In a garish game of “blame the victim,” the city of Cleveland has chosen to blame 12-year-old Tamir Rice for his own death.
According to court documents the city argues 12-year-old Rice did not “exercise due care to avoid injury.”
This defense was among 20 defenses the city gave in the lawsuit their facing from the boy’s family. Among those defenses include the city blaming Rice’s family and other “individuals or entities.”
Rice was killed by police while playing with a pellet gun last November. He was toying with the gun, playing by himself in a park, when a police car abruptly pulled up and within two seconds of the stop an officer shot the boy from his car window. All of this was captured on video.
The police claim they didn’t realize that the gun was fake or that Rice was a child.
