Police suspend dispatcher 8 days in Tamir Rice shooting

[erpowers]

Source: CNN

More than two years after an officer shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Cleveland police have disciplined a dispatcher for failing to relay a citizen's 911 report that Rice was "probably a juvenile" and that his gun was "probably fake," according to a letter signed by the chief.

Dispatcher Constance Hollinger was suspended for eight days without pay for the violation.

Also punished was Officer William Cunningham II, who was off duty working security at a recreation center nearby when the shooting happened. He was suspended for two days without pay for working that second job without permission. He was also accused of submitting an untruthful report about the shooting.

Rice's mother, Samaria, called the dispatcher's sanction "unacceptable," family attorney Subodh Chandra said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/15/us/tamir-rice-police-suspended/index.html

[Baconator]

1. I understand the mother's grief...

... but a random civilian's assessment that a gun is or is not real means squat to a responder.

[Ned Flanders]

3. Not a random civilian. A trained, professional dispatcher.

Someone who is trained to deal with situations calmly, having to get information from often-stressed out people and determine just how serious the call is. A job class, which in my experience, has been typically staffed with wannabe LEO's who couldn't make the cut for one reason or another, and who spend all day in a high stress environment talking crap about the crazy people around them. A very cynical group, in general, who put a whole 'nother definition to the phrase, "gallows humor."

And yet they're a key part of the system, so if they fail, so can the cops. Seems like punishing the dispatcher is an admission of guilt by the Police Department.

[Calista241]

5. There are 3 people involved here.

The civilian who called 911. The dispatcher, and the responding officers.

The dispatcher didn't pass along a claim from the caller that the gun was "probably fake."

Ultimately I don't think this is the dispatchers fault. The cop is the one who should've taken 1 second access the situation before firing his gun and murdering a kid.

[barbtries]

2. the injustice.

it makes me want to scream and i never knew him.

[MichMary]

4. What a travesty

Eight days without pay is in no way justice for the taking of a kid's life.

I've often wondered how the citizen who reported it has handled the outcome.

[DK504]

6. 8 days.

8 damn days. I guess that's how much a 12 year old black child is worth....fuck.