On Nov. 22, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was snatched away from his family after a Cleveland Police officer killed him. But instead of focusing on the violent acts of unaccountable police officers, NewsOne joins his family and loved ones in honoring Tamir on his birthday during the tenth year of his life in remembrance.
Tamir would have been 22 years old on Tuesday. And while he will unfortunately never grow into adulthood, his family has honored the legacy and possibility of what his future should have been.
That includes activism and awareness from his mother, Samaria Rice, who has consistently and faithfully kept her son’s name alive. As such, Samaria Rice invited members of her Cleveland community to join her on Tuesday to celebrate her son’s life. Samaria Rice also encouraged people to support the Tamir Rice Foundation.
Rice’s family has continued to support advocacy efforts addressing police reform and violence.
The Department of Justice declined to pursue charges in Tamir’s killing. Samaria challenged the decision. Her efforts were also supported by a letter from dozens of legal scholars firmly suggesting the agency reevaluate its statutory interpretation in regards to charging police for violating people’s civil rights under the color of law.
In 2022, the Rice family dedicated a butterfly garden at Cudell Park on the site where Tamir was killed near a gazebo. “This butterfly garden was created by Tamir’s community, who helped to turn it into something beautiful for better memories going forward, for the park, the Rice Family and the community,” reads a marker at the site.
During the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the butterfly garden, Samaria spoke of the pain she endured losing her young son. “As his mother, the pain is so real. I will be in pain for the rest of my life. With my pain, I was able to turn it into power by being Tamir’s voice and seeing the vision for our community by being in service to the people, especially our youth, me and my family struggled daily, but through the grace of God, we’re taking one day at a time and living the best that we can.
This butterfly memorial is very important to me and my family. This is the last memory I have of my son playing in the park, as children should be able to play in parks in America.”
Last year, Samaria Rice announced that she was moving the Tamir Rice Foundation away from Cleveland. “I’m not getting any support out of Cleveland from anywhere,” Samaria Rice told Spectrum News at the time. “So, I just think the best thing is to maybe take it to Chicago, where the gazebo is.”
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
According to estimates compiled by the Mapping Police Violence project, roughly 1,000 people have been killed by law enforcement in the past year. The new report revealed that at least 28 percent of those killed were African Americans, who make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population. Although this figure is staggering, the Center for American Progress (CAP) noted that it is almost certainly under-represents the actual number of civilians who died while in the custody of the criminal justice system. The full scope of which cannot be determined due to a lack of official data. According to CAP, data on deaths in custody is crucial for holding law enforcement and correctional facilities across the country accountable. The organization said the absence of accurate and complete information on the number of people who die in custody and the nature of such deaths, stifles policymakers’ ability to examine the underlying causes, let alone determine what can be done to lower the incidence. In a new brief, CAP urged Congress and state legislatures to take the initiative to ensure the dependability of forthcoming data on deaths in custody. “One year ago, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police as the world watched, spurring a blistering call for police accountability in the United States,” CAP noted. “Floyd is one among the countless Black Americans and other people of color killed by law enforcement: Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Amadou Diallo, Botham Jean, Alton Sterling, Daniel Prude, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Atatiana Jefferson, Stephon Clark, and too many others. In the year since Floyd’s death, the list has grown longer still with the deaths of Tony McDade, Rayshard Brooks, Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant, Adam Toledo, Andrew Brown, and, again, too many others.” According to CAP, while the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began collecting data on deaths in custody in 2020 under the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) of 2013, outstanding funding and compliance issues could compromise the quality of the impending data. “Findings based on such flawed data would not help policymakers understand the causes of deaths in custody or reduce their occurrence, the primary purpose of the DCRA,” CAP editors wrote. CAP’s brief underscored how critical actions could be taken to address these concerns about data on deaths in custody. “Congress should appropriate the necessary funding for the DOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance to implement a methodology to search for and validate leads on deaths in custody,” Kenny Lo, a research associate for Criminal Justice Reform at American Progress, wrote in the May 24 brief. “A similar approach enabled the DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to identify nearly three times more arrest-related deaths than before as part of a broader effort that cost BJS less than $5 million between fiscal years 2014 and 2017.” For their part, state legislatures should look to compel all state and local law enforcement agencies to report DCRA data, Lo continued. States such as California, Texas, Maryland, and Tennessee already have laws that require all agencies to report data similar to those required by the DCRA, serving as models for other states to follow, Lo Wrote. Incentivizing DCRA compliance by all agencies would improve the quality of the data and bring about meaningful accountability in the criminal justice system, he continued. “Our nation urgently needs to confront the scourge of police violence against communities of color. Yet for decades, the government has failed to track the number of deaths that occur in the justice system,” said Betsy Pearl, associate director for Criminal Justice Reform at the Center for American Progress. “While data collection alone can’t end systemic racism in our justice system and can’t bring back the countless lives lost, it’s essential for laying the groundwork to create real accountability and justice for all.” For more information and the full report go to the Center for American Progress website.
