were driving had reversed and was somehow moving towards him in an "aggressive manner" were publicly, and to the Balch Springs PD's credit, quickly dismissed as bogus.

As Liam Stack and Christine Hauser reported in the New York Times yesterday, Balch Springs PD police chief Jonathan Haber announced that a review of video evidence showed that the car in which Edwards and his friends were driving was moving away from officer Oliver when he fired the fatal shots - not towards him.

Sound familiar? It should.

Remember back in July of 2015 when Seneca (South Carolina) PD lieutenant Mark Tiller shot and killed 19-year-old Zachary Hammond in the parking lot of a local Hardee's after the kid tried to drive away in the wake of a buy and bust operation?

19-year-old Zachary Hammond 

Hammond's 23-year-old date had unknowingly sold a small bag of weed to an undercover cop, when Lt. Tiller ran up to the vehicle with his pistol drawn, the poor kid panicked and tried to drive away.

Tiller fatally shot Hammond in the back and in the side, claiming he'd been forced to kill Hammond in self-defense because he feared the scared 19-year-old was going to run him over.


But a 42-second clip of police dashboard video of the incident showed that Hammond's vehicle was not only slowly trying to drive away, Tiller actually made multiple efforts to put himself in front of the vehicle.

Watch it for yourself, does that look like Hammond is purposefully trying to run Tiller over?

I'm not saying it was right for Hammond to try and flee, but neither was Tiller's decision to shoot and kill a scared kid who obviously terrified of being busted with weed in the car - he didn't deserve to be shot for that.

Investigators eventually ruled that Tiller had acted in self defense and he faced no charges.

The very same week that Hammond was shot in South Carolina back in July of 2015, the world was reacting in horror to the video footage of former University of Cincinnati campus police officer Ray Tensing shooting unarmed motorist Samuel Dubose in the head at point blank range while the motorist had his hands in the air.

Tensing, who was famously wearing a black t-shirt with a Confederate battle flag on it under his uniform when he pulled Dubose over for a missing license plate, initially told investigators that he'd been forced to shoot Dubose because the driver was dragging him along with his car.

But body-cam footage showed that the only reason that Dubose's car was moving was because Tensing had inexplicably shot the man in the head, forcing Dubose to slump forward and hit the accelerator.

Balch Springs PD officer Roy Oliver

While nothing can be done to bring back the victims of these flagrant and totally unjustified uses of deadly force, the rapidly expanding use of video technology on police vehicle dashboards and on the officers themselves is slowly starting to shed light on the propensity of some members of law enforcement to try and shield wrongdoing behind false allegations that a driver was trying to use a car to hurt or kill them.

The speed with which Balch Springs PD chief Jonathan Haber has moved to expose Roy Oliver's lies and fire him from the force is a clear indicator that, to a degree, technology is helping to pierce the Blue Wall of Silence that has shielded some members of law enforcement from facing responsibility for their actions.

But it's not just technology in this case.

After the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and so many other young unarmed Americans, there's also a growing recognition taking place.

Not just amongst the families of the victims, but also amongst law enforcement professionals, judges, local and city officials and the public at large that something is dangerously wrong with the way that some cops interact with young men.

But in the case of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, it's also the character of the young man himself that's led to the swift removal of Roy Oliver from the force for his actions last Saturday night.

The Mesquite High School body and the Texas community in which he and his family lived has been devastated by his death.

This is a kid who was a straight A student with an excellent GPA, and a great personality who was also a gifted student-athlete who was just getting ready to start a new football season and an exciting new chapter in his life.

This was a kid who'd left an impact on people he knew, including the Mesquite HS football coach who said of Edwards:

"You create a checklist of everything you would want in a player, a son, a teammate, a friend and Jordan had all that. He was that kid." 

There must be consequences for taking that away without just cause or reason, but as the Edwards' family attorney Lee Merritt said in response to the news of Oliver being fired, that's not enough.

The road to justice for Jordan Edwards, his family, his friends and his community is going to be a long one, and there won't be any help from Jeff Sessions' Department of Justice - so it's going to be up to the local and state courts to hold Oliver accountable for his actions.

In the meantime, instead of a high school freshman roster, Jordan Edwards joins the tragic list of the The Counted in America.

Justice for Sam Dubose & Ray Tensing's T-Shirt

Ray Tensing (left) and victim Samuel Dubose

Donald Trump's latest stream-of- consciousness Tweet this morning suggesting that people should be jailed or loose their citizenship for burning the American flag offers a troubling glimpse of the president-elect's views on Constitutional protections.

Particularly given that the Supreme Court has firmly established that burning the American flag is protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of expression.

So what's going to become of the growing nationwide calls for more police accountability for officers who use excessive and deadly force in situations where it's unjustified?

