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NPR, formerly National Public Radio, reports
Timothy Loehmann, the police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, was fired by the Cleveland Police Department [May 30]. At a news conference, city authorities announced that the reason for his termination wasn't the deadly incident that brought him to national attention, but rather violations he committed in the course of his hiring process.
"Patrol officer Loehmann had been charged with rule violations concerning his application process to be considered a cadet with the Division of Police--specifically, answers he had provided on his personal history statement", Michael McGrath, the city's director of public safety, told reporters in prepared remarks.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer explains that Loehmann failed to disclose the full circumstances of how his time at a previous police department ended:
"Loehmann was allowed to resign from the Independence department after six months following a series of incidents where supervisors determined he was unfit to be a police officer.
"The disciplinary letter cites a letter in Loehmann's personnel file from Independence that says he was emotionally immature and had 'an inability to emotionally function'. The letter also cites an emotional breakdown Loehmann had on the gun range in Independence."
Cleveland authorities also announced that Frank Garmback, the officer driving the patrol car at the time Loehmann shot Tamir, would be suspended for 10 days for administrative rule violations of his own. He would also be required to take a tactical training course.
The penalties cap a review process conducted by Cleveland's Critical Incident Review Committee, or CIRC, in the wake of Tamir's death and the widespread protests it elicited. As the Plain Dealer reported last month, CIRC already "found no fault in the officers' actions leading up to, during and after the Nov. 22, 2014 shooting at Cudell Recreation Center on Cleveland's West Side".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday June 02 2017, @12:01PM (16 children)
I'm sure that those making the decisions wanted to maintain 2 ideas simultaneously:
A. That police who shoot unarmed black people are never criminally responsible.
B. That the cops who shot Tamir Rice needed to be punished, somehow.
They were trying to balance the views of the police union (A) and the majority black population of Cleveland (B). I'm sure they feel like they took the moderate course.
The simple fact is that there is no possible way the shooting was legal: Rice was not committing a crime, the officers did not give him time to respond lawfully to their orders (he had less than 2 seconds to react), the officers completely lied about what happened (until caught by a security camera), the officers did not make the slightest attempt to save Rice's life, and the cops followed this up by roughing up and handcuffing his sister for trying to help him or at least hold him in her arms as he was dying. The whole thing looks much more like a drive-by by uniformed cops than a proper police action.
The city fathers know all this, but don't want to piss off the cops and the white people who unconditionally support the cops no matter how stupid they are, especially when the cops go after black people (Ohio is one of the most racist states in the country). So instead, they're firing the officer for other reasons as an attempt to throw a bone to everybody who's upset about this and hoping that will shut people up. But it won't, or at least it shouldn't.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @12:23PM
What do you expect from a city with many fathers and no mother?... Only macho role models will do that.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Arik on Friday June 02 2017, @12:37PM (3 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Informative) by inertnet on Friday June 02 2017, @03:00PM (2 children)
It's also a wrong signal to bad apple police officers, who could get the idea that they can get away with anything as long as they fill in their papers correctly. Some may not handle this empowering message very well.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday June 03 2017, @01:33AM (1 child)
A couple decades ago I called for higher police pay and higher standards. Now I'm just saying higher standards. I'm not saying every cop out there is paid what he's worth, but it's no longer a glaring issue. In most areas they are paying enough to expect above average intelligence and some skills and focus and seriousness about the job. That's what we should expect.
But they aren't looking, in many jurisdictions, for intelligence. http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @08:04AM
A few of these obviously criminally guilty cops need to be dealt with, and left somewhere public as an example.
The people responsible for this either need to avoid being caught, or allow themselves to be caught because they are part of a larger organization and are capable of not divulging intelligence on it under the most extreme of duress.
Only at that point will the current level of corruption be dealt with. When the judicial fails, it is up to the citizenry to remind the establishment who holds the reins of power and what expectations they have in order for the rule of law to be re-established so they don't have to.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday June 02 2017, @02:00PM (10 children)
It is justice that doesn't feel like justice. I'm sure the city wanted to fire him. They needed to do so in a way that could not possibly be challenged by the police union. So they reached for an incontrovertible reason to fire him and found one.
I think in the last few years, more cities, and even some police departments have realized that they have a problem.
The real sea change will be when police unions realize that they have a problem.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday June 02 2017, @05:43PM (8 children)
They wanted to fire him, but they didn't want to jail him. That's the part that makes it not justice. If I (as someone who's never been a cop) had done what he did, I'd be on trial for manslaughter, assault (on the sister), obstruction of justice, and most likely a few other charges.
So now he's going to apply for a cop job in some other jurisdiction and continue to do work to which he is completely unsuited.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 02 2017, @06:01PM
That is an excellent point.
Of course, if the city had tried to prosecute, it would cost money and time. (But that shouldn't be a reason not to do it.) And the police union would fight it.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @08:55PM (5 children)
There are great cops, evil cops, and lots of mediocre cops. It's possible to have a bad day and fuck up your job. If an ordinary fuck-up puts you on trial or dead, would you take that job?
I already don't want to be a cop, but without some protection from fuck-ups? Screw that job. I'd rather live in a homeless shelter.
We need lots of cops -- it is like teachers and janitors and truck drivers, not like pastry chefs and mechanical engineers and actors. We thus can't pay them enough to justify taking insane liability risks. We simply couldn't hire any cops without giving them some extra protection from fuck-ups.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday June 02 2017, @10:40PM (3 children)
There are 3 problems with your thinking:
1. My mistakes don't leave bodies of innocent people on the ground. You are describing these events in a way that amounts to "I shot and killed an innocent person, whoopsie daisy! Hey, are we still cool?"
2. When I screw up, I do my best to mitigate the damage. These officers didn't: Neither one made any kind of effort to see if Rice was still alive, nor to save his life if he was still alive. A charitable interpretation is that they had a complete disregard for the value of his life. A less charitable interpretation is that they were reduce the chance that an inconvenient witness could testify against them.
3. When I screw up, I apologize for it. These cops didn't, and instead took the stance of "I did nothing wrong, nothing bad happened."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @04:40AM (2 children)
Your mistakes don't leave bodies of innocent people on the ground, so you don't have much to fear. Performing your job doesn't expose you to much risk.
Yes yes, if you somehow did kill a few people, you'd be on trial, but this is not likely to happen. You have no need to worry. You are not deterred from taking the job due to liability.
We're asking people to perform a job that has a crazy-high risk of a fuck-up killing an innocent person. Nobody with half a brain will do that if they don't get special protection.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday June 03 2017, @11:22AM (1 child)
If they NEED that protection they've no right to be in the job.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @05:00AM
OK, no cops then, because none were available to be hired. You won't mind paying the local organized crime syndicate for protection, right?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday June 03 2017, @12:21AM
An ordinary fuck-up by a teacher, janitor, truck driver, pastry chef, mechanical engineer or actor could (in three of the examples will) cost them their job immediately. Why not cops?
If an ordinary fuck-up by a teacher, janitor, truck driver, pastry chef, mechanical engineer or actor results in somebody's death they WILL face trial. Why not cops?
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 02 2017, @11:53PM
If I saw fucking hipsters with Mosin-Nagants all around me at the range I'd pull my Glock 9 mil on them too!
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Saturday June 03 2017, @09:38AM
Justice needs to be tied to responsibility. There's a lot of talk about the person who pulled the trigger, but what about the person who allowed someone who'd had an emotional breakdown to wander the streets with a badge and a gun and be put into high-stress situations?
If someone working in a factory fails to follow safety procedures operating dangerous machinery and someone dies, then they'll probably be tried for manslaughter. If their manager had been aware that they were not safe to operate the machine, or if the company did not have adequate procedures in place so that they did know things that they could be reasonably expected to know, then someone else at the company will be liable as well.
sudo mod me up