Link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/10/us/tamir-rice-shooting-reports/index.html
Summary: On November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice, an unarmed 12 year old African American was walking around and playing around a Recreational Center in Cleveland, Ohio. A call came into the Cleveland Police that there was a boy walking around a play structure with a weapon, which looked to be a pistol, following up with saying that the weapon was most likely fake. According to Garmback and Loehmann, the two police officers who reported to the scene, information stating that Rice was a juvenile and the weapon appeared to be a fake were not conveyed to them. Within seconds of approaching the scene, Rice was shot by officer Loehmann, and he died the next day. According to law enforcement, “Loehmann was required to make a threat assessment and a split-second decision on whether to shoot” due to the situation’s circumstances. This is one of many controversial shootings involving police and an unarmed person, especially a white police officer and an African American victim. Because of these incidents, many people are questioning our national’s law enforcement because of how many questionable decisions have been made by police officers in the recent years.
Questions: Do you believe Loehmann should’ve shot Rice? Why? Do you believe some police officers take advantage of their power? How So?
This issue is hard to honestly address. Based on this post, and the article, it's hard to decide whether or not the shooting was justified. The article is unclear if the gun was marked with an orange tip used to identify fake firearms. The issue is, policemen are trained to make split-second decisions. According to the article, it seemed that the boy may have been reaching for the weapon. Plus, considering many gangs sometimes employ children, and paint the tips of their guns orange so as to fool law enforcement officials. With all this in mind, I cannot say whether or not this was justified without more information. As for whether I believe some police abuse their power, based on examples seen in present news, I can say that some, but not all law officials abuse their power.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the officer made his decision based on instinct and hopefully it was truthful and what he thought was right. I am not a police officer and I was not in that situation but if I saw someone with what looked like a gun, I would be ready to act as well. Be as it may, the controversy of racial killings among officers does make the situation very blurry in what really happened. I do believe that some officers do take advantage of their power, but there are plenty of good officers out there as well.
ReplyDeleteI cannot say whether or not Loehmann should have shot Rice or not because I don't know a lot about the situation. However, I do believe he could have evaluated the situation more; did he seriously feel threatened by a 12 year old? I don't believe that police officers take advantage, but I do believe that some police officers do not think through the situation as much as they could before making a life changing decision.
ReplyDeleteMy perspective on the situation is that Loahmann did what he truly believed was the right thing to do. Split second decisions can mean life or death situations. As a police officer, it is their duty to protect the citizens and innocent people. At times this could mean making an anticipated decision on what the next action could be. In this case, Loahmann most likely interpreted the gun to be real and felt that he had to act first before anyone was put in harms way. As unfortunate as the outcome was, it was all a matter of the wrong place and wrong time, with a sad misunderstanding of the situation. This was not a case on discrimination and racial profiling, but rather an action to try and serve and protect the people of America.
ReplyDeleteI can see both sides to this discussion. From Loehman's perspective, he was doing his duty and protecting himself and his fellow officers. He had to make a split second decision and did what he thought was best. From Rice's perspective, Rice was not given the opportunity to say that his weapon was not real. Rice was most likely stunned and confused and could not defend himself when he was asked to stand down by the police. I do believe some police take advantage of their power and their immunity. For example, many officers will not apologize for wrongly taking someone down but rather attempt to defend themselves. I believe that officers' immunity have made them lose empathy for the mistakes they make.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that police officers take advantage of their power. When people threaten society, police officers have to make quick decisions on how to fix the problem. Of course, the officers should have done more research on the weapon and investigated the scene before shooting, but to say that the officers only shot because he person was African American is wrong. Who is to say if a white boy was walking around with a fake weapon that looked real in a dangerous area that he would not have been shot as well. Although the officers should not have shot him, assuming that the reason they shot was because of race is not right. No one should be walking around with fake weapons in a dangerous area for no reason. Who would do that without reason? It is normal that the police officers assumed he was there for the wrong reason because it is so odd that the boy put himself in the situation he was in without an ulterior motive.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that police officers take advantage of their power. When people threaten society, police officers have to make quick decisions on how to fix the problem. Of course, the officers should have done more research on the weapon and investigated the scene before shooting, but to say that the officers only shot because he person was African American is wrong. Who is to say if a white boy was walking around with a fake weapon that looked real in a dangerous area that he would not have been shot as well. Although the officers should not have shot him, assuming that the reason they shot was because of race is not right. No one should be walking around with fake weapons in a dangerous area for no reason. Who would do that without reason? It is normal that the police officers assumed he was there for the wrong reason because it is so odd that the boy put himself in the situation he was in without an ulterior motive.
