Thirty-two thousand fans coming to an FC Cincinnati game last night at the University of Cincinnati were greeted with cries of “we don’t care if you watch the game, just say his name — Sam DuBose.”
About 300 protesters marched across UC’s campus decrying the second mistrial of UCPD officer Ray Tensing in the shooting death of the Avondale resident. DuBose, who was black, was unarmed when Tensing, who is white, shot him in the head during a routine traffic stop July 19, 2015. The incident was one of a number of police shootings of unarmed black men. Tensing was subsequently fired and indicted on murder and manslaughter charges, but two Hamilton County juries have failed to reach a verdict on those counts.
The UC rally was organized by the Countdown to Conviction Coalition, which includes Black Lives Matter Cincinnati, Students for Survivors, The Peaslee Center, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Socialist Alternative and other groups. The protesters lined up in two locations outside the stadium following the march, handing out flyers about the shooting and asking soccer fans to sign a petition urging Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters for a third retrial on murder charges.
The event came out of a planning session just 48 hours earlier that followed Hamilton County Judge Leslie Ghiz’s Friday announcement that the Tensing jury had deadlocked. Young activists somewhat new to the Countdown to Conviction Coalition suggested the event and helped lead the rally alongside veteran members of Black Lives Matter and other groups.
Some fans took flyers and signed the petition. Others shrugged them off. There was little aggression, though at least once, a fan shoulder-checked a protester. Campus police were summoned, but the man was allowed to proceed through the line.
Even if some fans weren’t receptive right then, the hope is that events like last night’s will get them thinking, some protesters said.
“We have to stand up against injustice. Too many people of color are being killed in this society,” said Liz Dandridge. “I haven’t talked to the fans, but I believe that they’re a part of this democracy, and the seeds we’re planting today will, if not tonight, then soon, blossom in them so that they stand up for our rights.”
Most fans declined to comment on the protest when asked by CityBeat, but the few who did were supportive.
“I absolutely agree with what they’re doing,” Cincinnatian Kenn Day said. “If I wasn’t here for the game, I’d be out there with them.”
City Manager Harry Black attended the game, giving a brief fist up as he walked through the line of demonstrators. City officials, including Black, have expressed disappointment at a lack of conviction for Tensing.
[MORE: Now that a second jury has hung in the Ray Tensing case, what next?]
Demonstrators made efforts, in their chants and outreach to fans, to emphasize they weren’t protesting the game, but trying to, as they chanted, “hold UC accountable.”
DuBose’s shooting followed a heavy uptick in hiring of police officers and stops made by those officers at UC. The school doubled the 35 officers it had in 2013 to 70 in just a year and a half. It’s now the third-largest law enforcement agency in the county behind the Cincinnati Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
With that increased enforcement came huge racial disparities.
Traffic stops went up 300 percent to 2000 in 2015. Arrests also tripled. During this time, stops of white individuals actually decreased. Black stops went way up, however. Tickets written by Tensing in the year before he shot DuBose went to blacks 81 percent of the time. The department’s average was 62 percent. The student body on UC’s campus is only 8 percent black. Corryville, the neighborhood directly east of the university, is 38 percent black. Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairmount, collectively called CUF and to the south and east of the university, are about 17 percent black. Mount Auburn, where DuBose was killed, is about 67 percent black.
UC has made some efforts to reform its police department, and paid a $4.85 million settlement to the DuBose family. The university will also offer his children free tuition.
Still, activists say that without a conviction for Tensing, justice won’t be done, and that UC needs to do more to increase minority enrollment and continue to dial back police presence in surrounding neighborhoods. Many activists are also calling for the removal of two other officers at the scene of DuBose’s shooting, Phillip Kidd and David Lindenschmidt, who initially said they saw Tensing being dragged by DuBose’s car. Body camera footage contradicts that claim. Kidd and Lindenschmidt both later said under oath that they didn’t actually see Tensing being dragged.
“This is not a beef with FCC,” said Black Lives Matter organizer Brian Taylor. “But we want every single person who goes into this stadium to understand that this campus employs liars and killers, and that this city lets liars and killers off.”
Next, the Coalition will begin picketing Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters’ office until he announces whether he will seek a third trial for Tensing. Activists also plan a large rally Friday, July 7.
This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 5, 2017.