Sadly, a grand jury decided not to charge the officers involved in the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
If you aware of the story, Tamir was shot by the police because he had a toy gun. In a video it shows with in seconds how the police respond to Tamir. Their stories did not add up along with the dispatch call as well.
As evidence was gathered, the grand jury start meeting around October to see if they would charge Officers Loehmann and Garmback. Yesterday, they decided not to charge him with anything. The fact that there is no accountability of the murder of this young boy is atrocious. Prosecutor Tim McGinty, claimed he was doing his best. However, it feels like he was really defending the police department of Cuyahoga County. As the news went out, many people knew something was wrong with this case. Later, it was reported that there were issues with this case. The lawyer for the Rice family released this statement.
"Today, more than a year after Cleveland police shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, a grand jury voted not to indict the shooter. Tamir's family is saddened and disappointed by this outcome – but not surprised.
"It has been clear for months now that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty was abusing and manipulating the grand-jury process to orchestrate a vote against indictment. Even though video shows the police shooting Tamir in less than one second, Prosecutor McGinty hired so-called expert witnesses to try to exonerate the officers and tell the grand jury their conduct was reasonable and justified. It is unheard of, and highly improper, for a prosecutor to hire "experts" to try to exonerate the targets of a grand-jury investigation. These are the sort of "experts" we would expect the officer's criminal-defense attorney to hire — not the prosecutor.
"Then, Prosecutor McGinty allowed the police officers to take the oath and read prepared statements to the grand jury without answering any questions on cross-examination. Even though it is black-letter law that taking the stand waives the Fifth Amendment right to be silent, the prosecutor did not seek a court order compelling the officers to answer questions or holding the officers in contempt if they continued to refuse. This special treatment would never be given to non-police suspects.
"The way Prosecutor McGinty has mishandled the grand-jury process has compounded the grief of this family.
"The Rice family is grateful for all the community support they have received and urges people who want to express their disappointment with how Prosecutor McGinty has handled this process to do so peacefully and democratically. We renew our request that the Department of Justice step in to conduct a real investigation into this tragic shooting of a 12-year-old child."
Now they are hoping to take this to the Department of Justice. It's sad that this is how these cases are being dealt with today. It's also sad that we can't trust local justice systems to handle these cases. When it comes to black lives deals are made to protect everyone but the community. This is not the country I thought I lived in... Not at all.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment