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Tamir Rice Family "In Shock" After Grand Jury Clears Police for Fatally Shooting Boy Holding Toy Gun
An Ohio grand jury has decided there will be no charges in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old African-American boy Tamir Rice. On November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice was playing with a toy pellet gun in a Cleveland park. A 911 caller reported seeing him with a weapon but noted it was "probably fake" and that the individual was "probably a juvenile"—that information was not relayed to the responding officers. After their police cruiser pulled up in front of Tamir, Officer Timothy Loehmann shot him within two seconds. Neither Loehmann nor his partner, Frank Garmback, administered any first aid to try to save Tamir’s life. They then tackled Tamir’s 14-year-old sister to the ground as she ran to her brother’s side, and handcuffed and put her in their cruiser as the boy lay dying on the ground. Tamir died of his injuries the following day. After a more than year-long investigation, the grand jury returned a decision Monday not to indict. "We are in shock," says Tamir Rice’s cousin, Latonya Goldsby. "We can’t believe this decision came down the way it did."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: An Ohio grand jury has decided there will be no charges for the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice, the youngest victim in a spate of well-known police killings of unarmed African Americans. On November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice was playing with a toy pellet gun in a Cleveland park. A 911 caller reported seeing him with a weapon but noted it was "probably fake" and that the individual was "probably a juvenile"—that information was not relayed to the responding officers. But family members and their supporters say that miscommunication did not justify what followed.
After their police cruiser pulled up in front of Tamir, Officer Timothy Loehmann shot him within two seconds. Neither Loehmann nor his partner, Frank Garmback, administered any first aid to try to save Tamir’s life. They then tackled Tamir’s 14-year-old sister to the ground as she ran to her brother’s side, handcuffed her and put her in their cruiser as the boy lay dying on the ground. Tamir died of his injuries the following day.
After a more than year-long investigation, the grand jury returned a decision Monday not to indict. The county prosecutor, Timothy McGinty, said he had recommended that outcome, citing a "perfect storm" of human error and miscommunication.
TIMOTHY McGINTY: Simply put, given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police. ... The police officers and the police department must live with the awful knowledge that their mistakes, however unintentional, led to the death of a 12-year-old boy. So will the police radio personnel whose errors were substantial contributing factors to the tragic outcome. They passed along detailed information about the guy, outside the rec center, his clothing, including the colors of his coat and his camouflage hat, but not the all-important facts that the 911 caller said the gunman was probably, quote, 'probably a juvenile' and the gun may not be real. Had the officers been aware of these qualifiers, the training officer who was driving might have approached the scene with less urgency.
AMY GOODMAN: Cleveland protesters reacted to the decision with a somber gathering at the park where Tamir Rice was killed. In a statement, Tamir Rice’s mother, Samaria Rice, said, quote, "In a time in which a non-indictment for two police officers who have killed an unarmed black child is business as usual, we mourn for Tamir, and for all of the black people who have been killed by the police without justice. In our view, this process demonstrates that race is still an extremely troubling and serious problem in our country and the criminal-justice system. I don’t want my child to have died for nothing and I refuse to let his legacy or his name be ignored. We will continue to fight for justice for him, and for all families who must live with the pain that we live with."
Samaria Rice also questioned the prosecutor’s motives, saying, quote, "McGinty deliberately sabotaged the case, never advocating for my son, and acting instead like the police officers’ defense attorney." Attorneys for the Rice family have asked the Justice Department to intervene over what they call "extreme bias" and "a charade process aimed at exonerating the officers." The Rice family has filed a federal civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit against Cleveland and the two officers involved. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division also continues its own probe. The prosecution faced criticism for an unusual grand jury process that dragged on for more than a year, saw the officers testify without cross-examination, and called so-called independent experts who the Rice family says were cherry-picked to encourage a non-indictment. Other experts did find probable cause, including a municipal court judge who recommended Officer Loehmann be charged with murder, manslaughter and reckless homicide.
Questions have also been raised about Officer Loehmann’s past. Loehmann had been deemed unfit for police service in 2012 when he worked in the suburb of Independence. A letter from a superior specifically criticizes Loehmann’s performance in firearms training, saying, "He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal," said his superior.
Meanwhile, Officer Frank Garmback, the officer who was driving the police cruiser, also has a troubled history. Cleveland reportedly paid out $100,000 in 2014 to a Cleveland resident named Tamela Eaton to settle an excessive force lawsuit brought against Garmback. The settlement stemmed from a 2010 confrontation in which Eaton said Garmback, quote, "rushed her, placed her in a chokehold, tackled her to the ground, twisted her wrist and began hitting her body."
At Monday’s news conference, Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Meyer explained the non-indictment by stressing that the toy gun Tamir Rice was holding looked real.
MATTHEW MEYER: Tamir had gotten a gun from a friend, who told investigators that he had removed the orange tip, the safety tip, that the gun had come with. And we have the model that had been purchased at a local Wal-Mart. And you’ll see that, as purchased, this Airsoft pistol should have had that orange safety tip to hopefully alert officers that this in fact was a toy. But the pistol that Tamir had that day had no such tip.
AMY GOODMAN: Prosecutors also emphasized that the officers thought Tamir Rice looked older than his age, and responded in line with the rules on active-shooter situations. But as has been asked so often in a series of killings of unarmed African Americans by police, the question remains: Would Tamir Rice be alive today if his skin was white?
