31, December
2015 Tamir Rice
Once again a
family mourns the death of their son, 12 year-old African American, Tamir Rice.
On November 22 2014, a 911 caller reported seeing a young juvenile waving what
appeared to be a toy gun. Tragically that vital information was not transmitted
to the responding officer. Officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir within two seconds after his police cruiser pulled up in front
of the boy. Neither Loehmann nor his partner, Frank Garmback administered first aid to
save the boy’s life. They
then handcuffed Tamir’s 14-year-old sister and threw her to the ground as she ran
to her brother’s side, callously
leaving the boy to die.
Incredulously, an Ohio grand jury returned a decision not to indict.
What was omitted
during trial was Timothy Loehmann’s resignation from another police force after
a “dangerous loss of composure” during
firearms training. It is
an absolute travesty that police officers who responded made no attempt to
assess the situation for themselves but only saw the boy’s skin color and toy
gun as a danger to the community which required the use of maximum lethal
force. Tamir’s death has become another alarming statistic of a criminal
justice system that continues to offer blanket impunity to police officers for
their actions when confronting African-Americans. It appears that the
prosecutor deliberately cherry-picked the jury and what amounts to gross
prosecutorial misconduct recommended a non-indictment. Other experts did find
probable cause, including a municipal court judge who recommended Loehmann be
charged with murder, manslaughter and reckless homicide.
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