The mother of Rice, the the 12 year old boy who was shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, in November, has called for the conviction of the officer who shot her son. Naturally, I can understand her grief and her pain. I have lost a son to tragedy myself. It's a pain you never, ever get over. But while her comments are understandable, they're not logical and people should not treat them as such.
In a case that is very different than the other three, Tamir Rice was in a local park in Cleveland brandishing what appeared to be a real firearm. The Cleveland police have released a photo of the gun that was placed into evidence. If this if the actual gun that Tamir had in his possession when the officer rolled up it's certainly understandable why he felt he had to shoot.
Someone go ahead and explain to me why anyone should suspect this to be a toy.
Reports are that whoever called the police reported someone in the park with a gun. They told the dispatcher that the gun "might be fake" but that information wasn't passed on to the responding officer. All he knew what that there was someone in the park with a gun. (Video surveillance cameras do show Tamir walking up and down the sidewalk with the gun.) When the officer arrived he confronted the boy (it is unknown how at this point) and when Tamir reached for the gun in his waistband the officer shot him. He died the next day in the hospital.
The thing that makes this case so very different from the others (Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner) is that Tamir Rice had a gun (a very real looking gun) in his possession at the time he was shot. Rice's mother says that the officer should have talked to her son and he would have complied with whatever he was told. But she doesn't know that for certain - particularly since the officer says when he confronted Tamir the boy reached for the gun in his waistband. Not many officers responding to a gun call would allow the suspect to actually draw the weapon before firing.
Tamir's death was even more of a tragedy than Trayvon, Michael or Eric. He was only 12 years old. He probably had no idea he could face police action for what he was doing. But he was doing it nevertheless.
His mother's attitude is understandable. She lost her son. And he wasn't even old enough to be a criminal yet. He was a kid.
To those who are calling this a case of murder, including Tamir's mother, I say you need to understand the facts. If you're going to ignore the facts that don't fit into your narrative I can't change that. Truth is truth. But some people will refuse to believe it because of their own agenda. There is no changing the mind that is closed.
Tamir Rice's tragic death will scar his community for a while. Florida blood sucker Attorney Benjamin Crump, who said of Darren Wilson "I don't care about his due process," now represents the family of Tamir Rice. Like Al Sharpton, he seems to show up everywhere that a black person gets killed by a white person. But since I'm pretty sure he's not licensed in four states, he most likely can only be an adviser in the cases. And he doesn't have a great track record so far - except for making disparaging remarks on television... two or three times a week.
Yes, the Tamir Rice case will be exploited by the race baiters and race haters for a while. Facts won't matter as long as a white cop killed a black kid. Hopefully truth will prevail and the officer will be OK. And before Eric Holder decides to make it a racial case...
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