Tamir Rice Highlights Cleveland PD Pattern of Excessive Force

The shooting death of Tamir Rice in Cleveland has been lumped with the killings of black men by white police officers in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri. The 12-year old was playing with a toy air gun when Timothy Loehmann arrived on the scene with a fellow police officer. Within seconds, Rice was shot dead. Friday, the Coronor in Cleveland ruled the incident “homicide.” What does that mean in terms of possible accountability?

Afi Scruggs, a former columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is now an independent journalist writing about the Tamir Rice case.