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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/03/doj-tamir-rice-civil-rights-investigation/">scalawagmagazine.org</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Why won’t the DOJ recognize the vulnerability of Black life?</h1><div>
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'Justifiable police homicide' and the ruse of American justice </h1>
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“That’s the way it’s designed for Black and brown people. If they could, they would put us back in chattel slavery.” </div>
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<span>by</span>
<span class="gmail-author gmail-vcard"><a class="gmail-url gmail-fn gmail-n" href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/author/dashaun/">Da'Shaun Harrison</a></span>, <span class="gmail-author gmail-vcard"><a class="gmail-url gmail-fn gmail-n" href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/author/joyjames/">Joy James</a></span> and <span class="gmail-author gmail-vcard"><a class="gmail-url gmail-fn gmail-n" href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/author/samariarice/">Samaria Rice</a></span> </span>
<span class="gmail-posted-on">March 8, 2022</span></div></div>
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<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Da'Shaun Harrison <br></div></div>
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<p>Tamir Rice was one of several names that made international headlines
in 2014. He was a 12-year-old Black boy murdered by Cleveland police
within seconds of their arrival at <a href="https://www.wkyc.com/video/news/local/cudell-rec-centers-role-in-clevelands-history/95-808d321e-40c0-4b6a-99d5-f6ab15ce954e">Cudell Recreation Center</a>.
His mother, Samaria Rice, has since worked long, hard, and tirelessly
to get some inkling of justice for her son. As a part of that work, she
has been challenging the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on its 2020
decision to close the civil rights investigation into the murder of
Tamir Rice by former Cleveland Police Department Officer, Timothy
Loehmann. </p>
<p>Here, Samaria Rice, Da'Shaun Harrison, and Joy James offer three
separate responses to the DOJ's refusal to convene a grand jury for the
prosecution of Timothy Loehmann. While these letters are broken into
sections, they are each in conversation with one another. All three of
the writers critique legalism/legal studies and discuss the antiblack
violence of the state.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/03/doj-tamir-rice-civil-rights-investigation/#letter">Read the original appeal to the DOJ</a> and <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/03/doj-tamir-rice-civil-rights-investigation/#response">the DOJ's response</a> below.</em></p>
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<h2><strong>Overview and Analysis: The limitations of legalism in an antiblack world</strong><br><strong><em>Da'Shaun Harrison</em></strong></h2>
<p>Ms. Rice sent letters to the DOJ on April 16, April 29, and June 1,
2021 with the specific request that they reconsider their 2020 ruling
and convene a federal grand jury. The DOJ, by way of Kristen Clarke—a
Black woman and Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division
at the DOJ—met with Ms. Rice on October 27, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
During the meeting, Ms. Rice requested, once more, that Assistant
Attorney General Clarke and the DOJ consider reopening the investigation
into Tamir's case. </p>
<p>This request was followed by <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/03/doj-tamir-rice-civil-rights-investigation/#letter">a letter to the DOJ</a>
from 50 notable legal scholars and attorneys who also sought to have
the investigation reopened, arguing that the ruling to close the
investigation is unconstitutional. The letter urged the department to
consider that their interpretation of Section 242—a statute enacted as
part of the Civil Rights Act of 1866—is unfounded, stating that the
particulars of Tamir's case "arguably commands the convening of a
federal grand jury and prosecution" of Timothy Loehmann. The letter's
authors summarize the shooting of Tamir and the evidence against
Loehmann; explain why a convening of a federal jury under Section 242 is
warranted; and argue that a federal grand jury is necessary and
"required," considering the local grand jury process—citing allegations
that the original grand jury was "tainted, defective, and aimed at
providing a predetermined public exoneration as opposed to a good faith
deliberation based on a fair presentation of the facts."</p>
<p>They conclude their letter with these words:</p>
<blockquote><p>Curing a defective state process—in this case, one that
appears to have been impermissibly slanted to protect local white law
enforcement officials from accountability in the shooting death of a
young black child—is consistent with the fundamental purpose of the
federal civil rights laws and squarely within the mandate of the DOJ.
