Mothers of Slain Black Boys Meet with Hillary Clinton (Hillary Group)

In Chicago this week, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton met with a group of women whose sons — all black boys — were killed as a result of the “the epidemic of gun violence … and the sense of distrust that too often exists between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” her camp said.

Among the group was: Samaria Rice, whose 12-year-old son, Tamir Rice, was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer last year; Sybrina Fulton, mother to Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida three years ago; Lucia McBath, mother to Jordan Davis, fellow Florida teen killed for playing his music too loudly in a parking lot; and Lesley McSpadden, whose son, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Each of the high-profile cases garnered attention and sparked debate about the alarming rate at which unarmed black boys and men are targeted by police or armed white people.

Samaria Rice told CNN that the meeting proved Clinton “understood where we are coming from.” “It doesn’t matter what color we are, I felt that she really understands where we are coming from,” she said. Fulton called the meeting “powerful” and “productive.”

Clinton, who has spoken about the case of Tamir Rice in her calls for criminal justice reform, tweeted that she was “grateful” for the opportunity to meet with the women.

http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/11/03/mothers-of-slain-black-boys-meet-with-hillary-clinton/ via New York Times, Women in the World