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Supporters of man killed by Cincinnati cop stop traffic in protest

Mark Curnutte
Cincinnati Enquirer
Alexander Shelton, second from right, and Aubrey DuBose, far right, march along Freedom Way during a Countdown to Conviction Coalition rally for justice for Aubrey's brother Sam DuBose Saturday, July 22, 2017. Sam DuBose was unarmed when he was shot and killed during a traffic stop by former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing, July 19, 2015. Tensing was tried two times, both trials ended in hung juries. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters that he will not seek a third trial for Tensing

CINCINNATI — Supporters of the late Sam DuBose say they will not go away and will not be silent.

On a dangerously hot and humid Saturday afternoon, about 100 protesters from the Countdown to Conviction Coalition marched from Fountain Square to Freedom Way at The Banks.

There, about an hour before a Reds game at Great American Ball Park, they stopped vehicle traffic and clogged sidewalks in front of downtown bars and restaurants.

The tactic was the same one protesters employed July 8 in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

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The rally unfolded four days after Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced that he would not try Ray Tensing a third time. The former University of Cincinnati police officer faced murder and voluntary manslaughter charges for the July 2015 shooting death of DuBose, an unarmed black motorist. Tensing pulled over DuBose in Mount Auburn for a missing front license plate.

The charges are expected to be formally dismissed Monday morning in the courtroom of Judge Leslie Ghiz, who presided over the second trial. It, like the first, ended with the jury unable to reach a unanimous decision.

"There is time for Deters to change his mind on this," Brian Taylor, a leader of the local Black Lives Matter organization, said Saturday at downtown's Fountain Square. 

"Two trials took place, and neither sought justice. Jurors were relatives of police officers and said on questionnaires that some ethnicities were more violent than others. That is systemic racism to the core. We want a federal investigation."

Walter Smith, center, and other demonstrators chant on Walnut Street during a Countdown to Conviction Coalition rally and march for justice for Sam DuBose Saturday, July 22, 2017. Sam DuBose was unarmed when he was shot and killed during a traffic stop by former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing, July 19, 2015. Tensing was tried two times, both trials ended in hung juries. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters that he will not seek a third trial for Tensing

 

If Deters does dismiss the charges, Tensing will be a free man. Deters said Tuesday that he has turned over trial materials to federal prosecutors, who could try Tensing on civil rights charges.

Still, Tensing supporters plan to mark the dismissal of charges. On Monday at 6 p.m., they will hold a rally beginning at Sawyer Point and march across the Purple People Bridge. Many will wear T-shirts reading #TENSINGPROUD.

Before the pro-DuBose rally Saturday, organizers handed out handbills announcing a counter rally beginning at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the bridge. They plan to line the railings of the pedestrian bridge, they said, "to show opposition to the pro-killer cop march. … Under no circumstances can this show of support for inherently racist institutions go unopposed."

Taylor addressed the planning of the pro-Tensing rally at Fountain Square.

"We need to be here today and we need to be out Monday to be reactive to what that racist hashtag represents," he said to loud cheers.

Words on Saturday were as hot as the weather.

"We're not done fighting," Aubrey DuBose, Sam DuBose's younger brother, said through a bullhorn at the Tyler Davidson Fountain. "We're going to take it to the federal level. We got a murdering cop walking our streets. We got to go hard. We got to do it peacefully."