Only an uncorrupted, fairly administered federal grand jury process can
ensure justice and restore public confidence in the rule of law, both of
which have been substantially diminished by the actions of local
officials and police officers in this case.</p></blockquote>
<p>Still, in spite of this plea, on January 28, 2022, the DOJ denied these varying requests to reopen the investigation. In <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/03/doj-tamir-rice-civil-rights-investigation/#response">the DOJ's response</a>,
addressed to Ms. Rice and her lawyer, Clarke named that in order "to
establish a violation" of Section 242, it must first be proven that
former-officer Loehmann "acted willfully" or "with the specific intent
to do something the law forbids." </p>
<h5><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2021/06/qualified-immunity/"><span>Qualified Immunity—How 'ordinary police work' tramples civil rights</span></a></h5>
<p>The federal government is standing by their 2020 decision to not
convene a federal grand jury because Loehmann was, in Clarke's words,
"not depriving Tamir of his constitutional rights." Clarke and her
constituents are not in agreement with Ms. Rice, or the 50 lawyers,
about Loehmann's murder of Tamir being enough to prosecute the officer
under the Section 242 statute.</p>
<blockquote><p>The letters from both the DOJ and the legal
scholars are clear examples of the limitations of legal studies and
legalism in an antiblack world. </p></blockquote>
<p>The letters from both the DOJ and the legal scholars are clear
examples of the limitations of legal studies and legalism in an
antiblack world. The U.S. Constitution <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/constitution">establishes and protects</a>
the freedoms of its citizens, but black subjects were not citizens at
the time of the writing of the Constitution; they were chattel. Despite
attempts to legally represent black subjects as citizens through various
amendments and statutes, the law continues to be used as justification
for our murders precisely because the development and maintenance of
this country require<em>d</em> and require<em>s</em> antiblack violence.
The DOJ's choice to deny the request to reopen this investigation makes
clear the restrictions of critical race theory—which has been given an
ample amount of attention in recent months—with regard to its
(in)ability to create "justice" for black subjects. Legal studies—and
critical race theory, for that matter—don't stand to undo the violence
of law and legality as a structure whereby black humanity is
objectified. Some of the signers of the letter sent to the DOJ are
pioneering scholars in legal studies and critical race theory, but the
fact that they don't wield enough power to sway the decision of the DOJ
indicates that antiblack legalism holds more power than those who desire
to honor black life. Black subjects can't be written into laws they
were intentionally written out of.</p>
<p>There is no justice in the U.S. for black subjects because justice is
a ruse; an attempt to deceive and coerce black folks into believing
that it is even a possibility under a state that sanctions our deaths.
Justice in the U.S. continues to be an enigma, particularly as it
attempts to establish law and order through antiblack force and
antiblack (interpretations of) policy and legal rights that legitimize
murder by the state.</p>
<hr>
<h2><strong>Reflections</strong><br><em>Joy James</em></h2>
<p>In waves of brutality and murder cases, before and after Tamir's
death, we see the (legal) procedures by which "justifiable police
homicide" rulings/determinations become the escape hatch through which
the state walks free. Last fall, on September 13, 2021, Georgia police
killed 12-year-old Leden Boynkins when they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/investigations/pit-maneuver-police-deaths/">allegedly performed</a>
a risky pursuit intervention technique (PIT) maneuver on the car in
which he and a 14-year-old with his father sat defenseless while they
began a desperate collective conversation with police dispatchers.
Charlie Moore, the Black father of the 14-year-old, requested an on-site
supervisor to control the police, who were endangering children.
(Allegedly, police surrounded and smashed car windows next to the
children in the parked car.) Unable to de-escalate police violence, we
ask for assistance from supervisors, civil rights laws, and attorney
generals. Without the time to litigate or the conditions under which the
vulnerability of Black life would be recognized, the father drove away,
and 911 conversations continued—leaving the family at the mercy of a
police chase.</p>
<blockquote><p>Neither the killings themselves nor the
injustices surrounding Tamir Rice, Ma'Khia Bryant, and Leden Boynkin's
murders are aberrations. We are taxed to pay for structures of state
violence as well as ineffectual legalistic responses to violent police
corruption.</p></blockquote>
<p>Allegedly, police in squad cars rammed a civilian car. The car
flipped over, and Leden died. Rather than take accountability for their
violence, the state has <a href="https://youtu.be/n_8HeXISt6k">incarcerated the parental driver</a>, Charlie Moore, on felony murder charges for Leden's death.</p>
<p>On the same day in April 2021 that Derek Chauvin was to be sentenced, Ohio police <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/us/columbus-ohio-shooting.html">killed</a>
16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant, firing four shots towards her as she
