The squabble over which law enforcement agencies will be involved in the investigation of the Tamir Rice killing speaks volumes in regards to levels of public trust — or lack thereof — in every aspect of police-involved shootings. Given the sordid history of the outcomes of such cases no one should be surprised by the controversy.
When Mayor Frank Jackson bypassed the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI, which functions under Attorney General Mike DeWine) and asked the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department to handle the investigation into the 12-year-old’s death many political and legal observers privately opined that the issue had not been laid to rest: Speculation was rampant the issue wasn’t settled, and they were right. It appears as if the Sheriff’s Department reached out to BCI the day they were handed the case.
Just days after Jackson said at a news conference, “I don’t think the state attorney general handled the East Cleveland shooting properly. It wasn’t done in a way that I think gave me confidence that this would have been done properly. So that’s why we turned to the county,” it was announced that BCI would provide assistance “with firearm forensic testing and technical support.” Seeing as how the entire shooting incident is captured on video, just how much “firearm forensic testing” will be required is unclear.
How deeply BCI will be involved in the Tamir Rice case remains a matter of speculation at this juncture, but historically investigatory agencies are notoriously jurisdictional, often eschewing assistance from anyone, viewing investigators from other agencies as “outsiders” and “meddlers.” It’ll indeed be interesting to see if this joint investigation — if indeed, that’s what it’s going to be — will work with the eyes of America focused on Cleveland and the outcome.
It could very well be that the Sheriff’s Department reached out to BCI for assistance in a “cover your ass” move, not wanting to shoulder the blame that surely will follow (from some quarter) all alone once the decision is made … or Sheriff Frank Bova simply caved into pressure from the Plain Dealer, which demanded that the investigation be handed over to the state agency. Just how much politics is being played with this investigation really is anyone’s guess, but nonetheless is responsible for the high level of skepticism on the part of the public in general, and the black public in particular.
As previously witnessed in other cases, when the white-hot glare of media lights are focused on an incident of this magnitude people oftentimes begin acting in weird, and sometimes grandstanding, ways. Oftentimes those with political aspirations are not bashful in regards to using the free media attention to enhance their opportunities for a shot at a higher office, and just as often those with no political aspirations simply want to be elevated to hero status … either for collaring a bad guy, or to increase their stature in the law enforcement community by doing everything in their power to assure that no cop — guilty or not — ever has to stand before the Bar of Justice.
And therein lies the rub. “Facts” are open to interpretation; two people can look at the same video or set of circumstances and come away with diametrically differing points of view, according to where they stand on the racial/political spectrum. We’ve recently seen this played out in America time and time again, often with tragic consequences. In some cases the guilty go free, and in others the innocent are convicted.
While no system of criminal justice can ever be perfect in every instance — after all, they are designed and administered by man, not by God — our system has virtually beached itself on the quicksand shoals of mistrust, with outcome after outcome, ruling after ruling making it abundantly clear that we Americans don’t live in a democracy as we presume and proclaim to the world, but instead reside in a pigmentocracy, a system of rules, laws and customs based on skin color. Nothing else can explain the vast differences in outcomes for blacks versus whites that become ensnared in the net of the criminal justice system.
So we drag this ball and chain of mistrust and doubt around with us, which, by its very nature, poisons almost every encounter of import that transpires in this country … especially when the interaction is between black males and police officers and the resolutions of those conflicts.
It’s often said that Ohio is a southern state that just happens to be located in the north, and even a cursory examination of voting patterns and other cultural makers proves this axiom. Anything south of Medina — with the exceptions of Columbus and Cincinnati to some degree — is considered another country by most Cuyahoga County blacks … a country run by borderline racists whose support of white police officers is unwavering.
Given this fact, and how Mayor Jackson feels the Williams and Russell case was mishandled, is there any wonder he would not want DeWine and BCI to once again be involved in a Cleveland case, especially one of such import? After all, the buck still stops on his desk.
But the solution of bringing in BCI (at whatever level of involvement) is still really no solution. What eventually is going to have to happen is for a national team of experts be empowered and dispatched across the land whenever a questionable killing at the hands of a law enforcement officer occurs. Naturally no official — be they city, county or state — will approve of such a team coming into their jurisdiction (which probably means it’s the right thing to do) but given the climate of extreme mistrust in the country over the ability of locals to render just outcomes in police shooting incidents, at this point this is probably the only way to rebuild trust between black citizens and law enforcement.
[Photo: Ted Eytan (Flickr)]
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.