For more, we’re joined by three guests. In Cleveland, Latonya Goldsby is with us. She’s Tamir Rice’s cousin. Also there, Elle Hearns, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Cleveland. And joining us by Democracy Now! video stream is Billy Joe Mills, one of the attorneys representing the Tamir Rice family.
Latonya, let’s go to you first. First of all, our condolences. Although this death took place over a year ago, I know you are reliving this today. Can you respond to the grand jury’s non-indictment of the officers?
LATONYA GOLDSBY: Yes. Thank you for your condolences. It’s truly appreciated. We’re in shock. We’re totally in shock. We can’t believe that this decision came down the way it did. Although we have seen other cases around the country where it has been a non-indictment, we still had hope that there would be some type of resolution or an indictment or an arrest of these officers for the actions that were taken that day when they killed Tamir.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you calling for now?
LATONYA GOLDSBY: Now, our call is for the officers to be arrested, and for somehow—or to be fired. We’re still looking for Loretta Lynch to step in and intervene and to see if there is some type of resolution that can be made as far as these officers actually facing charges.
AMY GOODMAN: Latonya, can you go back to that day? Now, you weren’t at the park, but at this point what you understood took place?
LATONYA GOLDSBY: Yes. I got the call about what happened, and it was actually a couple hours after Tamir had already been rushed to the emergency room when we found out that this was actually our little 12-year-old cousin that had been shot by the police. That day was just very chaotic. There was no answers, no questions, as to what had happened that day. We still don’t know what happened. All we know is that Tamir was playing in a park, and he was shot by the police. Later in the video that was released, we’ve seen what had taken place. He never even stood a chance. In less than one second, he was approached and he was shot, within that one second. So there was never any chance for survival or for him to be actually questioned about what he was doing at the park or anything.
AMY GOODMAN: In January, Tamir’s 14-year-old sister, your cousin Tajai, spoke on the Today show about how, after the shooting, she ran to Tamir, but the police tackled her to the ground, then handcuffed her and placed her in the cruiser, feet from her dying brother. This is what she said.
TAJAI RICE: I ran to the gazebo, and I couldn’t get there all the way to him, because the officer attacked me, threw me on the ground, tackled me on the ground, put me in handcuffs, and put me in the back of the police car, right next to his body.
AMY GOODMAN: How is Tajai today, Latonya?
LATONYA GOLDSBY: Tajai is doing as well as could be expected. She lost her 12-year-old brother. We have just went through Christmas, his mom’s birthday, Thanksgiving without him. It’s very hard. It’s difficult to actually have to watch his murder play out over TV every day, the video just replaying constantly. You see his last few moments of life in that video. So it’s been very hard. But we’re—she’s dealing.
AMY GOODMAN: Billy Joe Mills, you’re one of the attorneys for the family. The prosecutor says that when you look carefully at the video, that Tamir Rice was actually reaching to get the gun. He said maybe he was actually going to give it to the police officers, but that’s not what the police officers thought. Your response to the grand jury decision and the prosecutor being very clear in recommending non-indictment, saying it was a perfect storm?
BILLY JOE MILLS: [inaudible] emphasize that I think, and the family’s attorneys think, that he is part of that perfect storm of human error. He’s contributing to the injustice by creating a 400-day investigation and, essentially, cover-up that allowed him time to find experts that would say this shooting was justified, to find grand jury members that—essentially, what they do is they control the entire process, the way that the information is presented. And so, what’s very interesting, you just mentioned that McGinty talked about the way that Tamir was pulling on the gun or touching the gun as the officers arrived. But the experts that McGinty hired himself said and admit in their report that that is unclear. And then we presented evidence, the family took the step of presenting experts, three experts, all of whom—
AMY GOODMAN: Billy Joe Mills, we’re going to—we’re going to reconnect with you to get a better-quality sound. We’re going to go to break and then come back. Billy Joe Mills is one of the attorneys for the Tamir Rice family. We’re also joined by Tamir’s cousin, Latonya Goldsby. And Elle Hearns will also speak to us, one of the organizers of Black Lives Matter Cleveland. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Our guests are in Cleveland and on the road to New York from Cleveland. Billy Joe Mills is with us, one of the attorneys for the Rice family. Latonya Goldsby is Tamir’s cousin. And Elle Hearns is with Black Lives Matter Cleveland.
Elle Hearns, what are the options now? Layonya mentioned Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney general, a civil rights investigation. The family has a lawsuit. What are you demanding in Black Lives Matter?
ELLE HEARNS: Yeah, that’s a wonderful question. We’re definitely demanding what the family is asking for support with, which is definitely demanding for the DOJ to support an investigation of the happenings here in Cleveland. We’re also demanding for the immediate firing of the officers. It’s really an insult that officers that are responsible for the murder of a child still are actively employed and that the city is providing them space to continuously be employed and also supported by city funds. So, you know, a lot of what we are demanding is really reflective of the family and the support that they are asking for directly from officials, elected officials, and also the local community in Cleveland, and what they have been rallying around for the last year and also around the murders of other black people in the city of Cleveland at the hands of the police.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn back to Billy Joe Mills. The family of Tamir Rice, Samaria Rice, Tamir’s mother, has said that the prosecutor sabotaged the case. Are there other avenues to pursue this outside of the civil rights investigation by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office? Let me put that question to Elle Hearns as we get Billy Joe Mills on the line.
