Pictured are Samaria Rice, the mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, whom Cleveland police gunned down in 2014, and Tamir Rice

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

Coleman is a political and legal journalist and an investigative reporter who has studied collective bargaining law extensively as a journalist and as a previous student at the University of Akron in its doctoral program on a full tuition scholarship . At Akron, Coleman was  ABD  with a straight A academic record

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio– The mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, whom Cleveland police gunned down in November of 2014 at the Cudell Recreation Center on the city's west side,  on Monday delivered petitions with more than 170,000 signatures to Cleveland police union headquarters in downtown Cleveland demanding that the union stop its efforts to get an arbitration decision that upheld the city's firing of the White police officer who shot and  killed her son overturned.

Rice said at a press conference on Monday that the petitions are online signatures from change.org and moveon.org

The police union filed an administrative appeal of the arbitrator's decision that upheld the termination of the officer at issue and the case is before Common Pleas Judge Joe Russo, a union advocate who must determine if the arbitrator exceeded his authority, Ohio collective bargaining law of which denies an individual union member the right or standing to appeal an adverse arbitration award independent of the union.

Only the parties to a collective bargaining agreement, in this instance the city and the police union, have such standing.

Hence, absent union support, individual union members fired illegal or legally, including Tamir Rice's killer, have no venue to appeal an adverse arbitration award under Ohio law as it stands to date, Ohio's Republican-led state legislature still unable to tumble unions in Ohio from power.

Most arbitrators that represent the American Arbitration Association that appointed the arbitrator regarding the cop that gunned down Tamir, an appointment in conjunction with the union and the city, are White men, often times attorneys, but not always, and they often rule as they please, regardless of the mandated provisions under the collective bargaining agreement, research  reveals.

Overturning an arbitration award in Ohio is rare, and nearly impossible, though it does occur, sparingly.

On the other hand, management has no problem violating the union agreement, one the Black community sometimes questions as pro-cop, and anti-Black.

Tensions remain high between the police union and the Black community, and between police and Mayor Frank Jackson's law enforcement leadership team, Black police chief Calvin Williams, who was promoted to chief in February of 2014, some nine months before the Rice shooting, making some but not enough leeway, his critics complain. Others approve of his work, and say he has tried to temper unrest between police and Black people, a problem that that is global and systemic in all respects.

Police were summoned to the Cudell Park and Recreation Center on the city's largely White west side on the evening of Nov. 22, 2014 following a foiled 9-1-1 call to police dispatchers that a child was carrying a likely toy  gun, a toy gun in fact of which was later revealed.

Rookie cop Timothy Loehmann fired the deadly bullet that killed the Black boy after he and his partner, Frank Garmback, arrived at the scene and zoomed in on Tamir in less than two seconds, Garmback at the wheel of the police cruiser, precautionary action be damned.

Both escaped indictments on criminal charges with the help of since ousted county prosecutor Tim McGinty, also a retired common pleas judge, and who was succeeded by current county prosecutor Mike O'Malley, a Democrat like McGinty, and a former Parma safety director who is also pro-cop.

But Loehmann was not fired for killing Tamir but for lying on his job application about getting fired as a cop with the  Independence Police Department in Ohio, his personnel file saying he was allegedly fired because he was allegedly unfit.

The city ultimately settle a wrongful death lawsuit with Rice's mother for $6 million.

“This officer has been deemed unfit by top law enforcement officials, but for some reason [CPPA President] Jeff Follmer wants him back on the streets," said Samaria Rice at Monday's press conference outside of the union headquarters for the  .Cleveland Police Patromen's Association (CPPA)

Led by Jeff Follmer, who ousted outspoken union head Steve Loomis in 2017, the CPPA has been staunchly behind Loehmann and Garmback, both Loomis  and Follmer saying the Black kid pulled the toy gun when police arrived, though no such evidence exist to prove such a claim, the union appealing the discipline of the two White cops via the grievance procedure and the arbitration process under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the city and CPPA.

Follmer said Monday that the police union has no intention of dismissing its administrative appeal of the arbitration award that upheld Loehmann's firing.

Ongoing protests erupted nationally and locally in 2014 following the shooting death of Tamir, and racial unrest continues to mount against a largely White police department now under a consent decree for police reforms between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice, a consent decree despised by a  police union that is use to doing as it pleases to Black people.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.