[who serves who?] Tamir Rice’s Mom to Deliver Petition Signed by More than 100k People Begging the Cleveland Police Union to Drop its Efforts to Re-Hire the Public Ruler who Murdered 12 Yr Old Child

We are the Government? They Don’t Serve Us & We Can’t Fire Them. Larken Rose explains, “The people are not the “government,” by any stretch of the imagination, and it requires profound denial to believe otherwise. . . if “government” works for us, if it is our employee, why does it decide how much we pay it? Why does our “employee” decide what it will do for us? Why does our “employee” tell us how to live our lives? Why does our “employee” demand our obedience for whatever arbitrary commands it issues, sending armed enforcers after us if we disobey? It is impossible for “government” to ever be the servant, because of what “government” is, To put it in simple, personal terms, if someone can boss you around and take your money, he is not your servant; and if he cannot do those things, he is not “government.” However limited, “government” is the organization thought to have the right to forcibly control the behavior of its subjects via “laws,” rendering the popularly accepted rhetoric about “public servants” completely ridiculous. To imagine that a ruler could ever be the servant of those over whom he rules is patently absurd. Yet that impossibility is spouted as indisputable gospel in “civics” classes.

Compulsory Public Service. From [HERE] Tamir Rice’s mother will deliver a petition with more than 100,000 signatures to protest the police union’s efforts to overturn the firing of the white officer who murdered her 12-year-old boy.

Samaria Rice at 11 a.m. Monday will deliver boxes containing the petition that has more than 170,000 signatures to Cleveland Police Patrolmen President Jeff Follmer, according to a press release from Amanda King, an advisor to Rice. She is also expected to make remarks at a press conference.

Rice tried to give Follmer the petition last week, but she said he rejected them, according to the press release.

“I want the police to approach our women and children with respect,” Rice said in a statement. “At the end of the day, CPPA’s interest is to protect the police, regardless of officer misconduct, and that is in conflict with reform efforts and public trust.”

Along with the petitions, more than 680 calls were made to the union asking for them to drop their lawsuit challenging the city’s firing of former officer Timothy Loehmann, the press release said.

Follmer said he has no plans to stop the challenge. He said he believes the union’s position is strong, pointing out that a review team comprised of city officials and police officers cleared Loehmann in the shooting and that a Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to indict Loehmann.

He also said he believed the arbitrator who upheld the firing made his ruling “unfairly.”

Loehmann “has the support of our union,” Follmer said.

Loehmann shot Tamir on November 2014 in one of the most high-profile police shootings in Cleveland history.

He was fired not for the shooting but because the city accused him of lying on his application. Loehmann was hired by Cleveland police eight months before the shooting.

He did not put on his application the circumstances surrounding his departure from the Independence Police Department. Loehmann was allowed to resign following a series of incidents in which supervisors determined he was unfit to be a police officer.

An arbitrator upheld Loehmann’s firing and the union filed a challenge March 4 to that ruling in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

The union argued in their complaint that arbitrator James Rimmel failed to establish a clear burden of proof before the arbitration hearing began, that the city failed to bring the disciplinary action in a timely manner and that Rimmel used information that was not presented during the arbitration hearing. The union also accused the city of firing Loehmann because of political pressure brought by weeks of protests following the shooting.

Loehmann had only been with Cleveland for eight months when he shot Rice, who was playing in a park with an Airsoft pellet gun, in November 2014. A racist suspect resident called 9-1-1 and gave the dispatch the misleading impression that an adult Black man, possible a military veteran, was at a park filled with people, threatening them with a gun. Loehmann and his partner Officer Frank Garmback responded to the dispatch’s subsequent call. Video of the incident caused widespread outrage not just because of Rice’s age, but also because he was shot within 4 seconds of police arriving on the scene. The police cruiser was still moving when Loehmann shot Rice on the spot. It is myth repeated by white media that he was holding a toy gun. Tamir died with the toy gun still in his waistband and no other people were present in the park. The toy was not out or visible when the cops were present. As such, no perceived crime was ongoing when they arrived and the cops did not have reasonable suspicion to stop, seize and shoot Tamir. When the cops arrived they could see they were in not in danger. But racist suspects have stories to tell. [MORE]

A Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to indict Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmback in the shooting, and a review commission comprised of city officials found Loehmann violated no police policies.

The city paid Rice $6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.