Posted on 12/30/2015 8:10:41 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Protests and debates have erupted across the nation this week in the wake of a grand jury's decision not to indict the Cleveland police officers who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
Most of that debate has centered on whether police had real reason to fear for their lives, as the grand jury believed. Few have suggested that Rice -- a preteen playing with a toy gun in a park -- deserved to be killed.
But that's exactly what Lt. Javier Ortiz, president of Miami's police union, argues on Twitter during a debate with Billy Corben over the case. Ortiz writes that the officers were fully justified to shoot the kid. "Act like a thug and you'll be treated like one," he writes.
New Times reached out to Ortiz to see if he wanted to clarify that sentiment. Even the prosecutor in the case called it a "perfect storm of human error [and] mistakes." Plus, the officer who shot Rice had a "dismal" record of weapons training, according to his own former chief. (And that's not even to mention the racially charged use of "thug," which has become internet code in many sectors for the n-bomb.)
But Ortiz sticks by his argument.
"Mr. Rice wasn't your neighborhood kid running around with a water gun. He was brandishing and pointing a pellet gun in which the orange tip was removed," Ortiz tells New Times. "As tragic as the situation is, I support those in law enforcement that had to make a split-second decision in protecting themselves and the community."
Twitter was quick to jump on Ortiz:
(TWEETS-AT-LINK)
Ortiz is no stranger to stoking the flames of outrage after police violence. He's previously lashed out at Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa for supporting charges against the NYPD officers who killed Eric Garner, and Ortiz promoted pages to support Darren Wilson, the cop who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
When a woman filmed a Miami cop kicking a handcuffed suspect last year, Ortiz responded by blasting the witness and spreading photos from her Facebook page. He also perpetuated rumors that a female assistant chief of police was Muslim and ignored the national anthem. Ortiz was also sued by a man who was tasered during Ultra Music Festival.
In the Tamir Rice case, Ortiz has used the verdict to attack the Black Lives Matter movement, pointing toward the shooting death of a 7-year-old in a drive-by in Miami over the weekend.
"I am sick and tired of the outrage for what is such a justified shooting, yet no outrage for the killing of 7-year-old Amiere Castro, who was killed in a drive-by shooting while playing inside a Richmond Heights house," says Ortiz, who is elected to his post as union president by fellow Miami officers. "Unless you are shot by police, it's not newsworthy or a worthwhile cause by the Blacklivesmatter group."
Of course, that argument misses the point entirely. There's plenty of outrage about Castro's death. Just read New Times' story and the comments about it from Monday. But Castro was killed by a criminal who has since been arrested. He wasn't killed by police officers sworn to protect and serve -- yet who face no legal consequences for their mistakes, like killing Tamir Rice.
(TWEET-AT-LINK)
I know that I’m in the minority here on FR, but I am, in theory, pro-union. But this is one instance where the union leader needs to keep his big mouth shut.
Javier has bigger cojones than most of the GOP it seems, save Trump of course.
He’s right. Act like a thug, don’t complain when someone shoots you. Virtually every “victim” put forward by the BLM and the media has been involved in some criminal activity and doing something they’re not supposed to be doing. With Trayvon he was punching Zimmerman in the face, so he got sent to hell, skittles and all. Brown just got done robbing a store and took a swing at a cop. Now he’s pursuing his PhD thesis in the flames of Hades. Even that guy who got strangled (well, he died of a heart attack, actually, if memory serves) selling cigarettes was doing so illegally and resisting arrest while a black sergeant supervised.
Your life expectancy goes way up when you’re not doing stupid or illegal stuff.
“(And that’s not even to mention the racially charged use of “thug,” which has become internet code in many sectors for the n-bomb.)”
Here we go again. Race card. He didn’t actually call him a n*gger but yeah he did bs.
Thug is about behavior.
Agreed. There are no more thuggish groups than police unions, and their leaderships seem to be incapable of anything other than throwing gas on a fire.
Did you happen to live in a community where 12 year old kids-- who are 5'7 and 175 pounds-- point BB guns or sometimes real guns at women and rob them?
If no, then the analogy fails.
This whole Orange Tip thing for Toys is ridiculous.
Put an Orange Tip on a real Weapon so the Police will hesitate just a split second, and a Police Officer might end up dead.
Just another useless Liberal panacea that ends up getting people killed.
Yep. And the police unions are unique in that they represent people who can actually destroy your life, one way or the other.
I get that it's the job of a police union leader to represent a member, regardless. I get that. But those leaders don't seem to ever acknowledge the their members have a terrible power to destroy lives.
A mistake made by a union cop is not the same as a mistake made by a union carpenter.
I don't know, did you dress like a gangster, take the gun to the park, and point it at strangers?
This whole is a lot more about parental fail than police fail...
Sigh. The gun the kid had looks EXACTLY like a real gun and the prosecutor said there was undeniable video evidence the kid drew the gun as the police arrived, so the shooting was justified, but it's still a tragedy.
The police union guy only makes it worse.
Thanks for saving me the time to write those thoughts. Well said.
A 12 year old should know better. But maybe the kid was a little childish for his age. How terrible for his family.
He makes it better! He should say it again and again.
The medical examiner’s report said he was 195 pounds.
1. A daisy BB gun does not look like a real gun
2. I doubt you walked around in a public space pointing it at passers-by
3. I bet you looked 12, not 22
Nevertheless, if you drew your BB gun on a cop, you deserve at minimum a good ass kicking. If it looked like a real 9mm or .45, you deserve your fate!!! Stupid is as stupid posts, er, I mean does.
I didn't say he did, though clearly he was playing the thug with what looked like a real weapon. I essentially said "kids" just like him do, which destroys the notion of a paradise of innocent children playing with water guns and toy guns.
It's the same reason why it's totally fair to freak out if some Arab guy with a big beard is fiddling with what looks like a large clock with wires connected to plastic looking bars.
No, it's not reasonable to conclude it's a freaking clock he made for his teacher.
Meanwhile, according to Wikipedia,
According to the freaking video, the kid pulls the gun from his belt just as the cops pull up. He was asking to be killed.
I never aimed my BB gun at passers-by, no - I was taught not to.
Maybe that's why you're not dead. Though it also helps not to be a member of a neighborhood where there are criminal-rapist youths running around.
This was a Colt replica gun. Looked like the real thing, but instead of bullets it shot pellets.
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