Tamir Rice Police Killing: Call To 'Burn and Smash' All Toy Guns

The mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, a black boy police shot dead in Cleveland after spotted on a playground with a toy gun, demanded Monday that officers involved in the killing be prosecuted, while her legal adviser has called to ban toy guns and one activist group plans to burn and smash them state by state.

Samaria Rice told ABC television she expects charges and convictions after police killed her son Tamir on November 22, the latest racially charged killings triggering protests across the United States.

Benjamin Crump, the same legal adviser for parents of police-slain Brown in Ferguson, is representing Rice.

“If the Cleveland police is unequipped to deal with children playing with toys and toy guns, then we need to outlaw toy guns in Cleveland so we have no more children getting killed,” Crump said.

“You can’t kill children playing at the playground with toy guns a few yards from their house,” he added. “It’s unimaginable and we have to address this very seriously.”

Marketing and manufacturing child replica weapons, guns, ammo etc. should be abolished throughout the United States, according to many parents and carers.

“It is purely irresponsible at this point. How many more innocent lives do we have to lose! If law enforcement and the public cannot ascertain the difference in these replica toy guns and real guns they should be illegal to purchase for the good of public safety,” reads a new online petition sparked by police killing Rice, that as of today, has only three signatures.

“Parents should not buy these weapons for their children. Manufacturers should not produce these toys. Retailers should be responsible and discontinue all sales in stores and via on-line purchase. We’re all responsible in some form for allowing this to continue! Replica guns should be illegal,” the petition says.

“The prevention of the tragedy like the one in Ohio involving 12 year old Tamir Rice never needs to happen again. Ever!!”

Ms. Rice filed a wrongful death lawsuit over the killing and told ABC she wants “police (to) be accountable for what they did to my son.

“I’m looking for a conviction (for) both of the officers,” she said, challenging authorities in Cleveland to press charges in the case.

Grand juries failing to indict police involved in shooting to death unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and in the case of New York father-of-six Eric Garner in New York, who police killed in a chokehold, have fueled nationwide outrage expected to escalate, according to national protest leaders.

US Attorney General Eric Holder last week said a federal investigation concluded that Cleveland police have been guilty of a pattern of “using excessive force.”

Furthermore, Tim Loehmann, the officer who fired the fatal shots had been judged unfit for police service when working for a small suburban Ohio police unit in 2012.

“An internal memo from the Independence police department quoted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer cited an assessor as saying that officer Loehmann had been “distracted” and “weepy” during firearms training,” ABC reported.

Teaching children to be violent

Why teach children to enjoy being violent with toy weapons?

Brazil is among countries that says there is no good reason for that.

This year, Brazil imposed a ban on the sale of toy guns and replicas – the first region in Latin America to do so. Policy makers believe it will help curtail crimes related to firearms.

Stores found violating this policy are now fined from £1,400 to £28,000 and face closure for 30 days or lose their trading license.

The ban applies to all stores in Brasilia and other satellite towns that comprise the district.

The ban on sale and manufacture of toy guns is an attempt to change the culture of violence in the world’s largest Lusophone country. With the new law, part of a series of Brazil’s new public policies, federal officials hope to protect victims of violence and reduce the alarming murder rate in the country.

Police shooting dead Rice was not the first time police killed a child with a toy gun. A year ago, California police shot dead a 13-year-old Andy Lopez for carrying a toy assault weapon.

Burn and Smash All Toy Guns

A Birmingham activist group, The Outcast Voters League, is urging the ban of fake guns sales across the country.

The League started pushing to end sales of toy guns after Rice was shot and killed.

“We call on parents to get rid of these toys,” said Frank Matthews, the League president. “We call on toy manufacturers to quit making toys that look like real guns. We are losing our children to countless acts of injustice.”

The group plans to burn and smash toy guns in every state over the next year. They held their first of many demonstrations Sunday night at Cudell Recreation Center where young Rice was killed.

“If we can get rid of 20 guns then we can change the conversation to getting rid of guns,” said Carlos Chaverst of the Voters League. “We see that most other countries are very successful without guns.”