If a Black Republican and Black Democrat walked into a bar, one wouldn’t usually expect them to agree on anything let alone that racism, in the United States especially, is a thing of the past. But last week, Sen.Tim Scott (R-SC) and Vice President Kamala Harris reached across the aisle to agree that (white) American people are not racist. In his rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress, Scott, the Senate’s only Black Republican, sought to offer an alternative to the Biden agenda while defending the GOP, and the nation at large, against charges of systemic racism. Scott said that “America is not a racist country” and warned that “it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.” In her response on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Thursday, Vice President Harris, the first Black and Indian American in this role, agreed with Scott, saying that America is not a “racist country” but the nation must “speak the truth” about its history with racism. She applauded Biden for being courageous enough to speak the truth about this country’s history with racism. For many, Harris’ comments were unsurprising, often aligning with her role as a former prosecutor and policies around policing and law enforcement. However, others were shocked, disappointed even, that the first Black and South Asian vice president — particularly with the onslaught of sexist and racist comments toward her own candidacy — would make such disingenuous and harmful comments about race and racism in America. If placating centrist white voters forces a Black elected official to lie about the past, present, and likely future of the United States’ racism then we are no better than we were in 2016; and that we’ve learned nothing the past 365 days. Thankfully, I’ve learned to not be shocked about politicians politicking. Let’s assume that Harris obviously knows that racism is still pervasive in the United States. Let’s also stipulate that she must walk a delicate line of not appearing too Black or be seen as too bold after a previous administration who consistently stoked white supremacist flames the past four years. But Harris wasn’t the only Democrat to agree with Scott. In an interview that aired on NBC’s Today show, in being pressed on Scott’s comments on race in America, our commander in chief stated, “I don’t think the American people are racist, but I think after 400 years, African Americans have been left in a position where they are so far behind the eight ball in terms of education and health, in terms of opportunity. Biden continued, “I don’t think America is racist, but I think the overhang from all of the Jim Crow and before that, slavery, have had a cost and we have to deal with it.” So, the question becomes: if racism is not responsible for the continued degradation and positionality of Black and Brown Americans, then what is? And if we can acknowledge white supremacist institutions, then, unless the ether, who holds onto it? It is impossible to understand and call attention to the ills of white supremacy and suddenly believe it went away in the 1950s following the end of de jure segregation. George Floyd being killed was not a thing of the past. He was a 46-year-old Black man with limited options of survival before he was eventually killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin for the world to see. Though Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd’s murder after a one-month trial, this doesn’t account for the numerous times that white law enforcement officers were either not indicted or found not guilty in the murders of Black people, including Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray and Breonna Taylor, and many more named and unnamed. Ma’Khia Bryant being killed was not a thing of the past. She was a 16-year-old Black girl, in state care and custody, who was defending herself before she was eventually killed by Officer Nicholas Reardon of the Columbus Police Department. Immediately after her killing, Bryant was adultified as Black girls so often are in an attempt to justify her murder. That she was a teenager in the middle of an altercation, in which she was presumed to be defending herself and may have even called the cops to seek help, did not matter. Anti-Asian violence is not a thing of the past. An analysis of police department statistics has revealed that the United States experienced a significant hike in anti-Asian hate crimes last year across major cities. The analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism revealed that while such crimes in 2020 decreased overall by 7% (in large part due to the pandemic and less interaction in public spaces), those targeting Asian people rose by nearly 150 percent. The Georgia Spa Shootings in particular highlighted the intersections of racism and sexism of AAPI women. COVID-19 is not a thing of the past. Though the COVID-19 continues to be driven down, the infection and death rates continue to disproportionately impact Black people. A global health pandemic coupled with a haphazard healthcare system creates a perfect storm for systemic racism to exact its deadly toll. According to Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), even with vaccinations rolling out, Black and Latino people have received smaller shares of vaccinations compared to their shares of cases and deaths and compared to their shares of the total population in most states. On the contrary, white people received a higher share of vaccinations compared to their share of cases and deaths and their share of the total population in most states reporting data. . The hard truth: Black people, regardless of the American political system, cannot be comfortable stifling our voices. We must not be fixated on the “what ifs” of every two or four years, especially if that means acquiescing to people who are ready to reject our experience at a moment’s notice. While there are varying calculations at play, none of them should involve lying about how race and racism — past, present, and likely future — impacts Black Americans. In “Kamala Harris has to walk a tightrope on race. This time, she slipped,” Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah writes “Whatever the reason for Harris’s circumspection, imagine a different approach. Imagine if Harris felt free to plainly share her own thoughts and experiences about racism in America, particularly in a national moment when racist attacks and police brutality dominate so many news cycles.” Imagine if we were honest about racism. Imagine if we demand that people bend to our truths. Imagine if people were made to capitulate to us. Imagine.
