More on the Tamir Rice shooting in Cleveland

This comes from interviews with the mother of Tamir Rice, the 12 year old boy who was shot by police while playing in the park with a toy pellet gun.   What we know, backed up by a clear security surveillance tape of the scene, is that the shooting was completely unjustified and an example of police incompetence.

The responding squad car police officers were not told by the dispatcher that the caller had said it was probably a kid with a fake gun, so they thought they were responding to perhaps a mass shooter in the park.  [incompetence #1]

OK.    But even a layman like me knows you don't just go blazing up in your police car, drive right up to where the suspect is standing, jump out of the car and have a shoot-out with him.    You stop some distance away, try to engage him, talk him down, wait for back-up help.   So, even given the misinformation they had, they mismanaged that part.  [incompetence #2]

The office who jumped out and shot Tamir within 2 seconds had been let go from a previous police job in the state, where a report had said he was completely unsuited for police work and it was doubtful he ever would be.    Within six months, Cleveland Police Department had hired him.   They had merely checked to see if he had any violations.   No, because he never apparently got beyond the initial training stage;  but they didn't ask.   [incompetence #3]

Then it gets worse:    We now hear from Tamir's mother that her daughter, Tamir's sister, heard that he had been shot and went racing over to the park.    According to the mother, the sister was tackled by the police, handcuffed, thrown into the back of the police car -- along with her dying brother's body.   [incompetences #4 through #9 or so;  and complete lack of humane kindness]

This is atrocious.    It comes on the heels of the Department of Justice's release of its two year investigation into the practices of the Cleveland Police Department -- which has some devastating observations and conclusions.

It sounds like at least this police department needs to be taken over by either the state or federal government for a complete make-over.

Ralph