I have past experience to go off of. I remember you all laughing about Tamir Rice’s and others’ murders.
Nobody is saying the cops are always right. Most of the time, shootings are a result of police error in not taking proper preventative precautions, or are the result of poor training.
But, watching the video of Tamir Rice, it is clear that the cop firing shots was running away. Did they **** up? The multi-million dollar wrongful death settlement says yes they did.
Should there have been an indictment? The witnesses called to testify before the grand jury indicate that the prosecutors were acting as defense lawyers. It makes me concerned. The problem is that the testimony offered only indicates that the officers may have acted recklessly, which should have lead to a indictment for manslaughter.
The more likely scenario is that everybody involved knew that the police officers made a mistake by rolling up on him that quickly, rather than proceeding with caution. When they did, they found themselves in a horrible position, defensively, and the passenger officer reacted like a person suddenly presented with a threat.
This is most likely another case of police error and poor training. Had the officers slowly approached the kid and given themselves appropriate distance, they would have had more time to make a proper decision whether to draw and fire.
A huge complicating factor in the Tamir Rice matter is his holding an object that has the appearance of a deadly weapon in low light.
