Police gunned down 12-year-old, newspaper decides to run this story . . .

[gollygee]

TAMIR RICE'S FATHER HAS HISTORY OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/26/tamir-rice-father_n_6227312.html?&ir=Politics

We've seen this type of media coverage before, though it's often focused on the victims of police violence themselves, rather than on their relatives. After the deaths of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and Michael Brown in August, for example, some news stories evidently sought to paint the slain teenagers as drug addicts, delinquents and thugs.

This coverage was criticized by many as an attempt to smear the victims' characters and distract from the issue of police violence -- and, more subtly, to suggest that the killing of young black men is somehow acceptable or unsurprising. And it succeeded -- these stories were used by some people to explain why Martin and Brown deserved to die, or how they may have somehow invited their own deaths.

Brandon Blackwell, the author of the story about Tamir's father, was the subject of heavy critique on Twitter once the piece went live. He told one critic that he's also planning to report on the officer who killed Tamir.

snip

Rather than asking why police officers were so quick to exercise lethal force on a 12-year-old boy playing with a toy gun, as 12-year-old boys everywhere do, some people are asking instead how Tamir's parents could have allowed their child to get his hands on a fake weapon in the first place. Instead of focusing on how young black males face a far greater risk of being killed by police than their white peers, they blame the grieving parents -- a mother and father who, whatever their legal history, will be going to sleep tonight without their son.

[Bettie]

1. It is the beginning

of "proving" that he, like every other black male who gets shot, was 100% responsible for his own death.

Victim blaming seems to be the thing to do these days.

Disgusting.

[Blue_Tires]

5. +1000

[BronxBoy]

15. Yep.......

You can almost set your watch by it

[WillyT]

18. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!! - K & R !!!

[noiretextatique]

22. it has already started here too

for the ever-present "just the facts" cop-apologist crowd. they will gleefully parrot every negative comment written about this child in their zeal the defend the indefensible.

[arcane1]

26. Yep. Like night follows day.

[freshwest]

30. Or anything bad that happens to peaceful protesters, it shows ill will. So I left DU last night.

No way to get through to those who regard harm to others a joke.

The 'reporter' had no linkage between the father and the son being killed.

It was a smear on a dead child.

[Scuba]

31. + another

[GGJohn]

2. Are you fricken kidding me?

12 yo child gets executed by a cop and they run this story?
Words fail me.

[frylock]

3. just laying the groundwork for the "poor parenting" angle

[SomethingFishy]

4. Couldn't find video of him shoving a store clerk

he's just a small kid, doesn't look very "demonic" so they had to go after his family...

Unfuckingbelievable..

[Enrique]

6. the newspaper is not blaming the parents

the newspaper is conveying the message that the boy was doomed. Painting a picture of the boy's home life that makes people think he had no future anyway so the death is not as important as it might have been, if it were a boy that the reader can relate to.

[gollygee]

7. He wasn't doomed

That's the exact point though. They're pointing a picture of him being doomed, taking fault away from the police, suggesting if he hadn't died at their hand he was doomed anyway, so it's nothing to get too upset about.

He wasn't doomed. If he hadn't been shot, he'd be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow.

[arcane1]

10. "Doomed anyway" is one step away from "they did society a favor" :(

[Enrique]

12. a very short step

and a lot of people no doubt skip right to that step.

[Rex]

8. Of course they do, got to start to demonize the child early on.

Their crying over a fake gun is pathetic. How did he get a TOY? Gee can't imagine. Huff is solid garbage anyway.

[GGJohn]

9. How did he get it and who removed the orange tip?

And why did the cop execute Tamir?

[Rex]

11. It's a toy so how do kids get toys?

Parents, friends, etc.. Why did the cop execute Tamir? No idea, watching the video they didn't even try to see if it was a toy...just pulled up and killed him.

Your guess is as good as mine.

[arcane1]

13. If I were 12 I'd probably remove the tip myself.

I would be foolish for doing so, of course, but I probably would.

[Rex]

14. I remember in the 80s we had a red ring around the end of the barrel.

And these were sold as looking like real guns, the red ring was small and could only be seen if pointing in your direction. Yet, nobody ever got shot by cops or anyone else for that matter.

Things have changed a lot since the 1980s, but kids still play the same games with fake guns so I don't get all these police killings.

[GGJohn]

16. Guess I'm a bit older than you,

I remember back in the 50's, we had those realistic looking cap gun revolvers and the cops never gave us a second glance.
Difference times, sigh.

[Rex]

17. I always think back to what we were told after 9/11, "everything has changed".

I wonder how much of that fear and uncertainty is still with us as a people?

[arcane1]

19. Good point. We are, after all, in a war that "will not end in our lifetimes" at home and abroad

And cops are receiving military-style training in addition to all the toys and vehicles they get from the government.

[GGJohn]

24. Not only are they receiving military training,

but police depts are hiring combat vets who treat citizens like the enemy, and, to top it off, alot of police are NG's who were called to active duty and served multiple combat tours and returned to treat, again, citizens like the enemy.

[GGJohn]

20. Well, it seems the PTB make sure that the fear and uncertainty remain with us.

[nomorenomore08]

21. Yep. n/t

[noiretextatique]

23. you are so right about that

fear and terror and fear and terror and fear and terror...24/7.

[Rex]

25. So true, just when you think someone might be held responsible for torture in Iraq

The POTUS comes out and says they are all 'patriots and good people' and the confusion and uncertainty sets in. Or he says we are a 'nation of laws', while Wall Street gets away with decades of grand theft and the confusion sets in.

[ecstatic]

27. WTFF? nt

[Iggo]

28. That's how they do.

[montana_hazeleyes]

29. I am white. My little brother had a cap gun

in the 50's, pointed it at everyone all the time. He was never profiled or killed about it.

And the gall of them bringing up domestic violence by a relative. WHAT does that have to do with the situation ?

And don't they know there is a high rate of domestic violence and alcohol abuse amongst Law Enforcement?

I am married to a Black man for many years. We have several children. Three of them are big, strong, males.
They are now in their forties. I have lived the fear of them being murdered by cops all these decades and still do. I worry for my daughters too.

Now the fear will be worse.