ELLE HEARNS: Yeah. So, other avenues that I think, from a legal space—that’s not necessarily my expertise, but what I will say is that anytime there is no justice provided to the life of someone that is taken, it will always provide space for a movement to exist. When the life of a child is taken, when the life of Tamir is not honored in the judicial process, that will always provide space for organizers, activists, community members to be involved in really exercising their First Amendment rights and also advocating for what they feel best is the need directly in their community. And that is to make sure that the community is safe, and not just safe from intercommunity violence, but also the violence at the hands of the police. And we’ve seen consistently in the city of Cleveland that the police are the biggest culprits of a lot of the violence in the overpolicing within the community. So, you know, the other avenues are definitely for the community to have investments, so that they can actually dictate what’s happening in their community and who actually is in power, so that another senseless murder of someone’s child doesn’t happen again.
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Connecticut Reporter Resigns After Boss "Pimps Out Paper" to Billionaire GOP Donor Sheldon Adelson
A Connecticut newspaper reporter has resigned after alleging gross misconduct by ownership on behalf of billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson. Steve Collins has worked at The Bristol Press for more than two decades. But on Christmas Eve, he announced he’s stepping down after it was revealed the paper’s owner, Michael Schroeder, ran a plagiarized article under a fake name that criticized a Nevada judge who had challenged Adelson’s business dealings. Schroeder is the manager of News + Media Capital Group LLC, an Adelson shell company that recently bought a different paper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal. In a Facebook post, Steve Collins wrote: "The owner of my paper is guilty of journalistic misconduct of epic proportions. … Journalism is nothing if we reporters falter and fade. We are doing something important and men such as Mr. Schroeder and Mr. Adelson—no matter how much money they can toss around—cannot have their way with us." Steve Collins joins us to discuss his ordeal and his decision to resign. "It felt like my boss was pimping out our paper to serve the interest of a billionaire out in Las Vegas," he says.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: A Connecticut newspaper reporter has resigned after alleging gross misconduct by ownership on behalf of billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson. Steve Collins has worked at The Bristol Press for more than two decades, but on Christmas Eve he announced he’s stepping down, after it was revealed the paper’s owner, Michael Schroeder, ran a plagiarized article under a fake name that criticized a Nevada judge who had challenged Adelson’s business dealings. Schroeder is the manager of News + Media Capital Group LLC, an Adelson shell company that recently bought a different paper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Steve Collins said, quote, "[T]he owner of my paper is guilty of journalistic misconduct of epic proportions. ... Journalism is nothing if we reporters falter and fade. We are doing something important and men such as Mr. Schroeder and Mr. Adelson—no matter how much money they can toss around—cannot have their way with us." Collins is the second journalist to resign over Adelson’s media dealings in recent weeks. The top editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Michael Hengel, stepped down days after the paper published an article indirectly critical of its new owners.
For more, we’re joined by Steve Collins, the now former reporter for The Bristol Press. Along with his wife, he’s also the co-founder of Youth Journalism International, a group that teaches journalism to students around the world. He has just been awarded $5,000 by the I.F. Stone whistleblower award by legendary journalist I.F. Stone’s son, Jeremy Stone.
Welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us, Steve. Can you start off—this is a very confusing story. Explain how your paper, The Bristol Press, is connected to what’s just taken place in Nevada.
STEVE COLLINS: Well, that’s a complicated thing to do—whoops, I lost the mic. It’s a complicated thing to do, because we don’t know exactly what happened, other than a story appeared under a fake byline in our paper a few weeks ago, and we—and we just discovered all about that. The—
AMY GOODMAN: [inaudible] exactly what you mean?
STEVE COLLINS: Well, it’s the—a piece that ran in the paper was attacking judges in Nevada. It had nothing to do with Connecticut, nothing to do with the region that we cover. It ran under a name from someone we didn’t know. It was full of plagiarized material. You know, I saw that after all this had come out, and it was like—it felt like my boss was pimping out our paper to serve the interest of a billionaire out in Las Vegas. In fact—
AMY GOODMAN: But explain the connection between Michael Schroeder, your publisher, The Bristol Press, and what’s happening now in Las Vegas.
STEVE COLLINS: Oh, well, Mr. Schroeder was—when the paper was purchased out in Las Vegas, he showed up in the newsroom in Las Vegas to announce it to the staff there. He wouldn’t say who had purchased it. And he basically told them to forget about it and do their jobs. When I first saw that Michael Schroeder had been in the newsroom, it really didn’t even occur to me that it was our Michael Schroeder. I saw a picture on Twitter of him, and it just blew me away. I couldn’t believe that he had anything to do with it. He’s just—
AMY GOODMAN: And explain who Michael Schroeder is, your publisher, and who Edward Clarkin is.
STEVE COLLINS: Well, they may be one and the same. We’re still trying to figure that out. But Edward Clarkin was the name on the piece that ran, and that piece was put into the paper by Mr. Schroeder. Edward Clarkin also showed up on some old restaurant reviews that ran in the early days after Mr. Schroeder had purchased our paper. It sounds an awful lot like him, but we don’t know. It’s a fake name. And all we know is he’s responsible for it, and that he has said—
AMY GOODMAN: So you’ve never met this Edward Clarkin in your newsroom?
