Are the officers that shot this 12-year old boy with no hesitation not being charged?

This shooting occurred right around the Ferguson shooting, Eric Garner’s death in NY, Akai Gurley’s shooting death in NY so the racial tension was high across the country and hatred built to the max against law enforcement. Tamir Rice shooting was, however, caught on camera.

To refresh your memory, the 12-year old was playing with a toy gun in a park area in Cleveland Ohio in November 2014. A witness called authorities not knowing if the gun was real or not, but assumed it was fake. The police dispatch stated “of a male sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people” to two officers, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback. The witness, according to the call, said to the dispatch several times it was probably a fake gun and that he was probably a juvenile. When the officers pulled up to Rice, within 2 seconds, Loehmann shot Rice twice, one bullet hitting Rice in the torso, killing him.

Reports first stated that when the officers pulled up, they told Rice to put his hands up and Rice reached for the toy gun in his waistband. All that within two seconds? Deputy Chief Tomba however confirmed Rice did not point or threaten the officers with the toy gun.

Neither officers gave aid to the dying boy after the shooting. Other officers who were assisting with a bank robber near by came and treated Rice. This is all caught on video.

This happened in November, brought to the grand jury November 24, Rice was buried December 3 and as of January 1 2015, there are no charges as of yet from the grand jury. Both officers are on administrative leave and the AP reported that the Cleveland Police are using outside agency on the investigation.

Was the shooting justified? I’ve seen people on the news in speed chases and had a longer time span to put up their hands than young Tamir did. Do we blame the dispatch as she forgot to mention the gun was probably fake? Him being a kid wasn’t mentioned but it wasn’t that hard to tell. I wouldn’t be shocked if the dispatch was fired. How could you leave out such an important fact? They claim he reached for his waistband? Now, if he was a real threat, I think he would of ran or shot at the cops way before the cops pulled up on him. No criminal, who has intent of harming others, would stand there as a cop car is pulling up. Criminals don’t want to get caught and go to prison.

The grand jury in the Michael Brown shooting didn’t take this long and Rice’s shooting is caught on video unlike Brown’s. Seems like the shorter time brings shocking results with “no indictment” so maybe the longer the better for Rice. Nonetheless, just because those cases did not go as planned, we should just throw in the towel for other similar cases.

Everyone stopped talking about Tamir Rice. Don’t forget about the child that was shot dead by the “protect and serve”.