[quote]Police in Cleveland fatally shot a 12-year-old boy wielding what turned out to be a replica gun. They were responding to a 911 call in which a man said a juvenile was scaring people with a gun that probably was fake.
The boy, identified by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office as Tamir Rice, was shot in the torso in the playground area of a recreation center Saturday afternoon.
Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said one officer fired twice after the boy pulled the fake weapon -- [u][b]which didn't have the orange safety indicator usually found on the muzzle[/b][/u] -- from his waistband but had not pointed it at police. The boy did not make verbal threats, Tomba said, but grabbed the replica handgun after being told to raise his hands. He died Sunday at MetroHealth Medical Center.[/quote]
Sorry, I don't feel bad. There's a reason those orange tips are on toy guns.
Here's a link to a NYT article, including the CCTV footage. The video is obviously NSFW.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/us/video-shows-cleveland-officer-shot-tamir-rice-2-seconds-after-pulling-up-next-to-him.html?_r=0
In light of seeing the video, I no longer have an argument supporting what the police did. Their actions amount to little more than a drive-by shooting.
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#Offtopic
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Sorry to say this, but the cops did the right thing. They responded as if it was a real weapon, and they did not know it was a fake. I would have to wonder who removed the safety tip on that gun, though, because whoever did it ended up wasting a human life. Those things are there for a reason. Also, when I was twelve, I would have had more than enough sense to do what the cops told me if they pointed guns at me. What made that kid think it was okay to point the toy at the cops? Yes, this is a terrible waste of human life, and this easily could have been avoided, but in the end, the cops did the right thing.