Reckless Cop Who Shot And Killed 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice Back On The Police Force

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It’s been eight years since the reckless and unwarranted police killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and chances are his young soul is not resting in peace.

On July 5, Timothy Loehmann was welcomed back into law enforcement. In a two-bit Pennsylvania town that is 99.4 percent white and roughly 300 miles from Cleveland, Ohio—where Loehmann shot and killed Rice within two seconds of arriving on the scene when responding to a 9-1-1 call—he was sworn in by Tioga borough mayor David Wilcox, Sun-Gazette reported. The decision to employ Loehmann’s service came by the unanimous vote of Tioga’s borough council that place at a council meeting prior his appointment. Allegedly, Wilcox was unaware of Loehmann’s flawed police history despite national attention.

A string of slights surround Tamir’s death.

In December 2020, Loehmann got off Scot-free when the Department of Justice refused to hold the officer accountable for his actions due to “insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges,” according to court documents. Then, back in January, the DOJ declined a request from Tamir’s mother Samaria Rice to reopen the case based on the same grounds. Subsequently, Loehmann was fired from Cleveland’s police force, however, it wasn’t taking Tamir’s young life but rather lying on his employment application about being let go from another police department in Independence, Ohio prior to working in Cleveland.

Police Coddle Theirs And Kill Ours

Adding insult to injury, the recent debacle isn’t the first time Loehmann was hired on a police force after the fact. The trigger-happy officer was hired for part-time policing in the Cleveland town of Bellaire in 2018. He rescinded his application in just five days when all hell broke loose after Samaria Rice and other concerned citizens discovered he was on the payroll.

“I have accepted his withdrawal from the Bellaire police department,” Robert Flanagan, Bellaire police chief, shared with WKYC3. “The pressures of all of this. He’s been through enough the last couple years. He cared about the community here. He didn’t want no protests, no violence, nothing of that nature.”

State-sanctioned violence continues to go unchecked, particularly when African Americans are at the receiving end. Thus, it’s no surprise that justice is rarely served when white policing leads to Black fatality. This, it is no surprise that twisted logic speaks explicitly to the many ways blue lives matter to racist governments far more than Black ones—if at all.

Tamir Rice’s senseless death is undoubtedly the seedbed of protest and movements like Black Lives Matter and Defund The Police, as it should be, especially as we’re challenged with apologist attitudes and statements that suggests that Timothy. Has. Been. Through. So. Much. More. Than. Samaria.

—No Indeed.

While Timothy Loehmann gets to lay low in white enclaves and be a gainfully employed cop, Samaria Rice continues to be a grieving mother and Tamir gets to roll in his grave.