Considering that Trump's pick to head the EPA denies the existence of climate change, his pick to head the Dept. of Education supported a law to allow child labor, and his pick to head the Department of Justice opposes both voting rights and civil rights, it's fair to ask how the incoming administration and F.B.I. are going approach the slew of unjustified killings of unarmed innocent people of color by police in this country.

How will a Trump administration impact egregious police brutality cases on the local and state level?

For example, will justice ever be served for the senseless and violent death of Samuel Dubose in Cincinnati at the hands of an overzealous campus cop back in 2015?

After the first trial ended with a deadlocked jury earlier this month, earlier today a new judge, Hamilton County (Ohio) Common Pleas Judge Leslie Ghiz, was assigned to the case.

Her first decision will be to rule on the prosecutor's request for a retrial in a new location.

Judge Leslie Ghiz replaces Judge
Megan Shanahan

According to an article posted on Cincinnati.com this afternoon, Ghiz is a non-nonsense Republican former Cincinnati City Councilwoman and assistant prosecutor who is respected by attorneys and has a reputation for handing down tough sentences.

As an assistant prosecutor she was known as being a friend of  law enforcement, but that's generally true for any prosecutor.

Will she grant the motion for Tensing's retrial?

Millions of people watched the video of former University of Cincinnati campus police officer Ray Tensing shooting Samuel Dubose in the head at point blank range while the unarmed motorist was in the driver's seat of his vehicle with his hands raised over his head.


Last year I posted a blog on July 30th to try and make sense of the outrage I felt at seeing yet another unarmed man of color shot and killed by a law enforcement officer for no reason.

The facts of this flagrant case of excessive use of force remain as troubling as they were confusing when the incident happened last July 19th when Tensing stopped Dubose for not displaying a front license plate properly.

Based on the audio and images taken from Tensing's body-cam the two appeared to be having a relatively civil discussion over Dubose wearing his seatbelt when Tensing suddenly pulls out his gun, points it at Dubose's head and fires - killing him instantly.

Watch this three-minute edited version of the body-cam video of the moments leading up to the shooting for yourself - does it appear that Dubose is in any way even remotely acting aggressive towards Tensing?

And don't worry, the actual shooting portion is so shaky that it's too difficult to actually see the gunshot to the head - but you can hear it.

Ray Tensing shoots unarmed Sam Dubose in
the head while his hands are raised.

Video still frames (pictured left) definitively showed that Dubose was seated behind the wheel with his hands in the air when Tensing fired the shot.

Totally contradicting Tensing's initial bogus claim that Dubose was attempting to drive away and that Tensing was being dragged and was forced to shoot Dubose to save his life.

It's hard to see it in the video, but look at the image, both of Dubose's hands are in the air at the moment Tensing fires his gun.

Tensing's attempt to use the same ambiguous rationale so often used by members of law enforcement who shoot and kill unarmed people for no discernible reason, that he feared for his life, was not only contradicted by the video evidence, his motivation for shooting Dubose was also called into question based on a strange piece of evidence that wasn't revealed until the case went to court.

During the course of the trial, prosecutor Joe Deters revealed to the stunned courtroom that when Tensing followed, stopped and then shot and killed Dubose, he was wearing a t-shirt under his police uniform with an image of the Confederate battle flag on it and the words "Great Smoky Mountains".

Does the fact that Tensing was wearing a t-shirt with the image of a Confederate battle flag on it under his uniform during the unjustified shooting death of an unarmed African-American man pulled over for minor civil infraction serve as some kind of "smoking gun"?

T-shirt Tensing wore when he shot Samuel Dubose

Not in a court of law, no.

But it does call into question the issue of motive for the shooting; particularly given the fact that Tensing was a campus police officer.

Take a look at the t-shirt (pictured left), we live in a free country and campus police officers can certainly wear what they want to; regardless of what any of us think.

But members of law enforcement, be they campus police officers or real cops, must be held to a higher standard given that they are licensed to carry and use firearms.

Given that members of law enforcement are expected to perform their jobs with a degree of objectivity and fairness, does it seem right for an on-duty officer to wear a t-shirt with a Confederate battle flag on it?

What if the t-shirt had a swastika on it?

Or how do you think that same jury would have voted if Tensing was an African-American campus police officer and Dubose was an unarmed white motorist and it was shown that the officer was wearing a t-shirt with a Black Panther logo or an image of Malcom X on it?

Family & friends of Sam Dubose comfort one
another after his funeral last July. 

From my perspective Tensing certainly has a right to wear that t-shirt on his own time, but by wearing it on duty (even under the uniform), it clearly raises questions about his impartiality as a law enforcement officer.

