Pictured is 12-year-old Tamir RiceClevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black and alternative digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Ohio's Democratic congressional delegation, namely U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Cleveland and Reps. Marcy Kaptur, whose ninth congressional district extends from Toledo to Cleveland, Joyce Beatty of Columbus, who is Ohio's only Black congresswoman and Tim Ryan of Niles, have asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to reopen the justice department's investigation regarding the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, whom Cleveland police gunned down in November of 2014 in a park and recreation center on the city's west side.
“Justice delayed is justice denied, and accountability for Tamir Rice’s death has been delayed for more than six years,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote.“Therefore, we strongly support the request of Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir, that DOJ re-open its investigation into her son’s case.”
The U.S. Department of Justice officially closed the case in December of last year when Donald Trump was still president, Garland confirmed as attorney general earlier this year and after President Joe Biden, a Democrat who unseated Trump via last year's November presidential election, took office.
The lawmakers say that Black lives do not appear to matter much in America and that too many young Black men and boys are dying erroneously at the hands of the nation's police officers, who face little if any consequences.
The younger Rice's shooting death still haunts Cleveland, a largely Black major American city.
Here is what happened regarding the police killing of Tamir, allegedly.
Police were summoned to the Cudell Park and Recreation Center on the city's largely White west side on Nov. 22, 2014 following a foiled 9-1-1 call to police dispatchers that a child was carrying a likely toy gun.
Police anxiously zoomed in on the Black kid at the scene, and shot and killed him in under two seconds, precautionary measures be damned.
The White Cleveland cop that gunned down Tamir Rice, rookie Timothy Loehmann, was fired , and his partner, also a White policeman, was handed a 10-day suspension, community activists applauding the firing of the killer cop and expressing dismay over the leniency in discipline of what they say is his partner in crime.
Loehmann, however, was not fired for killing Tamir but for lying on his job application about discipline in another city as a former cop.
Community activists wanted indictments of the cops in the case, and still do, though no such criminal charges have been filed in the matter.
The city settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the Rice family for $6 million.
Ongoing protests erupted nationally and locally in 2014 following the shooting death of Tamir Rice, and racial unrest continues to mount against a largely White Cleveland Police Department now under a consent decree for police reforms between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice, a consent decree that follows several questionable Cleveland police killings of Blacks over the years, including Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell in 2012, and Tanisha Anderson in 2014.
The Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, led by outspoken union head Jeff Follmer, has been staunchly behind Loehmann and Garmback, and any other Cleveland cops who unceremoniously gun down innocent Back people.
A 9-1-1 dispatcher that answered the call from a bystander in the Rice case was suspended for eight days and an off-duty cop at the scene, for two days behind the alleged miscommunication relative to the tragic shooting death.
Neither the dispatcher nor the off-duty cop did the killing and both were disciplined by Police Chief Calvin Williams, who is Black, Constance Hollinger the dispatcher at issue, and William Cunningham, the off duty cop just simply on the premises, but allegedly without permission, city officials have said.
Loehmann and Garmback were not indicted on criminal charges with the help of since ousted Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, who lost reelection in 2016 to fellow Democrat and current County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley, his ouster of which came in connection with community outcries relative to his pro-cop disposition in the Rice killing and other awkward killings by Cleveland cops of Black people.
Samaria Rice has been in the forefront of community demands that the police involved in her son's killing face criminal proceedings, but to no avail
Follmer and his Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association are Trump supporters, the police union endorsing Trump for his first bid for president, which was met with criticism from the Cleveland NAACP, Black leaders, and grassroots community activists, among others.
Follmer has been criticized for backing wrongdoing fellow cops no matter what they do, some police union members speaking at a pro-Trump rally in downtown Cleveland since Trump became president, one of several protests held in a dozen cities across Ohio that day that garnered counter protests in Cleveland and elsewhere.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black and alternative digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473.
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