In the wake of the conviction earlier this week of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota in May 2020, on Friday, April 23, 2021, Congressman Jamaal Bowman led 40 of his Democratic congressional colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta in which they urge the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen its civil rights investigation into the death of Tamir Rice.

 

Tamir Rice, a Black, 12-year-old boy, was shot and killed by police in November 2014 while playing with a toy air pellet gun near a playground in Cleveland. Video showed that Rice was shot within two seconds of officers arriving at the site. Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department opened a federal investigation after Officer Timothy Loehmann was not charged with any crime under state law. The case remained open under the Trump administration, when, according to reporting by The Washington Post, the investigation was allegedly intentionally neglected by political appointees, despite two attempts from career civil rights division prosecutors to convene a grand jury.

 

In December 2020, former President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice announced that it had closed its investigation into Rice’s death and would not bring federal criminal charges against any of the officers involved, citing insufficient evidence to show that Rice’s constitutional rights were violated or that the officers obstructed justice.

 

“The senseless, chronic killing of Black people at the hands of law enforcement must end; that can only happen with true accountability and a ravenous pursuit for justice from all levels of government,” the signatories wrote in the letter. “George Floyd should still be alive. Tamir Rice should still be alive. We cannot bring them back, or any of the many other Black lives taken after an interaction with law enforcement, but we must, at minimum, work to ensure that the pursuit of justice is not in name only. Between 2013 and 2019, 7,666 people were killed by police, and 98.7 percent of those deaths resulted in no charges whatsoever. This is an untenable failing.”

 

The source of the data cited in the letter regarding the number of people killed, and the percent which resulted in no charges being brought are from an Al Jazerra article dated May 31, 2020.

 

In the meantime, the website, Mapping Police Violence, shows that 9,081 people were killed by police nationally between 2013 and 2020. This website is also referenced as a data source in the Al Jazeera article.

As reported previously by Norwood News, according to statistica.com, the rate of fatal police shootings of Black people is almost triple that of White people, and the rate of fatal police shootings for Hispanic people is almost double that of White people. Similar findings are also available on the site, Mapping Police Violence.

 

Last year, Norwood News, in conjunction with BronxNet and WFUV, reported as part of a previous feature story on crime and criminal justice in The Bronx, that Heather McDonald of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research wrote a book in 2016 outlining her views on crime and policing called, The War on Cops, in which she writes that crime has risen because police “officers have been backing off of proactive policing, and criminals are becoming emboldened.”

 

McDonald testified in Washington D.C. on September 2019 during a House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Policing Practices about her research on the topic. Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff of the Center for Policing Equity, a research center founded at the University of California-Los Angeles and now based at Yale University, also testified at the same hearing. Atiba Goff refuted much of McDonald’s testimony. McDonald would later provide additional comments further to Goff’s testimony at the hearing.

 

According to the press release issued by Bowman’s office, last week, Rice’s family called on Attorney General Garland to reopen the investigation and convene a grand jury to consider charges against the officers who killed Tamir. In reference to this action, the signatories to the open letter wrote, “We are enheartened by the real opportunity to be stewards of our community in partnership with you. We fully support carrying out Samaria Rice’s appeal to DOJ immediately, and we further urge that the results of the investigation be made public immediately upon completion.” Samaria Rice is Tamir’s mother.

 

Bowman’s office added that the letter from the elected officials comes at a time when the Rice family does not have active representation in Congress, as they live in Ohio’s 11th district, which is vacant following Secretary Marcia Fudge’s confirmation to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

As reported previously by Norwood News, since his election to Congress last November, replacing former Democratic Congressman Elliot Engel, Bowman, who represents the 16th congressional district, which covers parts of The Bronx and Westchester, was appointed, and currently serves as vice chair of the U.S. congressional committee on education and labor, in addition to serving on subcommittees on early childhood, elementary, and secondary education; higher education and workforce investment; and civil rights and human services.

 

The congressman was joined by other Bronx-based members of Congress, including Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15), who represents parts of The Bronx, Congressman Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), who represents parts of The Bronx and Manhattan, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), who represents parts of The Bronx and Queens.

 

Other New York-based elected officials who were also signatories to the letter included Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (NY-12), who represents parts of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, Congressman Jerry Nadler (NY-10), who represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-9), who represents parts of Brooklyn, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8), who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Congressman Mondaire Jones (NY-17), who represents parts of Westchester and Rockland counties, Congressman Gregory Meeks (NY-5), who represents parts of Queens, and Congresswoman Grace Meng (NY-6), who represents parts of Queens.

 

Click here to read the full text of the letter.