05-31-2017, 10:11 AM
(05-31-2017, 01:06 AM)Pat/Ohio Wrote: Tim Loehmann, the officer that killed Tamir Rice was fired from the police force.He was fired for a
rules violation for lying on his job application. His partner was given a 10 day suspension,
Garmback was suspended for violations related to the shooting, like failing to report his arrival to a radio dispatcher, No one checked his background before giving him a gun and sending him on the streets????? The people that are supposed to keep our kids safe never questioned his last job w/Independence Police and was fired from there also. Someone wasn't doing their job will that be investigated???? If that was done...he'd never make it on the force, and because of that Tamir won't be here today w/his family.
I agree, Loehmann should have never gotten hired in the first place and it's a relief that he was FINALLY fired. But, the fact that the incompetent nervous nelly was hired by Cleveland PD is just as much the PD's fault as it is Loehmann's.
CPD didn't even bother to check work history and references before giving him a gun and a badge and putting him on the streets. If the the PD had followed those minimal hiring standards, they would have known quickly that Loehmann couldn't cut at his previous police department where there was clear and easily accessible documentation detailing his frequent weeping on the job, failing and sleeping during firearms instruction, having been deemed unfit emotionally for the job, etc.
Garmback deserved a more severe punishment than 10 days of suspension, in my opinion. He, through the union rep, lied about Tamir being with a group of people and having a gun on a table in the gazebo. He lied about Tamir trying to run away. He mis-assessed the situation grossly and initiated an improper and ultimately fatal approach, which he tried to justify with the aforementioned lies. Then, when the surveillance video surfaced and those lies were exposed, he claimed that he knew the approach was improper but couldn't help it because the grass was slippery (huge eye roll). All kinds of terrible judgment and lies on the part of veteran/trainer Garmback, compounded by the fact that he was training someone who'd already been deemed unfit for police duty.
This case still affects me, as does the commentary by some that 12-year-old Tamir got was coming to him and the world is better off without him.
Anyway, I hope Tamir's death and the justifiable public protests were not in vain and that the CPD and other departments across the country have improved their hiring and training procedures, as many pledged to do after Tamir was killed.