Unfortunately for Dubose's family, friends and advocates of justice and human rights, a mistrial was recently declared after a jury in Ohio remained deadlocked on whether or not to find Tensing guilty of murder or manslaughter charges.




But prosecutor Joe Deters has been adamant about holding Tensing accountable, and I don't think anyone who watched the video of an unarmed Dubose being shot in the head at point blank rage while his hands were up after being pulled over for an improperly displayed license plate would agree that it's fair that Tensing's first trial ended in a hung jury.

Obviously many people are anxious to hear how Judge Leslie Ghiz rules on the motion for Tensing's retrial, perhaps Samuel Dubose has a better chance of receiving some measure of justice from a judge who runs a tighter courtroom.

According to the Cincinatti.com article, not long after she won her seat on the bench, Judge Ghiz said in a radio interview that she wanted to be known as the "Velvet Hammer"; - we'll see if she lives up her reputation for tough sentences.

For the sake of both justice and human rights, let's hope she does.

Lifting the Blue Shroud of Secrecy

Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell

Last night I watched an extended segment during The Newshour on PBS which summarized the latest on the indictment of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing and his brief courtroom appearance.

If anything positive can come out of unarmed civilian Samuel Dubose's gruesome death, it's that Tensing's reckless and unjustifiable actions took place at a time when what has traditionally been known in America as the 'Blue Wall of Silence' is being dismantled by a combination of reforms in policing, technology and organized peaceful demands for change.

Gwen Ifill's guest on The Newshour  was Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell (pictured above), whose progressive and innovative approach to urban policing has helped transform the department by (in part) reducing instances of CPD officers using excessive and deadly force against citizens, reducing injuries to officers and making policing more transparent by holding members of the force accountable through investigations conducted by a Civilian Complaint Authority and keeping close track of all traffic stops which are taped by an in-car video system.

Blackwell's leadership has earned him respect and national recognition, back on February 13th of this year he outlined his approaches to effective community policing in detail during a presentation in Phoenix, Arizona at the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 

Blackwell not only advocates the mandatory use of body cameras for all police officers, he emphasized that such technology is a critical component of transparent policing, saying:   
"We've got to stop this shroud of secrecy among police officers"

President Obama after meeting with the Policing Task Force

The good news is that efforts at the national level like the President's Task Force, the growing national movement to address inequities in sentencing and the mass incarceration of African-Americans, as well as the many high-profile cases of unjustified police killings that have been so prominent in the media over the past few years, are collectively driving a growing momentum to enact fundamental changes in policing at the local community level in cities across America.

This movement is the product of a lot of work by activist groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, The Campaign to End the New Jim Crow, MoveOn.org, church groups, politicians, as well as journalists and average citizens with the help of the White House and the Department of Justice.

This movement is beginning to tackle a wide range of community policing issues that fall all along the spectrum of police misconduct, from discrepancies in officer-involved shootings to unfair ticketing practices.  

Tampa City Council Chairman Frank Reddick

For example, in an article in The Tampa Tribune yesterday Keith Morelli reported that it was a Department of Justice investigation into the ticketing of African-American bicyclists by the Tampa Police Department that prompted Tampa City Council Chairman Frank Reddick (pictured left) to invite the newly-appointed Chief of the Tampa PD Eric Ward to "come before the Council at its next meeting to talk about the possibility of creating a citizen's review board."

The investigation was prompted after an examination of Tampa PD statistics for 2014 showed that 81% of citations issued to bicyclists in Tampa were given to black bike riders; even though blacks only make up 25% of the Tampa population. 

Former Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor and current Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn initially called for the DOJ to assist in the investigation into the unfair ticketing practices after a rash of complaints by members of the community.

As Morelli reported, the calls for the creation of a citizen's review board with some degree of oversight authority over the Tampa police came from a broad coalition of groups including the Florida chapters of both the ACLU and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

But getting back to the technology angle, it's clear from a number of high-profile cases of excessive use of force by police against unarmed American citizens that video is beginning to lift the shroud of secrecy that has shielded the actions of bad cops who make bad decisions for decades.

The use of video has increased exponentially in this nation, and it was a body camera that prevented former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing from using lies to hide his actions behind the shroud of secrecy that has allowed some police officers in this country to get away with murder by claiming a dead suspect who can't testify on their own behalf was "threatening".

But it's not just murders either, video is also exposing bad cops who try to hide behind their badges after beating up people and then lying about why they did it.

Falsely accused Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, center with glasses

Take the case of former Clayton County, Georgia police officer Ryan Hall, which has made national headlines this week.

Back in May of 2014, a 69-year-old black man named Dhoruba Bin-Wahad (pictured left) was moving into his new home during broad daylight when someone mistakenly called police to report a burglary in progress.

