Whatever this is, it's not policing. Call it murder, call it criminal indifference, or whatever you think the right term is. The video above is the extended version of the surveillance video released after Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir Rice without so much as a pause to let him respond to commands.
Letting a child bleed to death in the snow while grown men subdue a 14-year old girl who just saw the subduers shoot their brother is cruel, inhuman, and criminal behavior.
The video confirmed earlier claims made by Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice, and her legal team at a Dec. 8 press conference that an officer cuffed her daughter as she ran to check on her brother and that officers waited several minutes before administering first aid.
The girl, who was at the park with Tamir, ran to her brother's side when she heard two gunshots fired by first-year Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann.
As the girl neared her brother, Loehmann's partner, Frank Garmback confronted her and forced her to the ground. Loehmann rushed over, and the two knelt beside her as she rolled on the ground. Eventually the officers handcuffed the girl and placed her in the back of the police cruiser, less than 10 feet from her dying brother.
Officers then stood around Tamir as he lay wounded. One officer had his hands on his hips when a man, identified by police as an FBI agent who was in the neighborhood, entered the frame and administered first aid. It was the first medical care the boy received in the four minutes that followed the shooting.
Paramedics did not arrive until about eight minutes after the shooting. Much of what happened to Tamir after the shooting is blocked by Garmback and Loehmann's squad car. The paramedics can be seen working as officers stand around the boy.
Tamir is whisked away on a stretcher a little over 13 minutes after the shooting.
Madison said the video depicted officers who showed "overwhelming indifference" to Tamir as he lay on the ground.
If they let Loehmann off the hook for this after everything that's come out about his level of competence and ability, there truly is no justice.