STEVE COLLINS: No, there’s no Edward Clarkin. He doesn’t exist.
AMY GOODMAN: And what makes you think he’s Michael Schroeder?
STEVE COLLINS: Well, because the name had showed up on restaurant reviews, and I know that Michael Schroeder used to go and—go to restaurants to review them. I know that when Mr. Schroeder was at BostonNOW before he came to my paper, there was also a review with the name Edward Clarkin on it. It all seems too coincidental. And, you know, it’s—
AMY GOODMAN: Now, Edward is Michael Schroeder’s middle name, and Clarkin is his mom’s maiden name?
STEVE COLLINS: That is exactly right.
AMY GOODMAN: And if you could explain the connection between Michael Schroeder, this article that was written—so you have a local press, The Bristol Press in Connecticut. He’s writing about a Nevada judge, going after a judge in Nevada?
STEVE COLLINS: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it was a little broader than that, but it was a piece that had nothing to do with our coverage area, nothing to do with our newspaper. It was a truly bizarre thing to be published in our paper. And I don’t know—I don’t know why it was there. I mean, I can’t answer that—
AMY GOODMAN: Now—
STEVE COLLINS: —other than—other than it’s—oh, go ahead.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you planning to do? You worked at this paper for 20 years. You have now quit the paper. How will you get by? And what made you finally decide to do this?
STEVE COLLINS: Well, it was a very hard decision. You know, I loved The Bristol Press. I loved covering Bristol. I think the local news is a very important thing. It’s hard to give that up. And I don’t really know what I’m going to do. The charity that my wife and I run, Youth Journalism International, certainly could use some more of my attention. It’s a big part of why I quit, because I can’t go out and teach all those kids about journalistic ethics and the values of our profession, and then take money from a man who clearly doesn’t care one wit about what we do or why.
AMY GOODMAN: We reached your publisher, Michael Schroeder, Democracy Now! did, but he just repeatedly said, "No comment." What has he responded to your questions? You work for him.
STEVE COLLINS: He’s never explained anything to anybody. I think he doesn’t think he has to. And, you know, I suppose if you’re in the pocket of somebody like Mr. Adelson, you don’t need to.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, your response to Michael Hengel, the editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, stepping down after the paper was purchased by Sheldon Adelson, although for a while it was cloaked in mystery right before the Republican debate. No one—the reporters did not know who had bought them.
STEVE COLLINS: Right. They have performed yeoman’s work for our entire profession. I have nothing but the greatest respect for all those people out there who have been working on the story, knowing that their jobs are in grave danger. You know, to my way of thinking, that they are on the frontlines of a battle for the soul of our profession. And we all have a responsibility to do everything we can to fight this trend and to try to make sure that a free and independent press survives in this country.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Steve Collins, I want to thank you for being with us, joining us from Hartford, Connecticut. And congratulations on your I.F. Stone Award, awarded by I.F. Stone’s son, Jeremy Stone.
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When Will the Killings Stop? Calls for Justice as Tamir Rice Joins List of Unpunished Police Deaths
Tamir Rice was the youngest victim in a series of well-known cases of police killings of unarmed African Americans—and the latest whose death led to no charges against the officers involved. "There needs to be a complete recall of the distribution of resources that provide police the opportunity to continue to wreak havoc in the lives of black individuals," says Elle Hearns, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Cleveland. "This cannot consistently be where we are—week after week, month after month, year after year—with no accountability for these officers, no accountability by the city officials, no accountability by the federal government."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: And let me ask Elle Hearns, after the grand jury decision not to charge the officers in the Tamir Rice shooting, the Department of Justice issued the statement saying, quote, "We will continue our independent review of this matter, assess all available materials and determine what actions are appropriate, given the strict burdens and requirements imposed by applicable federal civil rights laws." The statement went on to say that the DOJ will continue its reforms of the Cleveland Police Department following the finding of a pattern or practice of excessive use of force. Does that satisfy you in the Black Lives Matter movement?
ELLE HEARNS: No, absolutely not. I think because we are aware of the insidious history that policing has had in the genocide against black bodies in this country, that is not satisfactory. I think that there needs to be a complete recall of policing and the distribution of resources that provide police the opportunity to continue to wreak havoc in the lives of black individuals specifically. I think that we have seen the Department of Justice across this country open investigations and not actually develop anything that was truly revolutionary towards the reform that community members, activist organizers are demanding through the uprisings that we’ve seen. So it’s not satisfactory. It’s just another attempt by government officials to posture as if they are working on fixing a continuous, consistent issue that we continue to see every single day. Every 28 hours, a black person is murdered by the police. We’ve seen recently in Chicago murders of individuals just in the past week.
And so, this cannot consistently be where we are—week after week, month after month, year after year—with no accountability from these officers, no accountability by the city officials, no accountability by the federal government. And so, it’s not satisfactory until we continue to see officers removed, until we see pensions removed from their futures, and also until we see a complete recalling of the way that policing is orchestrated. And if the people are not in control of the police, if people don’t have any say-so in what the police are doing in their communities, it will never be satisfactory to me, and I’m sure it won’t be satisfactory to anyone involved in the Black Lives Matter movement or the network that has consistently influenced the movement.
