It amazes me how quickly people come to the
defense of the police and blame the victim when a police shooting occurs. How
can it be that a pair of police officers race up to within 5 feet of a 12 year
old boy holding a toy gun and within seconds shoot him dead from the vehicle
even before it skids to a complete stop? They then stand around for four
minutes while the child lays there dying without administering any type of assistance.
When the little boy’s sister rushes to his aid, one of the officers tackles and
handcuffs her and she is forced to sit in the back seat of the police car to
watch her brother die. Oh and did I mention all of this was caught on video? The
county prosecutor in the case not only finds them free of negligence but he blatantly
stacks the deck against an indictment and then recommends that the grand jury in
fact, not indict the cops. And still there are those who continually blame the
victim or others for these officer’s actions. These people have no compassion
and are incapable of empathizing. They cannot put themselves in or even imagine
their children in the same situation because they simply do not view young
Black boys as they do themselves. So they blame the victim.
- He shouldn’t have
been playing with a toy gun in the park.
- He was big for his
age so they mistook him for an adult.
- Where was his
mother, why did she buy him the realistic looking toy gun? Why didn’t she
raise him to not act like a thug?
- Where was his
father? With the assumption that because he’s Black his father couldn’t
possibly be involved in his life.
- He should have
simply complied with the officer’s orders (my personal favorite,
especially considering the time frame).
- What do you expect
the police to do in those neighborhoods? Full of crime and
infested with gang activity?
- The officer feared
for his life. (see above)
These excuses and assumptions are all based on
the fact that this child was Black. PERIOD! You cannot convince me that had the
police been in a White suburban neighborhood and gotten the call of a White
child playing with a possible toy gun
in the park they would have rushed in, pulled up right next to him and shot him
dead. Absolutely not. They would have taken time to properly assess the
situation and choose the least lethal way to handle. Hostage negotiators, a
psychiatrist and the kid’s Priest would have been called in to assist. But
because of where he was and who he was, he was assumed to be just another hood
thug to be terminated…and literally left to die. They did not see a 6th
grader in the park playing with a toy…they didn’t take the time.
So the prosecutor says the video shows Tamir reaching
for the gun in his waistband. That’s not what I saw. What I saw was a kid who
saw the police rushing in and attempted to motion to the gun to maybe let them
know it was a toy and not real. Or maybe he was trying to drop it. Maybe he
thought, I don’t know “I’m 12 years old,
perhaps these well-armed adult officers are here to protect me”. He never
got the chance to explain. The prosecutor says he was big for his age. WTF?? So
what! Being big and Black is justification for killing? These two officers
rushed in there and shot him with the car still rolling before you could count
to two. I bet they couldn’t even give an accurate description of him. So if the
police are as innocent as the prosecutor suggest why did they lie on the
initial report? They originally said he was sitting on the bench with a group
of kids. That they gave him several commands to drop the gun and he pointed it
at them so they shot him…again, the video. None of that shit happened. So when
the video comes out they change their story and use the old they “feared for their lives” defense. But
the prosecutor saw nothing wrong with this. Or nothing negligent about the fact
that they left this child on the ground bleeding to death until an FBI agent
who just happened to be in the area came along and administered aid. Yeah,
nothing wrong with that at all.
But what do expect, this is the same
incompetent police department who upon hearing a car backfire mistook it for
gunshots and chased down the car killing the two occupants inside. True story http://abcnews.go.com/US/verdict-reach-trial-cleveland-police-officer-accused-2012/story?id=31252998
and http://nypost.com/2015/05/23/cleveland-cop-acquitted-after-killing-two-in-137-shot-barrage/
At the end of the chase after over 137
bullets had been fired, an officer stood on the hood of the car and fired into
the windshield and additional 15 TIMES
killing the two unarmed occupants… he was acquitted. The judge in the non-jury case
said it was not possible to determine whether the 137 shots fired by the other
officers or the 15 by the hood cop
killed the victims… I can’t make this shit up folks. When someone says to you
in response to Black Lives Matter
that All Lives Matter this is proof
positive that it does not. But don’t bother arguing, they just don’t get it.
Having a police presence shouldn’t mean that we
have to constantly watch our backs or walk on egg shells for fear of spooking or
terrifying some overly hypersensitive cop. Police should not have nervous hair
trigger reflexes ready to shoot first and ask questions never. The responding
officers in the Tamir Rice case were obviously grossly incompetent, but poorly
trained racist cops should not be armed with a license to kill. They drastically
and unnecessarily escalated the situation and ultimately should be held
responsible for the death of Tamir Rice. So too should the county prosecutor
who failed miserably at his job and denied the community an opportunity to use
the justice system to determine whether or not the police officers were
justified in their actions. But they won’t and the 12 year old child will
continually be blamed for his own death. Gotta love it, justice in America.
