Not A Race Issue: Rachel Webb

A 12 year old boy was shot and killed in Cleveland. The boy was African American, the policeman was white. The usual is going to happen pretty soon, rioters will go out in from of police stations and protest justice. I do not think this situation was racism. People hear black male and white cop and automatically think racism. The footage, however, reveals the real story. The young boy was dressed heavily and looked to be in the weight class of an adult. Waving a toy pistol around at people (something that any young boy would do), he was seen by a frightened but wary neighbor. She called the local police department saying that she was almost certain the gun was a toy but she was still afraid. Apparently the person on the other line didn't hear the words "toy pistol", nor the word "child" because the message was transferred that there was an armed man threatening lives. There are different protocols for children and adults, and when the officer got to the scene the first thing he did was shoot. The second he stepped out, the 12- year old was on the ground dead. So this is not a racial discussion this is the result of a range of things: bad parenting (letting your kid play unattended in the park as if he were shooting bystanders), poor communication on the answerer's part, the toy's manufacturers for making the thing look real, and lack of discernment from the officer who was so anxious to shoot.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/12/justice/cleveland-tamir-rice/?cid=ob_articlesidebarall&iref=obinsite