The price of brutality
No charges were filed against the police officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice moments after arriving at a Cleveland park. His partner, who denied the wounded boy medical aid for crucial minutes, wasn’t prosecuted either. Nor was any other law enforcement officer connected to Rice’s senseless death in 2014.
But some people are being held responsible: the taxpayers of Cleveland. In April, a federal court awarded $6 million in civil damages to Rice’s family and estate.
“The resolution is nothing to celebrate,” noted the family’s lawyer. He’s right. While Rice’s loved ones deserve every dime, it’s a pale consolation for their loss. What’s more, such payouts hurt city budgets, threatening the services so vital to the very citizens—disproportionately low-income and black—who bear the brunt of police brutality.