AMY GOODMAN: Interestingly, last week in Torrington, Connecticut, police arrested a 66-year-old white woman after she brandished a fake handgun outside the police department. Police said Elaine Rothenberg pointed a gun at civilians, asked if they were police, yelled about hating cops, shouted to police, quote, "What are you going to do? Shoot me?" She reportedly raised the gun, pointed it at officers, yelling, "Boom! Boom! Boom!" A photo of the BB gun she had shows it did not appear to have an orange tab indicating it’s fake. Rothenberg was arrested without incident after throwing down the gun. Activists have compared this to what happened to Tamir Rice. Elle Hearns, your comment?
ELLE HEARNS: I think that it is exactly what white privilege looks like. And I think that America has a way of denying that privilege in this country exists. And going even outside of the murder of Tamir, then we also have to look at the murder of Tanisha Anderson, who was also brutally murdered by the police in a response to a mental health episode, that they obviously were not able to respond effectively to because of their lack of training towards black individuals who suffer from mental health issues. So the fact that this 66-year-old woman, who made public threats towards the police outside of a police department, was able to walk away and only—I don’t even know if she was arrested, but the fact that she was able to walk away with her life still intact speaks to the deeper, systemic structural racism that exists and also what it looks like to be white in America and the privilege that black individuals do not have. And unfortunately, Tamir did not have that opportunity. Within one second, his life was taken. And so it is an insult for there to be accountability laid on the life of a child for the reason why he was murdered, and a 66-year-old responsible elder walks away with life. It’s an insult.
AMY GOODMAN: Latonya, I want to end with you. You have a son in the age range of Tamir, your cousin?
LATONYA GOLDSBY: My daughter, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Your daughter.
LATONYA GOLDSBY: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: How do you explain to her what happened?
LATONYA GOLDSBY: It’s very difficult. They are old enough to understand that they are black children in America and that they already have a strike against them. So, teaching them that, you know, you have to comply with what police officers say, whether they are giving you structures to come here or whatever, you know, there is this scenario that black children or black men or black people are a threat, and that’s just totally untrue. So, in order to prepare my son, my daughter for encounters with police, just do what they say, you know, because there’s no guarantee that they’re having a good day. We don’t know what that encounter may tell, as you see with Tamir Rice, my 12-year-old cousin, just simply playing in a park, where kids play. Not to mention that his school was in that location. He visited that recreation center daily. So people were very familiar with him in that area.
AMY GOODMAN: Latonya, you tweeted on Monday, "@Mizzou footballers did it. You can, too @KingJames. Tamir could have been your son. #NoJusticeNoLebron."
LATONYA GOLDSBY: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: What is—can you say whether LeBron James responded and why you see this linked to the Missouri football players?
LATONYA GOLDSBY: No, he hasn’t responded. Tamir was—Tamir idolized LeBron—that was his favorite basketball player—as most children do. He was his hero. So I felt like reaching out to him in a response that maybe it could generate some type of response from the basketball team, the way that the Missouri football team stood up for their rights, hoping that he would do the same thing.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Elle, are there more protests planned?
ELLE HEARNS: I can tell you that if the justice system is not interested in holding those accountable who are responsible for the murder of children, that the people will hold those folks accountable. And so, there will continuously be accountability and pressure for those who are responsible for the murder of Tamir Rice. And as long as this family has to suffer with no justice, then the people will continue to support in any way that we can to make sure that those who are responsible are held accountable.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you all for being with us, Elle Hearns with Black Lives Matter Cleveland; Latonya Goldsby, her cousin is Tamir Rice; and Billy Joe Mills, one of the attorneys for the Rice family. This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we go to Connecticut. Stay with us.
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Prosecutors in Tamir Rice Case Accused of Rigging Grand Jury to Clear 2 Officers with Troubled Past
After the grand jury’s decision not to indict, Tamir Rice’s mother Samaria Rice accused the prosecutor of "deliberately sabotag[ing] the case, never advocating for my son, and acting instead like the police officers’ defense attorney." Attorneys for the Rice family have asked the Justice Department to intervene over what they call "extreme bias" and "a charade process aimed at exonerating the officers." Questions have also been raised about the officers’ past. In a previous stint at a different Ohio police department, Timothy Loehmann, who fatally shot Tamir, had been declared unfit for duty and "dismal" with his handgun. His fellow responding officer, Frank Garmback, also has a troubled history, with Cleveland paying $100,000 to a city resident who accused him of excessive force. We discuss the officers’ past and the prosecutors’ conduct with Rice family attorney Billy Joe Mills.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask about the earlier reports that emerged that the officer responsible for Tamir Rice’s death, Timothy Loehmann, was deemed unfit for police service over two years ago when he worked in the suburb of Independence. A letter from a superior specifically criticizes Loehmann’s performance in firearms training, saying, quote, "He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal." Meanwhile, Officer Frank Garmback, the officer who was driving the police cruiser, also has, to say the least, a troubled history. Cleveland reportedly paid out $100,000 to a Cleveland resident named Tamela Eaton to settle an excessive force lawsuit brought against Garmback. The settlement stemmed from a 2010 confrontation in which Eaton said Garmback, quote, "rushed her, placed her in a chokehold, tackled her to the ground, twisted her wrist and began hitting her body." Billy Joe Mills, does this have any bearing on Tamir Rice’s case? I mean, start with Loehmann, the man who shot Tamir Rice. He’s forced out of a department because he had low impulse control and because his handling of handguns was appalling.
