Pleading innocence, immunity and ignorance, the city of Cleveland responded to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Tamir Rice's family by saying the 12-year-old's death was his own fault.
As to the scores of other allegations in the lawsuit, the city responds by saying that they are untrue, that the independent investigation by Cuyahoga County is still going on, or that the city "is without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth."
Their tactics that preceded his death and the subsequent victim blaming are examples of the institutionalized behavior that has beset the Cleveland Police Department.
"It is just incredible that the police officer, based on what we see on the video surveillance recording, gave Tamir three verbal commands to put his hands up and drop the weapon, based on what we see in the video. It was less than 1.7 seconds. The car hadn't even stopped. It's unbelievable."
A cop, department with histories
It was also reported in December that Loehmann's previous employer, the Independence Police Department in a Cleveland suburb, had numerous complaints about the officer, including that he was "distracted and weepy" and "emotionally immature" and had demonstrated "a pattern of lack of maturity, indiscretion and not following instructions."
He also showed "dangerous loss of composure during live range training" and an "inability to manage personal stress," the department said.
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