Chicago Pastor on Tamir Rice Case Decision: ‘It’s Almost as if the Fix Was In’

‘When those police officers come to the scene they don’t just see a person or a child, they see a black child’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: 
RIVERA: “All right. Keep us posted as that continues to develop, sir. We appreciate your time. I know you have to get back to the family as you have been with them. I’m sure for the better part of today. Thank you so much. Earl Ward, the attorney for the rice family. Thank you. Want to go back to reverend Marshal Hatch, the reverend for the family of Bettie Jones who was shot over the weekend by Chicago police. We want your reaction of this and we last spoke with you, the decision in the rice case with the grand jury deciding not to charge the two officers involved.”
HATCH: “It is heartbreaking. And of course, you know, almost entirely unconvincing to some of us as the council just stated. The grand jury is, in fact, influenced by the prospective of the prosecutor. And in this case, it's almost as if the fix was in and that the prosecutor didn't think there was a case off the bat. it's almost tragic to hear us have these conversations and no reference at all to race as we try to almost be post racial and the law has to catch up with the reality when those police officers come to the scene they don't just see a person or a child. They see a black child and does that influence their sense of being threatened because of the lenses of race? Somewhere the legal conversation has to catch up with what's happening out here on these streets.”
RIVERA: “Our take on this story before talking about jones, as well, when you have the prosecutor calling it just a perfect storm of human error and then looking and seeing a comparison of a pistol and that of a pellet gun and they look very, very similar to some. They say even those who are used to and know a lot about guns, your take on that when they say, you know what? This is a matter of human error.”
HATCH: “When you have a culture of toy guns, number one, and the fact is that this was a child. And then, the fact that the officer within seconds fires with no time for an assessment, with no other kind of alternatives on how they're going to depart out of their vehicles and determine and what assess is the situation. it is the recipe for storms when the first impulse is shoot and kill.”

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