Can we please stop blaming the victims of violence?
The tragic death of Tamir Rice is ripping my guts out and I see people ready to offer "advice" like
"He shouldn't have reached into his waistband..."
"He should've done what the cops..."
He was TWELVE. Do you remember what you were like when you were twelve? Did you do everything, and I mean ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY EVERYTHING you were told to do like your life depended on it. Yeah, me neither. Teenagers too old to be a kid, too young to be an adult, apparently just the right age to blame for their own death.
Then there are the parental advice tips
"I don't like my kids play with guns!"
"What parent lets their kid play with toys like that?!"
Newsflash. Kids are not robots. No amount of parenting short of locking them in a room until they're adults will keep them safe from the world. You can prepare them with advice and life lessons all you want but they will interact with the world and do things you can't control.
There is one, and only one, reason Tamir Rice won't see his thirteenth birthday. And that is because he was shot by a cop who was "just doing their job". Something is fundamentally wrong with our society when a job, any job, includes killing someone.
If you want to blame someone how about Wayne LaPierre and his fellow ammosexuals? They are a million times more responsible than Tamir or his parents for his death. You want to blame an individual, blame Wayne.
Maybe you can blame the assholes at FOX or hate radio for their non-stop attempts to drive wedges into our society. By making blacks and Latinos and other minorities into monsters that we have to be constantly afraid of, so afraid that we make rules and laws that let cops gun down innocent children in the park.
How about fighting to get the 2nd Amendment repealed or amended? Sure, it's less likely to happen than winning the Powerball but if you don't try it won't happen. Maybe you can blame yourself and the rest of the culture instead of the victim?
So, please, stop with the "well intentioned advice" about what Tamir or his parents could've or should've done. Because until we change this country and its rules and laws there will be more Tamirs and your advice will be just as useless. Again.