Tamir Rice’s mother slams endorsement
Tamir Rice’s CLEVELAND — mother on Monday called on Cleveland mayoral candidate Zack Reed to reject the endorsement he received last week from the union representing rank-and-file Cleveland police officers.
Samaria Rice and her attorney, Subodh Chandra, during a news conference called on Reed to reject any campaign support from the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, which they described as a “white nationalist” organization with “white supremacist” leadership that endorsed Donald Trump and opposes the ongoing, federally mandated police reforms.
They also demanded that Reed apologize to families of police violence for accepting the endorsement in the first place.
“We are here to sound the alarm and remind [the public] that an endorsement brings under suspicion the person who is endorsed,” Chandra told reporters.
In a phone interview, Reed, who has run a public-safety focused campaign, told cleveland.com that he was not backing away from the police endorsement. He said while he has disagreed with the union in the past, he agrees with them over the need for more police officers and better financial support for officers, including increased pay.
“I’m sticking by it because I received the endorsement of the entire police union, and not just [union President] Steve Loomis,” he said. “I know what Subodh is trying to do. He is literally trying to drive a wedge between the community and the safety forces.”
Monday’s news conference was held at Chandra’s law offices in the Warehouse District. Chandra and Rice announced the news conference on Friday, the day after Reed received the CPPA endorsement, which Reed said was given in a unanimous 27-0 vote.
Rice occasionally has re-entered the public eye to speak out on policing issues since accepting last year a $6 million settlement, negotiated with Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration, from the city over her son’s 2014 death. Tamir, 12, was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer while he had possession of a replica gun in a West Side park.
Haltingly reading from a prepared statement, Rice referred to Reed’s Saturday comments to cleveland. com in which he expressed sympathy to the Rice family while calling the planned news conference political, and saying his receipt of the endorsement wouldn’t stop him from holding the union accountable.
She also criticized the CPPA’s leadership as “white supremacists” because of the union’s endorsement of Donald Trump last year. She also criticized Loomis for his past comments criticizing Tamir’s conduct the day he died, and for criticizing her and her family during its legal fight with the city.
“If your sympathy were sincere and you actually cared about my grief, then you would not have said you were extremely honored to be endorsed by the Cleveland police union and Steve Loomis and his organization that has insulted me and my family again and again and opposed all need for police reform,” she said. “If your sympathy were sincere, you wouldn’t have tweeted and attacked me on this weekend accusing me of politicizing my own beloved son’s death, when all I’m trying to do is prevent other mothers from losing their children against police union opposition.”
“Shame on you Zack Reed, and if your sympathy were sincere, you would have rejected the police union endorsement the way politicians used to reject the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan before Donald Trump, the police union’s candidate, became president,” she added.
Chandra also questioned how Reed went from criticizing the police union for endorsing Donald Trump to “enthusiastically” accepting its endorsement while working in a reference to Reed’s past legal troubles.
“What is it they have over him?” Chandra asked. “Now with his record of multiple drunk-driving convictions, Zack Reed is compromised already. So what happens the next time that Cleveland police officers pull him over as mayor?”
Reed later responded: “I heard somebody say he said the police union might have something on me. The police don’t have anything on me... I didn’t go down to the union hall and give them a pitch to endorse Zack Reed.”
A spokesman for Mayor Jackson’s campaign declined to comment for this story. Loomis, in a text message, said he would find out what Rice said and respond later.