Viewpoint: Why Eric Garner was blamed for dying

Tamir Rice:

Last month 12-year old Tamir Rice was killed by police who opened fired seconds after arriving at the scene.

Rice was blamed for playing with a toy gun outside a recreation center in Cleveland, Ohio. A 911-caller said he kept taking the gun in and out of his pocket and scaring people with it.

Not even a day after Rice was killed, his parents' criminal records and parenting decisions were front-page news. An early news story made references to his mother's past drug charges, another focused on Tamir Rice's father's history of violence against women.

The implication was clear: Tamir grew up in a family of "criminals" and therefore it is no wonder he died. Never mind that he was the victim, never mind his parent's grief, never mind that his killer, Timothy A Loehmann was deemed unfit for police work in 2012.


http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30340632