ReplyDeleteThe whole point of having police is to enforce the law and maintain public safety. It is hard to say if Loehman is at fault. I think because he was an officer in training he had not acquired the experience to make the correct decision. Many of us harbor subconscious biases towards minority groups,like blacks,and it is reflected in actions. I think that many officer's, whether conscious or subconscious make decisions based off of these discriminatory beliefs. They use the power the people have given to them and use it to enforce their own views of justice
ReplyDeleteThe whole point of having police is to enforce the law and maintain public safety. It is hard to say if Loehman is at fault. I think because he was an officer in training he had not acquired the experience to make the correct decision. Many of us harbor subconscious biases towards minority groups,like blacks,and it is reflected in actions. I think that many officer's, whether conscious or subconscious make decisions based off of these discriminatory beliefs. They use the power the people have given to them and use it to enforce their own views of justice
ReplyDeleteThe whole point of having police is to enforce the law and maintain public safety. It is hard to say if Loehman is at fault. I think because he was an officer in training he had not acquired the experience to make the correct decision. Many of us harbor subconscious biases towards minority groups,like blacks,and it is reflected in actions. I think that many officer's, whether conscious or subconscious make decisions based off of these discriminatory beliefs. They use the power the people have given to them and use it to enforce their own views of justice
ReplyDeleteBased on this specific article and summary, I don't believe I have all the necessary facts about this shooting to make an accurate assessment if the shooting was warranted. I do believe however that the specific details in the call should have been passed onto the officers aiding in making possibly a better decision. Ultimately this decision to shoot was up to the police officers and the situation they were put in. They are trained to make quick decisions to protect the overall safety and that was the decision they made under those particular circumstances.
ReplyDeleteIt is very difficult to assess whether the shooting was warranted. While Loehman should have been more concious and less rash, most of his decision was based on the social biases that have been set. Ultimately, a police officer's duty is to protect citizens, and without logical reason, should not have the power to make a rash decision to end someone's life without the proper justification.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do understand that police are under a constant amount of stress and fear for their lives when they approach possibly "deadly" situations like these, I believe that Loehmann should have been more precautions before he pulled the trigger. With the number of police shootings that have been happening recently (cops and citizens being shot), police have been more fearful and "trigger-friendly" to save their lives. I don't believe we can speak on whether or not it was Loehmann's fault since we don't have all of the evidence of how the situation happened but I do believe that pulling the trigger of a gun should ALWAYS be the LAST resort.
ReplyDeleteThe article doesn't give very much of a detailed report of what happened. Its uncertain whether the shootig was justified. The shootings details come from the officer so how reliable is it that the information is reliable. Putting a decision up to a scared or adrenilated police officer isn't smart a choice because it doesn't give a non bias option. It is the officers decison to protect and serve but allowing them to shoot at a somewhat innocent person should be against the law.
ReplyDeletePolice officers have been under a micrscope for a long time, and rightly so. We give normal people the ability to legally take someone's life if they choose to. These incidents will continue to happen unless we make a change and a stand against police brutality
ReplyDeleteI would say that Loehmann was mostly unjustified in shooting the boy, however, like others I do not have all the facts so I cannot really give an informed verdict. So I'm basically just saying my opinion. Going off of what I have already mentioned, it would seem to me that what we are left with is the basic facts: the boy had been walking around a recreational center, "playing," and in possession of a fake gun for sometime, which was noted by the 911 caller. Only if none of the above information had been relayed to the officers, would fatally shooting Rice seem to be within the realm of reasonable things to do. Otherwise, since he had been there for a while, obviously not shooting anything with his fake gun, even being only 12 years old, the facts point to it not being ok to shoot. While I would probably not fault the individual responding officers in this case, I would point to a world of subconscious racism and a lack of middle-ground as the real culprit.
ReplyDeleteLook at the video. The cops didn't even try to treat the kid. One of my best friends as a youth is a cop in the hood in Chicago- tough job- he says some ridiculous things , hard not to get jaded.
ReplyDeleteBased on the situation, it is obvious that Loehmann shouldn't have shot that boy. But he was most likely scared. He doesn't want to die. If he sees someone that he thinks has a gun, he's gonna shoot. It has nothing to do with racism, he's just scared for his life and wants to go home to his family. He is not abusing his power as killing him helped him in no substantial way. Being a cop is very difficult. He has to try to find the middle point between nice guy and tough guy and its a thin line to cross. Police brutality is a strong word and I don't necessarily think this applies. He wasn't being brutal. He made a misjudgment and he killed a kid. I'm not saying it's ok but calling him a racist and a criminal is a huge step when you don't know the whole story. When you don't know what was going through his head
ReplyDeleteThe important thing to realize is the chain of misinformation that made its way to Loehmann. His understanding was that there was a child with a weapon playing on the structure, so when he got there he felt threatened due to the misinformation conveyed to him that there was a gun and the lives of his partner and himself were in danger.
ReplyDeleteNo, by no means should any police officer shoot a kid, only in a very rare circumstance. This kid was just strolling and playing in a park. Why would u ever think to show up and just shoot up the place. Cops are using their power unfairly and not how they should be using it, just because u have a gun and a badge doesn't mean Ur the only person capable of walking up to a boy in a park and asking him to see whats in his hand.
ReplyDeleteI was not in the situation, so I honestly cannot say what I would have done had I been the officer. I can, however, say the situation was incredibly sad and unfortunate. It did not need to happen in this way. I think it is a reflection of the incompetence of our system that the information about the fake gun was not communicated to the officers.
ReplyDelete