Use the Tamir Rice Money to Teach Kids Not to Get Killed by Us, Cleveland Police Union Says
The president of the Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association, Steve Loomis, released a statement today saying that the family of Tamir Rice should spend part of their $6 million wrongful-death settlement to “educate the youth of Cleveland in the dangers associated with the mishandling of both real and facsimile firearms.”
Rice, who was 12 years old, was playing with a toy gun in a park when Cleveland police officers jumped out of their police cruiser, shot him in less than two seconds, left him lying on the ground without trying to treat his eventually fatal wound, and tackled and handcuffed his teenage sister when she tried to go to his aid.
Loomis—who had previously described the dead child as “menacing” and “in the wrong”—did not offer any proposals for educating the Cleveland police department about the difference between real and facsimile guns, or for teaching them to treat gunshot victims.