From a slippery-tongued Matt Damon to Meryl Streep’s now-infamous “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave” T-shirt, the outrage industry has been in full force over the past few weeks. But the outrage mongers can’t seem to muster their energies for someone who deserves to be publicly defended: Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old Cleveland boy whose death by police shooting last year now seems likely to be ruled justifiable.
Despite his youth — and the sheer senselessness of his demise — Rice’s case has yet to capture the nation’s attention with quite the same potency as that of Michael Brown, Eric Garner or Freddie Gray.
Sure, there have been protests and petitions and opeds. But Rice has been unable to generate the sheer outrage that’s coursed through the streets of Ferguson, Baltimore or Staten Island — or which currently rages online over the “appropriation” of, say, feminist history or pumpkin-spice lattes.
Which is odd, considering that Rice is perhaps the most innocent member of the #blacklivesmatter brotherhood. Unlike bodega-bandit Brown or loose-cigarette-seller Garner, Rice had broken no law and resisted no arrest when confronted by police. He was merely playing with a toy pistol while sitting on a swing.
Never mind that Cleveland police were told Rice was likely a juvenile and that the gun was probably fake. Within seconds of their arrival, two officers literally shot Rice on-site with almost casual consideration for his age and size.
Unarmed and truly defenseless, Rice — far more than Brown or Garner — vividly defines the increasingly fatal disconnect between law enforcement and black America.
Yet according to “expert” reports given to the prosecutor in the case, Rice’s shooting should be considered legitimate, increasing the likeliness there will be no indictment in the case.
If anything, Rice’s shooting should serve as a rallying cry for social justice and police accountability. Instead, his mother until recently lived in a homeless shelter while the officers responsible for Rice’s death are poised for exoneration. Rather than sparking community-wide fury, Rice appears almost forgotten by those for whom outrage typically comes so easily.
He was nowhere to be found amid the Ben Carson-bashing and Columbus Day take-downs on race-trendy sites like Mic.com or Fusion or Vox. Rice’s name wasn’t even mentioned in a mopey Monday morning Guardian missive declaring blacks exist with “a target on your back.” Rice’s case has been shamefully sidelined by more pressing, mostly theoretical and wholly self-indulgent issues like “intersectionality” or the new era of “black brilliance.”
This much is clear: When it comes to chastising Hollywood stars or upstaging Democratic candidates, the outrage flows freely and demands a public audience. But projecting that same anger where it’s needed most — upon the horrors of dead children — is a far more selective process.
Now, I’m not calling for the types of violent protests that have convulsed across America over the past 18 months. If anything, the riots in Baltimore and Ferguson only compounded inner-city blacks’ sense of urban inequality and defeat.
But Rice’s death is truly outrageous, and the specter of it going unpunished should haunt every American, no matter their politics.
Rice’s family has branded the entire investigation a “whitewash” carefully crafted to prevent a police indictment.
With so much of the nation now focused on police brutality, that charge seems unlikely and extreme. But considering Rice’s youth and complexion, it’s understandable. Less understandable is the eerie silence surrounding Rice’s shooting by the community of activists it’s claimed to have inspired. In fact, the only prominent figure to champion Rice recently is Hillary Clinton — who invoked his name during a campaign stop in Cleveland last month.
Clinton, of course, was met by outrage — irate Black Lives Matter protesters who interrupted her speech on race and gun control to demand that Clinton “divest from private prisons and invest in the liberation of black transgender women.” Um, OK. Whatever.
The thing is, with the black incarceration rate now making headlines and folks like transgender actor Laverne Cox fronting national magazine covers, the goals of the Hillary hecklers are already being achieved. Their outrage, however sincere, comes off as a belated farce. Surely they could — and should — do better than that. It’s what Tamir Rice deserves.