Let's see if my memory or a quick check of the internet leads me back to another tragic day in American racial relations? A twelve year old boy, Tamir Rice, was shot and killed by a rookie Cleveland police officer on November 22, 2014. To date, a mere 5 1/2 months later, his body has not been released to his parents to bury because "the official investigation" has not been completed? You gotta be kidding, right?
Sadly, especially for the Rice family, their son's body has not been released to them to bury and to grieve and to begin the necessary healing process that has been delayed for an extraordinary amount of time.
I am certain that the family of any slain US police officer, would not be told "the body cannot be released until the completion of a 'thorough' investigation". The shooting, or whatever kind of homicide, perpetrated against a sworn police officer is always investigated swiftly and charges filed post haste!
Yet, the Rice family is forced to endure not only the loss of their son but also the uncertainty about of how to move forward in all of their lives. And no, they cannot move forward without being able to bury their son.
The next issue pales in comparison with the inexorable pain and numbness associated with a loss so grave it is almost difficult to comprehend, and yet there is another miniscule problem facing the Rice's. What happened to the $60,000 donated to a fund started by our own Shaun King?
"Timothy Kucharski had been one of two attorneys representing the Rice family for several weeks …." "As the fund surpassed $27,000, Kucharski contacted law enforcement as well as YouCaring.com directly, asking that the assets being donated to the fund be seized and held for the Rice family. … the fundraiser still ended up netting almost $60,000 — money that, at the request of the Rice family attorneys, was seized by the court." Note:The family must request the court to release any funds to them.
Why? The then two attorneys have collected their $23,000.00 in legal fees and the remainder sits in a trust for a dead boy.
There is not a greater loss than the loss of a child, regardless of how that 'child' died. And yet, the feelings of Tamir's parents have not only been ignored but laboriously stoked day, after day, month after month and to what end? To have two more police officers exonerated after killing another black child?