Two Ohio Prosecutors from different counties were given video footage of a local police officer executing an innocent person.
Two very different men.
After viewing the video of the shootings, one of them obtained an indictment for murder from a Grand Jury within two weeks.
His reaction to the killing from The Guardian:
Deters described the fatal shooting of Samuel DuBose in Cincinnati as “murder” and “so senseless”, adding that officer Ray Tensing “should never have been a police officer”.
His response to the officer’s claim that he shot Mr. DuBose in the back of the head because he was being dragged behind the car is below the scroll.
Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph Deters said body-camera footage, which he released at a press conference announcing the charge, showed the officer was not dragged during the encounter.
“It is our belief that he was not dragged. If you slow down this tape you see what happens, it is a very short period of time from when the car starts rolling to when a gun is out and he’s shot in the head,” Deters told reporters on Wednesday.
Another Guardian Article
The other Prosecutor is a very different man. The video that has been in his hands for eight long months shows every second of the fatal shooting back on November 22, 2014, including the boy left unattended, mortally wounded. Left unaided for four minutes until another officer arrived and tried to help him.
His name was Tamir Rice. He was 12 years old.
He was alone in a pavilion when a police cruiser pulled up quickly to within a few feet of him. He was standing with nothing in his hands, no weapon, toy or real, was visible in this open carry state when he was shot in the abdomen less than 2 seconds upon the arrival of the two police officers.
And this Prosecutor's reaction? Well, he is a very different man.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutory Tim McGinty says the prosecutor's office is actively investigating this use-of-deadly force incident.
"The decision to charge or not charge ultimately rests with the grand jury in these cases. The prosecutor's review is only to see if criminal charges are appropriate. We do not review tactical issues. ... These are policy issues at that point."
From Local Coverage
That comment was made by Prosecutor McGinty on November 24, 2014.
More than eight months have passed since Tamir was killed and it was revealed that the two officers lied to cover up the murder. The Prosecutor has been petitioned to act, but nothing was done.
A group of citizens used a little known law to ask a Judge to review the evidence and bring charges. The Judge agreed that murder charges, among other charges, were appropriate, but he could not have the officers arrested. He recommended that the Prosecutor, who had that authority, arrest the two officers.
The Prosecutor refused.
More than eight months have passed since Tamir Rice was killed, and no Grand Jury has been called. Which is strange, because back in November the Washington Post Reported:
Department policy mandates that the deadly force investigation must turn over information to the county prosecutor within 90 days of an officer-involved shooting so it can be presented to a grand jury. It is expected that any independent review of the shooting would also abide by that timeframe, with a final report issued to county prosecutor Timothy McGinty by the end of February.
And we are left to wonder.
What kind of man faces a family, a city, a community that now reaches across the entire nation, all begging for justice for this child, and refuses to act? What kind of man turns his back?
Almost everything that could be done, has been done to try to get this impotent Prosecutor to fulfill his responsibility. Almost. There is now another cry for justice to this Prosecutor, Tim McGinty, this very different man.
Three billboards off Interstate 71 will refer to the 2014 deaths of Tanisha Anderson, John Crawford and Tamir Rice. ColorofChange.org is behind the bill board project.
The Bill Boards can be seen here.
Tamir's Bill Board:
"He was a child playing at the park," reads one. The message refers to Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was playing with an airsoft pellet gun last November outside a west side Cleveland recreation center when he was shot and killed by a city police officer who responded to a 911 call.
He was a child.