Even though a grand jury opted not to indict the shooting officer, Tamir Rice was still a 12-year-old boy who lost his life at the hands of the person hired to protect and serve. There’s no way around that fact.
Rice’s age makes the officer’s actions that much more incomprehensible. The fact that he was playing with a toy gun (in an open carry state) doesn’t justify his murder — not matter what the grand jury says. As noted in the Daily Beast story, “Tamir Rice Decision Shows You Can Get Away With Murder,” Rice was approached by two officers, and shot within two seconds of their arrival. His 14-year-old sister was cuffed and thrown in a cop car, as he lay there dying.
The brutally obvious lack of care for a life is polarizing, although not surprising given the countless lives that will never get a chance to tell their side of the story.
As we’ve already reported, officer-involved shootings are not always racially specific. This however, isn’t a forum for debate on racism, or whether or not all cops are bad. Instead, lets take a look at the ripple effect of the grand jury decision and how this child’s death changes the conversation that Black parents have to have with their own children.
A virtual pressure cooker of sorts, in which Black men and woman are being attacked from all sides.
Guns and drugs make their way into neighborhoods of the disenfranchised, grooming them into a life of self-destruction. The loudest counter-argument here is the “Black on Black crime?” topic that never questions the systematic corruption that leads to events of the kind, or the people of color imprisoned at disproportionally higher rates making America the most incarcerated country in the world.
It’s no coincidence that the pipeline to prison translates into cheap labor for multi-million dollar companies profiting off inmates. It’s no coincidence that building schools are less of a priority than prisons. Education is freedom and for many in our communities, it feels financially unattainable. That too, is no coincidence.
Which brings us back to the brutality issue at hand. With a justice system that seemingly preys on people of color, it’s easy to lose hope for a substantial change.
Hit the gallery for #NoJusticeForTamirRice.
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Photo: family handout
