Fri 1/1
Around 100 people — an nearly even mix of black and white, with people of all ages from young children to the very elderly — gathered in Impett Park in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood on a chilly New Year’s Day to march to the home of County Prosecutor Tim McGinty four blocks away. There they staged a rally demanding his resignation, the firing of the two police officers who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice outside the Cudell Community Center on November 22, 2014, and an independent prosecutor to re-investigate the case.
Outside McGinty’s home, Tamir’s cousin Latonya Goldsby read a poem written by his mother for his memorial program, and multiple speakers demanded McGinty’s ouster (as an elected official, he can’t be fired; he would have to resign). A young woman delivered a touching poem depicting how Cleveland’s red line rapid changes skin colors on its trip from west to east.
After the speakers, a “die-in” was staged, where the demonstrators lay on the sidewalk for four minutes, representing the amount of time the officers who shot Tamir let him lie bleeding without offering any first aid. Finally, the children in the crowd were invited to come forward to lay symbolic white flowers at the entrance to McGinty’s driveway. While police cars cleared the way for the marchers and were relatively non-confrontational for the most part, many neighbors in this police-heavy neighborhood watched the chanting, sign-waving crowd warily from their doorways.
