In response to a lawsuit filed by Tamir Rice’s family, the city of Cleveland is?blaming the then 12-year-old boy for his own killing. In the response to the lawsuit, the city claims that Tamir’s?injuries:
“…were directly and proximately caused by their own acts, not this Defendant.”
They city went even further by saying that Tamir’s death was,??by the failure ? to exercise due care to avoid injury.? So a child should take more precaution to avoid injury than an allegedly trained officer?
But the city also seemed to blame people not even directly involved, saying that Tamir died because of:
?the conduct of individuals or entities other than Defendant.??
What does that even mean? There is NOTHING on the video we have seen of the killing that suggests officer Loehmann HAD to run up on him and kill him within 3 seconds. Such a quick shooting makes it seem like Loehmann came there with the plan to shoot Tamir, as awful as that sounds.
It is egregious that Cleveland and the police union want to make a child out to be some massive criminal who doesn’t care about “avoiding injury” from the police. Especially when it is likely he didn’t even understand what was going on. At least not as clearly as Loehmann should have. Rice’s murderer has already been shown to be deemed unfit for duty previously. So is it really so outlandish to ask that Cleveland hold him accountable, even a little, for an action that he committed?
Cleveland and everyone should be irate that a kid can be killed on video while his killer has not spent one day in jail. Not one charge either. White people, grown and big, can walk around publicly with their rifles strapped to them and be seen as less “menacing” than this boy. This is an outrage.
We have seen massive reactions from the public after acquittals in the Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner cases specifically. Unfortunately, these acquittals have put a dark stain on America, not just here, but overseas. But trust me, if Loehmann ends up getting completely off at the end of everything, there will be a massive uproar the likes of which we have not seen in modern history, and that would be perfectly appropriate.
