The Tamir Rice Story How to Make a Police Shooting Disappear. Maybe you heard about the Tamir Rice case and wondered How does a 1. Put another way How does a small group of government officials make this case disappear without a trial Heres how. The prosecutor pacing in front of the witness was holding a toy gun that looked like a real gun, which was the same kind of toy the boy had been playing with the day he got shot. A rookie Cleveland police officer had fired twice at close range, and one bullet hit the boy just left of his belly button, carved downward through his intestines and a major vein, and embedded in his pelvis an inch to the right of center. Old Rice VadagamThe witness, a retired cop named Roger Clark, thought the gun was a curious prop for a grand jury. The boy was dead, and had been for more than a year. Hed been accused of no crime, ever. Why the toy There is no need for theatrics in grand jury proceedings. They are entirely one sided forums. Prosecutors decide what witnesses to call and what evidence to present. They instruct the grand jurors, ordinary citizens drawn from the same pool as trial jurors, on the law. There is no defense present because the most a grand jury can do is issue an indictment, which means only that theres enough evidence of a crime that a judge or jury should sort it out. It is a very low threshold, and it is reached as a matter of plodding routine. Sugandha-Golden-Sella-Basmati-Rice-Old-Crop.jpg' alt='Old Rice' title='Old Rice' />Everyone loves this homey custard type of rice pudding. One of the ultimate comfort foods. Add raisins or omit according to personal preference. Condoleezza Rice is a leading expert on the politics and military of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and other areas of the world. Cooked rice is combined with milk, sugar, and an egg and flavored with butter and vanilla in this quick stovetop rice pudding. It also is done entirely in secret. Who was a prop supposed to impress Clark wasnt even there to testify about the boy. The grand jury was investigating two Cleveland police officersthe rookie who red and his veteran partnerto determine if there was probable cause to believe that theyd acted unreasonably and unlawfully when they drove to within ten feet of the boy and, even before stopping, shot him. Clark is an expert in that general area, police shootings. He spent more than 2. Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, where, among other things, he taught officers the proper use of force, investigated officers who used deadly force, and helped write tactical deployment guidelines designed to minimize the use of force. Since he retired in 1. Clark had studied all of the available evidence in this casevideo, witness statements, forensic reconstructionsand he had prepared a report detailing his ndings. He did not believe the officers acted reasonably, and he did not believe the shooting was justied. When he was called to testify, on December 7, he expected he would summarize those opinions, answer a few clarifying questions, then be dismissed with a polite thank you for his time and effort. Instead, he told me, it was immediately very hostile. There were two prosecutors in the room. The rst sat with the grand jurors at a big U shaped conference table, as if he were one of them, not an officer of the court presenting evidence. Clark thought he smirked a lot. The other, the one pacing with the toy gun, he smirked, too. The facial expressions, the body language. Clark said. Yeah, thats a good word disdain. The prosecutors reminded Clark, and the grand jurors, that the officers had responded to a 9. Active shooter. The phrase was used repeatedly, Clark told me. They had to be brave, the pacing prosecutor, Matthew Meyer, said. They were brave that day. Or maybe they were reckless, which was one of Clarks conclusions. Maybe if they hadnt ridden up in a frenzy, the boy wouldnt be dead. Theres case law about that, Clark started to explain, opinions that can help dene whether force was used appropriately. Meyer started pacing again. A California Supreme Court case, Clark continued, explicitly held that a shooting should be considered in a context broader than the instant the trigger was pulled. That did not suggest a cop should be second guessed back to his morning coffee. But if an officer, through tactical incompetence or outright belligerence, created the circumstance that put him in fear for his life. Meyer stopped, pivoted, swung his arm up, aimed his fake gun at Clarks face. Does he have to point it at you like this before you shoot Clark remembered Meyer asking. That would scare you, right Clark looked at him for a moment. No, he said. Hed had guns pointed at him before. But it would scare most people. Probably scare the good citizens sitting on a grand jury in a city with a miserably high crime rate. The prop was for them. But it was only theater. Because the boy never pointed a gun at a cop. Christmas Candy. He wasnt given the chance to even put his hands up. The Boy Was Named Tamir Rice. If you didnt know him, or