threatened two girls during an altercation at a foster home. I am struck
by another Black father's image of climate crisis that he shared with
the media. Rather than watching the Chauvin verdict later that day,
Rayshawn Whiting went to the neighborhood protest for Ma'Khia, and
described our limited legalistic choices: "I've got daughters… I'm tired
of it. I feel like a polar bear with the ice caps melting. We have
nowhere to run. If we protect ourselves, we go to jail. If we don't, we
die."</p>
<p>Neither the killings themselves nor the injustices surrounding Tamir
Rice, Ma'Khia Bryant, and Leden Boynkin's murders are aberrations. We
are taxed to pay for structures of state violence as well as <a href="https://blog.harvardlawreview.org/derrick-bells-interest-convergence-and-the-permanence-of-racism-a-reflection-on-resistance/">ineffectual legalistic responses</a>
to violent police corruption. Our political strategies for protections
will evolve in communal-democratic strategy sessions where we labor to
control predatory violence by containing the violators we fund.</p>
<hr>
<h2><strong>Final words</strong><br><strong><em>Samaria Rice</em></strong></h2>
<p>I met with you, Ms. Clarke, as well as your staff, two career
attorneys, and one of your assistants on the 27th of October, 2021. I
asked for an indictment on behalf of my son, and you said that statute
242 is very hard to challenge. I told you to challenge it anyway. How
would we ever know if you don't challenge it? You said I don't know what
Loehmann was thinking in his mind that day. And I said I don't care
about what you think he was thinking that day. I also don't care what
Loehmann was thinking about that day, November 22nd, 2014. Frank
Garmback drove up, created a dangerous situation, and now my life has
changed forever. </p>
<p>You really had me thinking you were going to do the right thing. You
and your team would rather please the government than meet the needs of
the people. What sense does it make that you, as a Black woman,
represent Black and brown folks but refuse to tend to our needs? </p>
<p>After the horrible news from the DOJ, I now know that there will be
no justice for Black and brown people in America when it comes to police
murders and police shootings. The DOJ breaks their own rules, so how do
we get justice in a system like that? They are cowards, and the system
can't be fixed.</p>
<p>You name that there is no proof that Loehmann "acted willfully," but
Loehmann had his gun sitting on his lap as Garmback pulled their police
car just a few feet in front of my son. They created the danger.
Willfully. The two horrible Cleveland police officers should be indicted
and charged with first degree murder, conspiracy and the cover up of
Tamir Rice's murder. </p>
<blockquote><p>None of you all have ever done right by the
people that put your sorry asses in office, and now I know they will not
ever make it right. </p></blockquote>
<p>Ms. Clarke, 50 of your constituents, and some of your mentors,
disagreed with your position and despite that fact, you stood by the
2020 ruling to not convene a federal grand jury. I believed that since
you are a Black woman, you would do the right thing. But you are an ass
kisser and a big disappointment to me as a Black woman. I would never
want to be like you, and I hope our little Black girls will never be
like you and fake-ass Ms. [Kamala] Harris. I feel sorry for you. All you
people in power will meet Satan at the Altar. Two <em>Black women</em> in power and unwilling to support the needs of Black people; what a damn shame. </p>
<p>As the people, we must vote y'all asses out of the damn
administration. And to the Congressional Black Caucus: you all should
look in the mirror as well. Most of y'all are pitiful and pathetic.
Y'all have stood for nothing. America is designed to fail Black and
brown people. You may think you are one of the white people with power,
but you better double back and look in the mirror. A child can be killed
in America and the American legal system will justify it. This system
is broken from the inside out and it can't be fixed. No one will give us
justice in the DOJ where they commit crimes of genocide, conspiracies,
and the cover up of murders on American citizens—especially for Black
and brown people. I'm so disgusted with the DOJ, Democrats, Biden and
all other presidential administrations. None of you all have ever done
right by the people that put your sorry asses in office, and now I know
they will not ever make it right. </p>
<p>Genocide is so real in America; that's the way its designed for Black
and brown people. If they could, they would put us back in chattel
slavery; that's the way they want to see it done.</p>
<p>Black people: <strong>we will not get justice in this system.</strong> Save yourself, train your family, the war has been here. It's time to be all the way woke.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tamirericefoundation.org/donate"><strong>Donate to the Tamir Rice Foundation here</strong></a><strong>.<br></strong><a href="https://cash.app/$SamariaRice"><strong>Donate to Samaria Rice directly via CashApp</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p>
<hr>
<h4>Read the letter to the DOJ from 50 notable legal scholars and
attorneys seeking to reopen the investigation into Tamir Rice's murder,
and the DOJ's response, below:</h4><div><a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/03/doj-tamir-rice-civil-rights-investigation/">https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/03/doj-tamir-rice-civil-rights-investigation/</a></div>
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