I have never asked this before but please Rec and please share.
The Associated Press has decided to publish how Tamir Rice, a 12 year old, was likely complicit in his own death at the hands of armed and trained adult police officers, specifically, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback. The paltry 840 word story saw light under the headline: Boy with pellet gun warned by friend before police shooting. That headline was subsequently changed to: Documents detail police shooting of boy holding pellet gun.
The article calls Tamir a "suspect". It characterizes him as a "young man" "big for his age". In so few words, it makes sure to note that he was in special needs classes and had maybe experienced bullying. It says absolutely nothing about the adult man who killed him. Nothing about that officer scoring 46 percent on a written cognitive police exam given to potential recruits. Nothing about failed attempts to be hired by other police departments. Nothing about a previous police department dismissing him for emotional instability. Nope. Gillispie only saw fit to highlight where a 12 year old was on his education path.
Despite the fact that we have all seen the video of the police cruiser pulling up, stopping short and shooting Tamir, a 12 year old, within two seconds, Gillispie says that the video is grainy and choppy and that it is is "unclear" if officers called out warnings when they were still in the vehicle. Regardless of the grainy, choppy quality of the video, he seems pretty certain that the 12 year old was probably reaching for the gun in his waistband.
With no context, Gillespie also talks about a "friend" who loaned Tamir the toy gun and told him to "be careful" because it had been taken apart and reassembled in full... except for the telltale orange tip, which for some reason the friend couldn't get back on. Tell me, Gillispie, how old was this "friend"? I have raised multiple boys and not a one of them at that age would have considered that they might be targeted for killing by police for playing with a toy, orange tip or not. And why could the "friend" get every other bit of the gun back together but not reattach the orange tip? Maybe there is a story there?
Not one to dig for details, Gillispie also says that after six months of investigation, investigators estimate that that Loehmann fired twice. No need to question why police don't know how many times Loehmann fired when there is smearing of a child to be done.
To wit:
37 Words:
Cleveland police have said the officer who fired the fatal shot, Timothy Loehmann, told Tamir three times to put his hands up, then opened fire when the boy reached for the pellet gun tucked in his waistband.
101 words
A friend told deputies he had given the pellet gun to Tamir hours before the shooting with the warning to be careful because it looked real, according to the documents.
The friend told sheriff's deputies he had given the airsoft-type gun to him on the morning of Nov. 22 in exchange for one of the boy's cellphones and planned to get it back later that day. The friend said he had taken the gun apart to fix it and been unable to reattach the orange cap that goes on the barrel to indicate it isn't the .45-caliber handgun it's modeled after.
21 words
Investigators were told that Tamir used the airsoft gun, which shoots non-lethal plastic projectiles, to shoot at car tires that day.
21 words
Loehmann and Garmback were responding to a call about a young man waving and pointing a gun outside the rec center.
49 words
The surveillance video appears to show Tamir reaching for the pellet gun, which is tucked in his waistband, when he's shot. Investigative documents said it's been estimated that Loehmann fired twice at a range estimated at between 41/2 and 7 feet. Autopsy records indicate Tamir was struck only once.
38 words
Loehmann, 26, and Garmback, 47, have been criticized for not giving Tamir first aid. The officers seemed to freeze, the agent said.
"They wanted to do something, but they didn't know what to do," the agent told investigators.
17 words
The agent said Tamir answered when he asked him his name and said something about his gun.
50 words
When Tamir became unresponsive, the agent called out for assistance to keep the boy's airway open. He told investigators he believed it was Garmback who provided help. Loehmann, who had sprained his ankle while falling back after the shooting, was described as distraught by the agent, according to the documents.
82 words
The agent guessed that Tamir, who was 5-foot-7 and weighed 195 pounds, was an "older teenager." Police officers at the scene shared the same belief.
While Tamir might have been big for his age, those who knew him told investigators that he carried himself like the 12-year-old he was. The sixth-grader was in a special education class of six children at his elementary school, prone to exaggeration and sometimes picked on by other children at the recreation center, the investigative documents say.
416 words of an 840 world story are dedicated to characterizing a 12 year old boy as a "young man" who invited his own death by ignoring warnings. The rest are dedicated to explaining how the police who killed him are traumatized victims. Sloppy journalism? I don't think so, particularly given the bit about the now dead child supposedly reaching for the gun in his waistband. The whole world has seen the video and the two seconds everything went down. Two seconds that meant death for Tamir Rice. A 12 year old boy.
Gillispie's words are being covered the world over and taken as "fact" because the Associated Press has published. Indeed, this particular piece of dreck is now everywhere. If random nobodies on the internet earn scorn and haunting, this "journalist" and his editors deserve it in spades. Honestly, how low can you get?
Updated to add: If you want to sound off directly at the source, here is the link: http://bigstory.ap.org/...
6:15 AM PT: In contrast to how Gillispie and the AP decided to cover the release of the police investigation report, Reuters got it right.
Their version leads with how Loehmann claimed that he had "no choice" immediately after the shooting.
“He gave me no choice. He reached for the gun and there was nothing I could do,” the responding officer quoted Loehmann as saying immediately after the bloodshed.
Throughout the Reuters piece, Tamir is characterized as a "boy", a "12 year old", a "black male". He is never referred to as a "suspect" or "young man". There is no attempt to paint him as adult looking, or mentally deficient or angry.
You can read the Reuters piece here:
http://www.rawstory.com/...