Preston Mitchum is an attorney, activist, and advocate living in Washington, DC.
House and Senate sponsors of legislation take a knee to pray for George Floyd
The Congressional Black Caucus on Monday introduced “The Justice in Policing Act of 2020,” legislation designed to make the nation’s police more accountable to the nation’s citizens, especially its black citizens, in the wake of the brutal in police custody death of George Floyd. The May 25th murder Floyd by a Minneapolis cop has sparked worldwide protests about police brutality and has led to a demand in the U.S. for greater accountability by the police. Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, called the out the names of other unarmed black men and women killed by police. Bass (D., California) said the names of several victims before asking other members of the CBC to shout out the names of other black men and black women killed by police. Audience members screamed the names of Freddie Gray, Oscar Grant, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Dontre Hamilton, Breonna Taylor, Rekia Boyd, Corey Jones, Terrence Crutcher and Botham Jean. U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D., California), who helped write the legislation, said, “America’s sidewalks are stained with black blood. In the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s murders, we must ask ourselves: how many more times must our families and our communities be put through the trauma of an unarmed black man or a woman’s killing at the hands of police who are sworn to protect and serve them? “What we are witnessing is the birth of a new movement in our country with thousands coming together in every state marching to demand change that ends police brutality, holds officers accountable and calls for transparency,” Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said during a Washington, D.C. news conference. “For over 100 years, Black communities in America have sadly been marching against police abuse and calling the for the police to protect and serve them as they do others. Today, we unveil the Justice in Policing Act, which will establish a bold transformative vision of policing in America. Never again should the world be subjected to witnessing what we saw on the streets in Minnesota with George Floyd.” The bill, if passed and signed into law, it would: Ban chokeholds, carotid holds, and no-knock warrants at the federal level and limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement Establish a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problematic cops who are fired or leave an agency from moving to another jurisdiction without any accountability Amend a federal criminal statute from a “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard to successfully identify and prosecute police misconduct Require state and local law enforcement agencies to report us of force data by race, gender, disability, religion and age Mandate the use of dashboard cameras and body cameras for federal officers and require state and local enforcement to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of police body cameras Prohibit federal, state and local law enforcement from racial, religious and discriminatory profiling, and mandate training on racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement Reform qualified immunity so that individuals are not barred from recovering damages when police violate their constitutional rights Establish public safety innovation grants for community-based organizations to create local commissions and task forces to help communities to re-imagine and develop concrete, just and equitable public safety approaches Create law enforcement development and training programs to develop best practices and require the creation of law enforcement accreditation standard recommendations based on President Obama’s Taskforce on 21st Century Policing Improve the use of pattern and practice investigations at the federal level by granting the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division subpoena power and create a grant program for state attorneys general to develop authority to conduct independent investigations into problematic police departments Establish a Department of Justice task force to coordinate the investigation, prosecution and enforcement efforts of federal, states and local governments in cases related to law enforcement misconduct. Thirty-five members of the U.S. Senate and 166 members of the House of Representatives are sponsoring the bill.
