12-Year-Old Tamir Rice Blamed for His Own Death

Pleading innocence, immunity and ignorance, the city of Cleveland responded to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Tamir Rice’s family by saying the 12-year-old’s death was his own fault.

In November, Cleveland Officer Timothy Loehmann fired the fatal shots at Tamir within two seconds of arriving outside a recreation center where the sixth-grader was playing with a pellet gun.

[…]The city also claims it is entitled to all “full and qualified” immunities under state and federal law.

After Michael Brown’s death, we were all so hopeful: if only we had video footage, we could prove these deaths were unjust. Yet the lack of legal action first in Eric Garner’s murder, and now in Tamir Rice’s, proves that, as hard as we may shout that #blacklivesmatter, black lives are disposable. I’ve run out of words.