Video emerges of Officer Ray Tensing harassing two black men who happened to know their rights

Speaking to BuzzFeed News, two men recounted an experience they had back in May of 2014 with Officer Ray Tensing, who was charged with murder last week in the shooting death of an unarmed black man named Samuel Dubose.

The entire incident was caught on video, and it shows the officer harassing the two men (who are African American) when they apparently did nothing wrong.

Demetrius Pace, 27, who was a passenger in the car, said that his cousin, who was the driver, was pulled over for having a “cracked bumper.”

Pace began recording because according to him, Tensing was “aggressive” and used “bullying tactics” to try to get him out of the car.

This week, Pace said he and his cousin, Sexton Henley, recognized the officer after prosecutors released the body camera video showing Tensing pulling over Samuel Dubose for a missing front license plate. Tensing demanded Dubose’s driver’s license, and Dubose said he had one but didn’t have it on him. Tensing then told Dubose to take off his seatbelt and began to open Dubose’s car door. As Dubose appeared to “slowly roll away” in his car, Tensing fatally shot the unarmed man in the head. Tensing has been charged with murder and was fired.

During the May 2014 incident with Pace and Henley, Pace said, “[Tensing] opened my door like he did in the video of Sam.”

“I’m 100% sure it was Tensing who pulled us over,” Pace said, comparing the officer in the video to news reports on DuBose’s killing.

Screen Shot 2015-08-01 at 12.07.50 PM
Screengrab from Pace’s video (left) and Ray Tensing’s booking photo (via BuzzFeed News)

Pace studied criminal justice, and completely took control of the situation and shut effectively shut Officer Tensing down.

“We know that the law says the passenger doesn’t have to provide his information,” Pace said. “Tensing was mad because I wasn’t doing what he was telling me to do.”

Tensing is then heard on the video repeatedly asking Pace to “step out of the car.” According to Pace, Tensing asked him if he was refusing to identify himself “because you have a warrant or something?”

Pace said Tensing told him that if he refused to identify himself he would be charged. After the two argue about Pace’s refusal to get out of the car, Tensing appears to say, “Are we going to do this all night?”

Viewing the situation in retrospect, Pace is certain he would have been killed had he stepped out of the car.

AJ+ did a breakdown of Pace’s video which can be seen below. You can watch the full unedited video here.

Featured image via YouTube screengrab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

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