BILLY JOE MILLS: That’s right. He was forced out of a department that also was a suburban police department, a police department in which you would not expect there to be as many tense, high—you know, high-impulse situations as the city of Cleveland. And yet, the city of Cleveland completely neglected to even look into his employment record, and they have now gone back and looked at the hiring process and disciplined, I believe it was, the two hiring officers that were responsible for bringing Officer Loehmann on board. And so, that’s Officer Loehmann, completely unfit to even handle a weapon, completely unfit to be in that situation to begin with. Then, Officer Garmback, who was the driver of that vehicle, he was training Officer Loehmann at that time. Let’s not forget, Officer Garmback, the driver, created the danger by driving right up to Tamir. He’s the one that had more experience. He drove right up to Tamir and created the danger that they then saw fit to shoot their way out of.
AMY GOODMAN: And the issue of this unusual grand jury process, Billy Joe Mills, can you explain why it’s unusual?
BILLY JOE MILLS: Yes. If you’ve got another hour to give me, Amy, I can go over everything with you, but I’ll give you the highlights. First of all, the officers have criminal defense attorneys. They ignored their attorney’s advice to remain silent in the grand jury process. So what they did is they wrote prepared statements. They took the oath in front of the grand jury and then read those statements to the grand jury. What’s extremely unusual here is that, any other situation, if these were not police officers, the prosecutor would be salivating at the opportunity to then cross-examine the people who waived their Fifth Amendment right, because that’s what they did there. They waived their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. So, that’s one big thing.
Second big thing, Prosecutor McGinty hired three experts, all of whom concluded that this was a justified shooting. Those experts would be normally selected by the defense attorneys, the attorneys representing the police officers. There is not any randomness. When an attorney hires an expert, there is no randomness in it. Any attorney in this country that is worth, you know, a pint of beer an hour knows exactly what their experts are going to say before they are hired.
AMY GOODMAN: And the story of the municipal judge who recommended Officer Loehmann be charged with murder, manslaughter and reckless homicide last year, can you explain what his standing was?
BILLY JOE MILLS: Sure. Well, he found probable cause for—to say that the officers committed a crime, which, again, that’s what the grand jury was looking at: Was there probable cause to say that a crime was committed here? It’s a pretty low standard to meet. And the video, in itself—and this is what Judge Adrine—he’s the judge you’re referring to—Judge Adrine essentially said the video itself is sufficient evidence to say there is probable cause that a crime has been committed here. What he—what he unfortunately chose not to do was take the next step, which was to say, "I find there’s probable cause, and I am also going to issue arrest warrants for these officers." So, unfortunately, he did not take that step.
AMY GOODMAN: And the experts that you describe, that the prosecutor called, who were they? And if you were the prosecutor in this case, how would you see there being a different outcome? He said if you look carefully at the video—and they slowed it up, and they enhanced it—that, you know, that Tamir was showing—was pointing the gun at them, though he did say maybe it was because he wanted to give it to them?
BILLY JOE MILLS: Right. So that portion is very strange, and perhaps, to me, the strangest part of his press conference, the prosecutor’s press conference, yesterday, because, again, none of his experts, in their reports, said with any definitive certainty that Tamir was pulling the gun or trying to, you know, threaten the officers with it—they said that, essentially, that it was uncertain—but then took the next step to say, well, in that moment, in that one to two seconds of time—and our—one of the experts we hired said that it’s really just one second of time—in that one second of time, the officers were reasonable in feeling threatened by Tamir.
And so, the big—from a legal perspective, the big argument in this case is: What is the zoom? What is the focus level that you look at this situation from? Do you look at the total circumstances and realize and appreciate that the officers fabricated and created a danger that did not exist at all, a perceived danger? Or do you just zoom way in and look at the one to two seconds in which Officer Loehmann is within four-and-a-half to nine feet of Tamir Rice and say that he is justified in that moment? So that is the big—that is the big legal dispute here. And there is Sixth Circuit law, Kirby v. Duva, that says you can consider the police officers’ tactics, you can consider the totality of facts, when analyzing whether an officer is reasonable.
AMY GOODMAN: So, there is a lawsuit now that they family has. Where does that go, Billy Joe Mills?
BILLY JOE MILLS: Well, that’s currently pending in the Northern District of Ohio. And we’re going to—as we put everything we have into the criminal side of the case, we’re going to put everything we have into the civil rights case. We’re also going to—as Latonya and Elle have said, we are going to do everything we can to continue to try to get some measure of criminal accountability through the Department of Justice, perhaps, because—
AMY GOODMAN: And have you been speaking to the Department of Justice? Will there be a civil rights investigation?
BILLY JOE MILLS: We put together an extensive letter to the Department of Justice. It attached all of our complaints, showing all of the irregularities and unprecedented behavior of the prosecutor. And they are currently reviewing our request. But we don’t have any further information at this time, unfortunately.
AMY GOODMAN: Could another grand jury be convened?
BILLY JOE MILLS: Yes, not under Prosecutor McGinty, but, yes, that is possible.
AMY GOODMAN: And who would be the prosecutor in that case? And is there precedent for this?
