Brooklyn Council Member Jumaane D. Williams, deputy city council leader, said he is troubled by the reason for the firing of the Cleveland, Ohio police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old, unarmed Tamir Rice.
“While it is welcomed news that this man will no longer be in a position as a police officer. It’s troublesome that his termination was because he lied on his application — not because he murdered an innocent 12-year-old boy,” said Williams about Timothy Loehmann.
“This is just the latest example of bad-acting police officers being given a pass for their crimes, and the difficulty of finding true accountability,” added the representative for the 45th Council District in Brooklyn.
“Tamir Rice was a real person, whose life mattered,” he continued. “Law enforcement across the country cannot say that improving police-community relations is important, and yet when the opportunity to prove that arises, they fail to correct one of the primary things that has broken the relationship in the first place.
“Police accountability and transparency is the only way for us all to move forward in the right direction,” Williams said.
