Driving a 1976 pickup with a packed trailer attached, Michael Dial — a 33-year-old husband and father — was on his way to set up for a Flea Market when he was stopped by the police for driving with a suspended license. According to news reports, the cops told him that he would not be arrested but that they couldn’t allow him to drive. Michael got into his vehicle and drove off and that, as you know, is tantamount to waving a red flag in front of an enraged, unreasoning bull. You do not doanything other than exactly as our Lords and Masters tell you. Throw a bloodthirsty police chief in the mix and we all know how this script will end. Blood will be spilled.
Michael Zennie Dial II became the 347th person to be killed by police in 2017. He was one of the 1189 people taken out by bullets paid for by the taxpayers of this country.
At about the same time Michael was getting ready for his journey to the flea market, the Chief of Police for White County, Sheriff Oddie Shoupe, was also getting ready for another day on the job. One of those two had the power to take out the other. One of those two would not see the other as a human being with a right to life. One of those two would order the murder of the other and he’d do so with a sickening display of orgasmic glee.
How could an empathetic, sophisticated PD have handled this stop?
1. They could have given Michael a ticket and seeing that he was a hardworking man on his way to try and make some money for his family, allowed him to go.
2. When he took off without their permission, they could have allowed him to go because they already had all his info.
3. If they had to stop him, they could have gone after him, blow out his tires, push him off the road, and then arrest him.
4. As his widow said, “They could have let him go ten more miles down the road, he probably would have run out of gas...” Especially because it was a low-speed chase.
5. They could have ignored the police chief’s command to “take him out.” They are, after all, free moral agents.
But they did none of that. Someone had to pay with their life for the temerity of crossing the paths of those cops that day.
True to form, the cops lied about what happened.
When the tires on Dial’s pickup truck flattened and items starting falling from an attached trailer, the TBI said one officer with the Sparta Police Department and one deputy with the White County Sheriff’s Office fired shots at the truck in an attempt to get it to stop.
That’s when Dial’s truck went off the road, down an embankment and stopped in a tree line. Dial was pronounced dead.
Unfortunately for them, there were dashcam videos:
For those who cannot watch, this video shows a low-speed chase, the cops running Michael’s truck off the road, Michael getting out of the truck, and the cops opening fire on him.
But wait, it gets even worse.
It turns out that the guy who gave the order to “take him out” is a real mofo. As much as we have reported on the casual cruelties often inflicted on innocent people in this space, I am still shocked at the attitude and words of Sheriff Oddie Shoupe.
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“They said ‘we’re ramming him,’” Sheriff Oddie Shoupe of White County said on tape in the aftermath of the killing of suspect Michael Dial. “I said, ‘Don’t ram him, shoot him.’ Fuck that shit. Ain’t gonna tear up my cars.”
Shoupe arrived on the scene shortly after police had shot Dial at the conclusion of a low-speed chase, clearly upset he had missed the excitement.
“I love this shit,” Shoupe said, apparently unaware that his comments were being picked up by another deputy’s body-worn camera. “God, I tell you what, I thrive on it.“If they don’t think I’ll give the damn order to kill that motherfucker they’re full of shit,” he added, laughing. “Take him out. I’m here on the damn wrong end of the county,” he said.”
*****
Watch this truly despicable character in action as one of his cops appears to have a human moment:
Robyn Dial will not allow her husband’s murder to go unchallenged. The grieving widow has filed a lawsuit alleging excessive force. We wish her well. #JusticeForMichaelDial.
Now more than ever we need The Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act. People should not be losing their lives for the act of driving with suspended licenses. We recognize that no progressive legislation will be signed into law for as long as the Republicans control the Congress. Therefore, the first order of business is to work toward a Blue Wave come November, and then we pressure our representatives to put an end to this madness.
Police have killed 135 people in 40 days!