Seem to forget that he was a child. The adults are supposed to look after children. The adult in this case was an unfit cop.
Ever read Catcher in he Rye? Some of us want to be there at the edge of the tall grass to catch a child should they wander off toward the cliff at the end of the rye grass. To catch them and save them from their childish mistakes.
Some want to just watch and call them lemmings and fools and blame them for their youth. These people take no part in the adult responsibility of protecting children. This cop is one of those people.
A 5’-7” 195 pound child pointing a very realistic replica of a Beretta 92 at him. You can pretend otherwise, but 10 will get you 20 that you would have been panty wetting scared if he was pointing it at you.
To be fair Tamir Rice was large for his age. They wouldn’t have known how old he was.
That said, had they not pulled right up next to him they may would have more time to observe the situation. Instead the driver pulled within feet of him and left the other officer with no time whatsoever to make an educated decision.
Even that had a rational explanation. The police entered the park from the other side and drove across the grounds to get to the location. They encountered the row of bollards from the back side which directed them right next to where Tamir was sitting. They did not even see him until they were nearly upon him and Tamir stood up and confronted them.
5’8 and 195 as I recall. Right at median height and much bigger than the average adult male in the US. Of course hiding his face and head with the hoodie didn’t help them any either even if they’d had time to do anything other than react to his rapid approach and drawing of the gun.
The adults who failed him were his parents. The cops had no possible of knowing who he was or how old he was and no time to find out .
The cop in this case was protecting the public based on the information he was given by the dispatcher who reported a man with a gun threatening and intimidating people, acting strangely and waiving a gun around in a public park.
That’s all he had to go on until Rice jumped up from the bench making a rapid approach to the car lifting his hoodie exposing a gun with one hand and drawing it with the other.
Those are the simple facts of the case, no more, no less.
It isn’t relevant since there was no indication of any instability during his time serving with the Cleveland PD.
If it’s relevant at all it simply shows the PD failed to do even the most basic due diligence in hiring him but still has no relevance to how he acted that day.
What a load of crap. Everything he did that day was lawful and justified hence the reason the shoot was ruled “a good shoot” and the reason he was no billed by the GJ.
His actions with respect to the shooting violated no law and no department policy period.
Who said anything about “good” or “bad” other than yourself.
What’s at issue is whether or not he acted appropriately under the circumstances and the investigation shows that’s exactly what he did.
His actions were perfectly lawful and followed department procedures and guidelines given the circumstances of the event.
It’s a tragedy that never should have happened but it wasn’t the officer who shot him that was responsible for putting the gun in the boy’s hand, him threatening/intimidating people with it, or allowing him out of the house with it.
It wasn’t the officer who was responsible for failing to relate all of the relevant information to the arriving officers, that was the fault of the dispatcher.
It wasn’t he who placed himself in a situation where he had no choice but to fire, that was the idiot driving the car.
It was the boy who made an obvious threatening move towards him getting up off of the bench, rapidly approaching, and attempting to draw the gun from his waste band. That was the boy who was then shot perfectly lawfully and appropriately.
All the officer had to work with was the information given him by dispatch and the situation his TO put him in where he was left with no choice.
