Protesters briefly block traffic in downtown Seattle
Dec 30, 2015, 5:39 PM | Updated: Jan 4, 2016, 9:49 pm
Demonstrators gather in downtown Seattle's Westlake Center protesting the lack of charges against two Cleveland cops involved in the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. (Henry Rosoff, KIRO7)
(Henry Rosoff, KIRO7)
Demonstrators gathered at downtown Seattle’s Westlake Center Wednesday night to protest a recent court decision in Cleveland.
“They do have the stated intention of moving into the streets,” said KIRO7’s Henry Rosoff who was reporting from the scene.
Rosoff said that the protest was composed of about 10 core people, with about 10 passersby who stopped to join in.
They were chanting, “Can’t stop. Won’t stop, until killer cops are in cell blocks.”
“There’s not a lot of police here as well. There’s about four officers (on bicycles),” Rosoff said.
The protest started as scheduled at 5 p.m. By 6 p.m. the small crowd had briefly blocked downtown traffic and, as Rosoff put it, was wrapping up.
The protest was organized by the Seattle chapter of the October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, a national organization dedicated to highlighting instances of police brutality. In this case, they are protesting the decision not to indict two police officers involved in the shooting and death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Cleveland boy.
Ohio prosecutors have opted not to charge the two officers citing the incident as a “perfect storm of human error, mistakes and communication by all involved that day.” Prosecutors also noted that there was not enough evidence to indicate criminal conduct by police, according to CNN
On Nov. 22, Cleveland police received calls about a young man sitting on swings in a park and pointing a gun at people. During one of the 9-1-1 calls, the caller reported that the gun was likely fake and that the suspect was a juvenile. Officers Frank Garmback, 46, and Timothy Loehmann, 26, reported that when they arrived on the scene they saw 12-year-old Tamir Rice reach for a gun in his waistband and fired upon him. Rice suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died the next day. Rice was African American. The two officers are white.
A video of the shooting shows Tamir at the park pointing the gun in various directions. After he went to sit at a picnic table, a police car races onto the grass of the park. The patrol car had barely come to a stop when one of the officers leaped out to shoot the child. Rice was laying on the ground within two seconds of the car stopping.
The incident, and the recent news that the two officers won’t face any charges, have sparked protests in Cleveland and other cities such as Baltimore.
