On a Saturday afternoon, November 2014 – A 911 caller reported that there was someone at a Cleveland playground “waving a gun around at people.” The caller reported that it was possibly a juvenile, and that his weapon was “possibly a fake.” Within minutes of that call, Officers’ Frank Garmback and Timothy Loehmann arrived to the playground. Before their car came to a complete stop, Loehmann jumped out, and without, shot Tamir Rice in the chest. Literally one second after exiting his vehicle… It took four minutes after Tamir was shot before any aid was even rendered. Tamir was rushed to the hospital, where he later died. 

I would say that Loehmann gunned Tamir down like an animal, but we don’t even treat animals that way.  We actually live in a country where animal lives are valued over those of blacks. That poor child never stood a chance against Loehmann’s eagerness to discharge his weapon. Tamir Rice was an innocent; a sitting duck, waiting for his executioner.  If those officers thought for one second that he was a threat or a danger, why exit the safety of their vehicle with reckless abandon? Why not give him ample opportunity to follow some sort of directive? That didn’t happen, because Loehmann’s inability and immaturity left him incapable of good judgement…where there should have copious amounts of it.

In America, there is an state-sanctioned devaluation of black life – an automatic presumption of guilt that has permeated our legal system. We’ve come to expect justice that just isn’t for us. Although, what happened to Tamir Rice should be of concern and importance to all Americans…not just it’s black ones. Police brutality and subsequent cover-ups and prosecutorial inaction and misconduct, may affect the black community at higher rates, but every American is subject to find himself on receiving end of it. No one is policing our system of law-enforcement, and that in itself, is a huge problem. The only recourse available to the Rice family is a civil lawsuit. However, there is a sliver of hope that the Department of Justice will open it’s own investigation. We know how that turned out for Ferguson, Missouri, so expectations are tentative.Tamir bares no responsibility whatsoever for his own death. All the arguments for why he should not have been in that park with a realistic-looking gun, are born out of racial biases and ignorance.  Little boys have been playing with guns for forever. Tamir was no different. He was twelve. He didn’t have the emotional maturity to wonder if or be concerned if his black skin would make his a moving target for the police. He was simply a child at play.  Black parents everywhere, can no longer allow their little boys to be boys, without first arming them with the knowledge that their lives have no value in America, and at any innocent moment, they may find themselves on the receiving end of a bullet or prison.