BILLY JOE MILLS: Well, again, this entire thing has been incredibly unusual and unprecedented, to have a prosecutor acting as defense attorney and doing everything that he’s done, insulting the family, talking about the family having financial incentives for seeking criminal accountability. You know, there are—it could come from a future prosecutor. It could come from a special prosecutor being appointed, there being some kind of intervention, perhaps intervention from, you know, the state’s attorney general, Mike DeWine. You know, there are a couple of possibilities. We’re not—we don’t think there’s particularly high hope for any of those possibilities at this time, but we’re definitely going to be exploring every single possible avenue that is available.
... Read More →Headlines:No Indictment in Cleveland Police Shooting of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice
An Ohio grand jury has decided there will be no charges in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old African-American boy Tamir Rice. On November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice was playing with a toy pellet gun in a Cleveland park. A 911 caller reported seeing him with a weapon but noted it was "probably fake" and that the individual was "probably a juvenile"—that information was not relayed to the responding officers. After their police cruiser pulled up in front of Tamir, Officer Timothy Loehmann shot him within two seconds. Neither Loehmann nor his partner, Frank Garmback, administered any first aid to try to save Tamir’s life. They then tackled Tamir’s 14-year-old sister to the ground as she ran to her brother’s side, and handcuffed and put her in their cruiser as the boy lay dying on the ground. Tamir died of his injuries the following day. After a more than year-long investigation, the grand jury returned a decision Monday not to indict. The county prosecutor, Timothy McGinty, said he had recommended that outcome, citing a "perfect storm" of human error and miscommunication.
Timothy McGinty: "The police officers and the police department must live with the awful knowledge that their mistakes, however unintentional, led to the death of a 12-year-old boy. So will the police radio personnel whose errors were substantial contributing factors to the tragic outcome. They passed along detailed information about the guy, outside the rec center, his clothing, including the colors of his coat and his camouflage hat, but not the all-important facts that the 911 caller said the gunman was probably, quote, 'probably a juvenile' and the gun may not be real. Had the officers been aware of these qualifiers, the training officer who was driving might have approached the scene with less urgency."
Cleveland protesters reacted to the decision with a somber gathering at the park where Tamir Rice was killed. The protesters have raised questions about the histories of the two officers involved in Rice’s death. Officer Loehmann had been deemed unfit for police service in 2012 when he worked in the suburb of Independence. And Officer Frank Garmback, who drove the cruiser, was the subject of a lawsuit where the city of Cleveland paid $100,000 to settle reports of excessive force. We’ll have more on the Tamir Rice case after headlines.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Returns from Cuba amid Calls for ResignationChicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has cut short his vacation to Cuba amid renewed calls for his resignation over police shootings of African Americans. Over the weekend, Chicago police killed a college student and a grandmother while responding to a call the student, Quintonio LeGrier, was behaving oddly and carrying a metal bat. Police say they shot 55-year-old Bettie Jones by mistake. The shooting came as Mayor Emanuel already faced pressure to resign over the more than year-old police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald amid allegations of a police cover-up. The officer who killed McDonald is to be arraigned in court today. A spokesperson for Mayor Emanuel said he was returning home to "continue the ongoing work of restoring accountability and trust in the Chicago Police Department."
Extreme Weather Continues to Ravage Parts of U.S.
Extreme weather fueled by climate change continues to ravage parts of the United States. Severe flooding across the South caused two barges to sink in Mississippi while a road collapsed in South Carolina. In Wichita, Kansas, powerful winds forced a passenger jet carrying 160 people off the runway. Meanwhile, officials in Missouri say four international soldiers who were in the state for training are among the flooding victims. Their car was swept away as they drove.
Nigeria: At Least 80 Killed in Attacks by Boko Haram
In Nigeria, at least 80 people have reportedly been killed in attacks by the group Boko Haram. The militants attacked Maiduguri and Madagali in northeastern Nigeria with rocket-propelled grenades and suicide bombers. The attacks came just days after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria has "technically won the war" against Boko Haram.
Iran Hands Over Uranium in Major Step Toward Fulfilling Nuclear Deal
Iran has taken a major step toward implementation of its nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers. On Monday, a Russian ship departed Iran carrying nearly all of Iran’s supply of low-enriched uranium. State Department spokesperson Mark Toner hailed the step.
Mark Toner: "One of the most important steps occurred earlier today when a ship departed Iran for Russia carrying over 25,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium materials. This shipment alone more than triples the previous—our previous two-to-three-month estimated breakout time for Iran to acquire enough weapon-grade uranium for one weapon. So this is an important piece of the technical equation, as it ensures an eventual breakout time of at least one year by implementation day."
Hundreds Evacuated from Besieged Syrian Areas Under U.N. Deal
Hundreds of wounded Syrian fighters and their families from opposing sides of the war in Syria have been evacuated from besieged areas under a U.N.-brokered deal. Shiites trapped in pro-government towns in northwestern Syria were evacuated to Beirut, while Sunni rebel fighters trapped near the Lebanese border were flown to southern Turkey. The deal comes ahead of peace talks planned for next month.
Syrian Journalist Naji Jerf "Assassinated" in TurkeyA Syrian journalist and documentary filmmaker who worked to expose atrocities by the self-proclaimed Islamic State has been killed in Turkey. Naji Jerf worked with the citizen journalist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently. In a statement, the group said Jerf was "assassinated" with a silencer-equipped pistol in a Turkish town near the Syrian border. He was due to fly with his family the next day to seek asylum in France.