dont know his city, or if you simply are too exhausted to sift one story from all the others, you might vaguely remember him as the kid who got killed in Cleveland during that period, from roughly the summer of 2. Tamir was shot on November 2. John Crawford in Dayton and Michael Brown in Ferguson but before Rumain Brisbon in Phoenix and Walter Scott in South Carolina. The grand jury in late December declined to indict either officer involved in killing Tamir, and the city of Cleveland denied anyone did anything wrong when, in April 2. Samaria, and his sister Tajai 6 million. The news reports and most of the columns and commentaries that followed those events invariably summarized his death as an awful mistake Tamir had been playing with a toy gun that the police mistook for a real one when he reached into his waistband, which is why the rookie shot him within seconds of arriving in Cudell park. A perfect storm of human error, mistakes, and miscommunications by all involved, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy J. Mc. Ginty said. The grand jury had been thorough and diligent, he said. The grand jury had heard all the facts and had reached a reasoned, if difficult, decision. That he agreed with the decision, and released a 7. There was a dreary, routine trajectory from that point. The city would pay to settle the civil suit, of course. Then months would pass and memories would get foggyTamir Clevelanduntil all that was left was a mushy insistence that no one was really to blame for a dead kid. The activists could make all the noise they wanted, but reasonable people would have to agree to disagree. If you dont trust the grand jury, Mc. Ginty said, quoting a local judge, you dont trust your neighbors. That is disingenuous. Grand jurors, almost without exception, follow where prosecutors lead them. And when they dont return indictments in high prole cases, its almost always because the prosecutor does not want them to. That he makes that preference known, whether explicitly or implicitly, in the secret connes of the grand jury room makes it no less deliberate. Since he took office, in January 2. Mc. Ginty has presented, or has promised to present, evidence related to every police killing of a civilian in Cuyahoga County2. The reason, he repeated after the December non indictment, was to increase transparency, to end the traditional system where the prosecutor privately reviewed police reports, then decided if an officer should be charged. That secrecywhich appeared arbitrary without a public investigative reportundermined community condence. But there is nothing in that traditional systemwhich remains the system for everyone except, apparently, police officersthat requires reviews to be done privately. Mc. Ginty can distribute public records he can consult outside experts and release their analyses he can even publish a 7. That is, after all, the job he was elected to do. Grand jury proceedings, on the other hand, are by law secret. Mc. Gintys office, in fact, stressed that point Clark and other witnesses can characterize their experience before the Grand Jury in any way they want, but prosecutors cannot reveal what was said or done in the room, a spokesman e mailed me. So by denition, youre only getting one side. What evidence is presented and how is not a matter of public record. Nor is whether a witness is treated with deference or, to borrow phrasing from that 7. Old School Chicken and Rice Casserole. This Old School Chicken and Rice Casserole is seriously delicious We absolutely LOVED this casserole. We ate it for lunch and leftover for a couple of days afterwards. SO good This casserole is super easy to make. It was ready to go in the oven in minutes. This makes a TON. Next time I might split it between two pans and freeze one for later. I used a whole rotisserie chicken in this casserole. If you dont have a rotisserie chicken, you will need about 4 cups of cooked chicken for the casserole. This recipe uses three cans of Cream of Whatever soup. I always buy the 9. Healthy Choice to cut down on fat and sodium. Our favorite part of the casserole was all the yummy parmesan cheese on top YUM This was a huge hit in our house. Chicken Legs has already requested this again for dinner. I cant wait yield 6 to 8print recipe. Old School Chicken and Rice Casserole. INGREDIENTS 1 rotisserie chicken 4 cups1 1. INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to 4. F. Lightly spray a 9x. Set aside. Remove skin from rotisserie chicken and discard. Remove chicken meat from bones and chop. In a large bowl, combine, chopped chicken, cream of chicken soup, cream of celery soup, cream of mushroom soup, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, water, milk and instant rice. Pour into prepared pan. Top with grated parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for 4. Copyright 2. 00. Stephanie Parker Plain Chicken, Inc. All Rights Reserved Unless otherwise noted, all images and content here on Plain Chicken are original and copyright protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.