DOJ rules there isn't enough evidence to charge cops for Tamir Rice death

We wish we could be surprised but this is par for the course…

Source: Angelo Merendino / Getty

There will be no justice for Tamir Rice in America. According to CNN, the Department of Justice has decided that there is nothing they can do to hold the police officers who killed him accountable. Let them tell it, there was “insufficient evidence” to place charges on Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback.

“In order to establish a federal civil rights violation, the government would have to prove that Officer Loehmann’s actions were unreasonable under the circumstances, and that his actions were willful,” federal attorneys said. ” … an officer is permitted to use deadly force where he reasonably believes that the suspect posed an imminent threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others. “

The argument is that the DOJ would have to prove that Tamir wasn’t reaching for the airsoft BB gun that he possessed and also prove that Loehmann didn’t think that Tamir was holding what he perceived to be a weapon. Jonathan Abady, the Rice family attorney, says that Tamir’s mother is absolutely crushed by the news.

There are numerous ways these cops could have addressed this situation outside of shooting Tamir within seconds of encountering him at that park. The idea that they are not responsible for his unjust death is sickening. Loehmann was fired back in 2017 for lying about his employment history and Garmback was suspended for ten measly days for violating protocol for driving up on Tamir the way he did that day.

“This officer shot this 12-year-old boy within, within less than two seconds, within one second of arriving on the scene,” Abady said. “There’s no justification for it whatsoever. This was a child playing in a park.”