Relatives of Drowned Syrian 3-Year-Old Alan Kurdi Arrive in Canada
Relatives of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose image was shown around the world after his body washed up on the Turkish coast, have arrived in Canada as refugees. Alan Kurdi drowned with his mother and brother while the family was attempting to reach Greece. His uncle, aunt and five children have arrived in Canada, among the tens of thousands of people Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to accept. Alan Kurdi’s father, who survived the attempted crossing that killed his son, is now in Iraq and plans to remain. In a Christmas message, Abdullah Kurdi appealed to the world to accept refugees.
Abdullah Kurdi: "My message is I’d like the whole world to open its doors to Syrians. If a person shuts a door in someone’s face, this is very difficult. When a door is opened, they no longer feel humiliated. At this time of year, I would like to ask you all to think about the pain of fathers, mothers and children who are seeking peace and security. We ask just for a little bit of sympathy from you."
Central American Countries Reach Deal on U.S.-Bound Cuban Migrants
Central American countries have agreed on a plan to deal with some of the 8,000 U.S.-bound Cuban migrants who have been stranded in Costa Rica. The migrants are trying to reach the United States amid fears thawing relations between the U.S. and Cuba could end U.S. asylum rights for Cubans. Nicaragua closed its border to the Cubans in mid-November. The new plan will see some number of the refugees flown to El Salvador, then put on buses to travel toward the United States.
Report: Pentagon Thwarting Release of Guantánamo Prisoners
A new report reveals how the Pentagon has thwarted the Obama administration’s efforts to close Guantánamo by imposing bureaucratic hurdles to delay or derail the release of prisoners. According to Reuters, a former official compared negotiating prisoner releases with the Pentagon to "punching a pillow." Pentagon delays forced four Afghan prisoners to spend an additional four years in Guantánamo after they were approved for transfer. The Pentagon has refused to provide photographs and basic documentation to foreign governments willing to take prisoners and barred those delegations from spending the night at Guantánamo, making it much harder for them to interview prisoners as part of the transfer process. In one case, the Pentagon refused to release medical records for a hunger-striking Yemeni prisoner to a delegation from a country that was considering taking him in. To this day, the prisoner, Ba Odah, remains at Guantánamo, five years after he was cleared for release. The Pentagon still refuses to provide his complete medical file, even though his attorney says he has given full consent.
Trump Changes Stance on U.S. Wages, Saying They are "Too Low"
On the campaign trail, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has changed his stance on U.S. wages, a day after Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders said he thought he could win over Trump’s supporters. Trump had previously said U.S. wages were "too high," but on Monday, he tweeted, "Wages in are [sic] country are too low." Trump visited the key primary state of New Hampshire Monday, after the publisher of the state’s largest newspaper wrote an editorial entitled "Trump campaign insults NH voters’ intelligence." The publisher, Joseph McQuaid, compared Trump to "the grownup bully 'Biff' in the 'Back to the Future' movie series." Speaking at a rally, Trump called McQuaid a "lowlife" and "sleazebag."
Former KKK Leader David Duke: Trump Sounds "A Lot More Radical" Than Me
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke is making headlines after saying Trump is more radical than he is. Duke made the remarks in an interview posted online.
David Duke: "As far as what I see, according to the candidates that are out there now, Republicans and Democrats, I think he’s head and shoulders right now above the rest. I don’t agree with everything he says. He speaks a little more—actually, he speaks a little more—a lot more radically than I talk. And I think that’s a positive and negative."
Sanders Calls Trump a "Demagogue" in Nevada AddressDemocratic candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders took aim at Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Nevada Monday. Speaking before thousands, Sanders called Trump a demagogue.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: "There are people out there—Donald Trump and others—who are attempting to do what demagogues have always done. And that is, instead of bringing people together to address and solve the real problems that we face, what they try to do is tap the anger and the frustration that people are feeling and then divide us up. So we have a message to Trump and all the others out there who want to divide us up: No, we’re not going to hate Latinos, we’re not going to hate Muslims, we are going to stand together."
U.S. Judge Blocks Missouri from Revoking Planned Parenthood Clinic's License
A federal judge has blocked the state of Missouri from revoking Planned Parenthood’s license to perform abortions at a clinic in Columbia, saying the state took "unprecedented hasty actions" against the clinic as a result of pressure from anti-choice lawmakers. But the clinic still cannot perform abortions until it finds a provider who can comply with a state law requiring staffers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The clinic’s physician did have admitting privileges, but in September, under pressure from anti-choice lawmakers, a panel at the University of Missouri Health Care system voted to discontinue them. For now, Missouri, with a population of more than 6 million people, has only one clinic able to provide abortions.
"Affluenza" Teenager Ethan Couch Detained with Mother in Mexico
And Ethan Couch, the white Texas teenager spared jail time after he killed four people in a drunk-driving crash, has been detained with his mother by authorities in Mexico. Ethan Couch killed a motorist and three Good Samaritans who had stopped to help her, and left one of his friends with brain damage. But he was sentenced to no time in jail after a psychologist testified he had "affluenza"—meaning his wealthy upbringing left him unable to tell right from wrong. Couch disappeared with his mother after video appeared to show him at a party, a possible violation of his probation. He and his mother were detained near the Mexican beach resort of Puerto Vallarta.Donate today:
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