One Mississippi, Two Mississippi

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)

 RIDICULOUS!

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 6^th 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.