Three cops responded to the scene and found Bin-Wahad in the process of moving his things in to the house.

The shocked homeowner tried unsuccessfully to explain that he was, in fact, the owner of the home and not a robber trying to burglarize it. Not surprisingly an argument of some kind ensued and at some, point Hall grabbed the 69 year-old man and slammed him down onto the concrete. 

In a police report, Hall claimed that that Bin-Wahad was argumentative and uncooperative during the conflict that escalated outside the home; moving is stressful enough, can you imagine the cops showing up as you're lugging boxes into a home you just paid for and accusing you of robbing it?

When cell phone video of the incident taken by a neighbor across the street later emerged, police began an internal investigation and last week a grand jury indicted Hall on misdemeanor charges of simple battery after the video evidence showed that the former officer lied about Bin-Wahad's behavior.

Watch the video for yourself, when you watch Bin-Wahad's head being slammed against the concrete, remember he's an innocent man and that's his own home.

Taken as a whole, these steps are beginning to make a difference, not only in terms of holding police officers accountable for their actions, but also in terms of restoring community confidence in law enforcement and raising the standards of police professionalism - which is good for both civilians and the police.

But there's clearly a long way to go in this nation.

America leads modern industrialized nations in police killings and according to statistics being tracked by a coalition of journalists and volunteers, with the killing of Samuel Dubose, 558 people have been killed by police this year.

While advocates for justice and human rights can take heart that these steps are slowly beginning to remove the bricks in the Blue Wall of Silence and lift the shroud of secrecy that surrounds police misconduct, sadly these efforts have come too late for Samuel Dubose and hundreds of others.

For now, we can only hope that if real changes to 21st century policing that are both meaningful and lasting can come about as a result of the tragic deaths of people like 12 year-old Tamir Rice, then perhaps their loss will have a deeper impact on the human condition - and make a difference for those in the future who might otherwise join ranks of The Counted.   

Unnatural Instinct - Ray Tensing's Coverup Exposed

Tensing NOT being dragged as he shoots Dubose with hands up

While I already knew the horrifying outcome of the deadly encounter that took place last Sunday July 19th between unarmed African-American motorist Samuel Dubose and white University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing, I still felt a sense of anxiety and fear in my gut as I watched the unedited video footage of the incident taken from Tensing's body camera.

After watching it carefully a few times and listening to the audio there's something terrifying about it.


Not only because of the knowledge that during the tussle that takes place during a few shaky frames of video a man is being shot in the head. If you watch the approximately 6-minute stretch from the time Tensing is casually driving along until he radios in that he's making a traffic stop, stops and confronts Dubose then shoots him - there's no time that Dubose is threatening.

Look at the still image from the video above; both of Dubose's hands are clearly up, Tensing is positioned in front of the driver's seat - and he's not being dragged by the car as he and his attorney have claimed.

As the Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters made clear in a statement on Wednesday, Dubose's Honda Accord didn't start rolling forward until after he'd been shot in the head at point blank range and slumped over the wheel and "he fell forward and must have pressed on the gas."

Ray Tensing charged with murder

Tensing's decision to take out his gun over a traffic stop because of a license plate not being displayed correctly is disturbing in and of itself.

But what's more chilling to me is that even after killing an unarmed suspect who wasn't threatening the officer in any way, even as Dubose lifeless body is slumped over the wheel and his car is rolling down the block; Tensing has the presence of mind to begin yelling his cover-up into his radio as he runs after the car.

Literally seconds after shooting an unarmed man, Tensing is trying to concoct a lie to conceal what he just did.

As an article posted on The Guardian Website reports, their analysis of the 28 minutes of Tensing's body camera clearly also shows at least one and possibly two other members of law enforcement standing near the scene corroborating something that did not actually happen.

As if it was a professional instinct ingrained into them as part of their training.

That's chilling. Tensing didn't just think that up seconds after shooting an unarmed man in the head, someone trained him to do it. Instinct. Unnatural instinct.

Remember back in April when North Charleston police office Michael Slager shot unarmed African-American motorist Walter Scott after another minor traffic stop? Same deal.

The cellphone video shot by a bystander not only showed Slager shooting the unarmed and fleeing motorist who didn't threaten him.

After shooting him five times he doesn't stop and render any kind of aid or check to see if Scott was still alive; he immediately runs back, picks up the taser that was dropped during the chase and brings it back over near where the victim is lying and drops it next to his body to try and stage a scenario that never happened.

Like Slager, Tensing's concocted story has been eradicated by video evidence proving officer was lying; about killing an unarmed human being who didn't threaten him. And now he's been indicted for murder.

To Serve and Protect is the motto, but the video makes clear that about the only thing Tensing was trying to protect was his own ass.

An unnatural instinct.