Dejuan Yourse was waiting for his mother to come home to their home on June 17. Dejuan grew up in the home in Greensboro, North Carolina, and came back and forth to his mother’s home for years. Two Greensboro police arrived: an unidentified female officer and Travis Cole. Something happened between Officer Cole and Dejuan that resulted in an “incident,” which turned into an “investigation.” In August, Officer Cole resigned so as to not face charges and still have the chance to reapply and work in law enforcement elsewhere. But someone inside of the police department leaked video from both officers’ body cameras that day, and everyone got to see why Officer Cole resigned—he was guilty of being a thug and bully and a criminal law enforcement officer.
Body camera video released Monday by city leaders shows a former Greensboro police officer using "disturbing" excessive force. After releasing the video, city council members voted 8-0 in favor of a resolution calling for the permanent suspension of former Greensboro officer Travis Cole's law enforcement certification.
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During Monday's press conference, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan apologized to Yourse, who was in attendance, calling the incident "ugly." She read a resolution calling for the permanent suspension of Cole's law enforcement certification. The resolution passed by council members 8-0.
In the video you can see below, you can watch how a routine “how do you do” can turn into a tragedy for a black man living in America. The video is long but it’s important to watch because it has very textbook qualities of racism and bad police work. Mr. Yourse is trying to be friendly, he’s clearly trying to not intimidate the police officers. He’s being perfectly deferential. Officer Cole on the other hand, takes a friendly/not really friendly tact. Officer Cole’s entire way of interacting with Yourse is as someone trying to arrest someone. There is no reason for this situation to escalate.
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