West Virginia
Officer who killed Tamir Rice leaves new police job
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The former Cleveland officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 has resigned from a police force in West Virginia, the third time in six years he left a small department amid backlash shortly after he had been hired.
White Sulphur Springs City officials said Timothy Loehmann resigned Monday afternoon as a probationary officer.
In a statement issued to WVVA-TV , Mayor Kathy Glover said Loehmann had been hired at the recommendation of White Sulphur Springs Police Chief D.S. Teubert.
“Since this is an employment matter, I will have no further comment,” Glover said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long Loehmann had been on the force.
Subodh Chandra, a Cleveland-based attorney for Rice’s family, said that while it’s a relief that Loehmann is no longer a police officer in White Sulphur Springs, “there must be accountability for the atrocious judgment of the police chief and any other officials involved” in having hired him.
White Sulphur Springs is home to the posh Greenbrier resort, owned by Republican Gov. Jim Justice in southeastern West Virginia along the Virginia border.
Rice, who was Black, was playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in Cleveland on Nov. 22, 2014, when he was shot and killed by Loehmann seconds after Loehmann and his partner arrived. The officers, who are white, told investigators Loehmann had shouted three times at Tamir to raise his hands.
The shooting sparked community protests about police treatment of Black people, especially after a grand jury decided not to indict Loehmann or his partner.
Cleveland settled a lawsuit over Tamir’s death for $6 million, and the city ultimately fired Loehmann for having lied on his application to become a police officer.
Loehmann later landed a part-time position with a police department in the southeast Ohio village of Bellaire in October 2018 but withdrew his application days later after Tamir’s mother, Samaria, and others criticized the hiring.
In July 2022, he was sworn in as the lone police officer in Tioga — a community of about 600 in rural north-central Pennsylvania, about 300 miles from Cleveland — but left without having worked a single shift amid backlash and media coverage over his hiring.
Oklahoma
Last known survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre challenge high court decision
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Attorneys for the last two remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday to reconsider the case they dismissed last month and called on the Biden administration to help the two women seek justice.
Viola Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, are the last known survivors of one of the single worst acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history. As many as 300 Black people were killed; more than 1,200 homes, businesses, schools and churches were destroyed; and thousands were forced into
internment camps overseen by the National Guard when a white mob, including some deputized by authorities, looted and burned the Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street.
In a petition for rehearing, the women asked the court to reconsider its 8-1 vote upholding the decision of a district court judge in Tulsa last year to dismiss the case.
“Oklahoma, and the United States of America, have failed its Black citizens,” the two women said in a statement read by McKenzie Haynes, a member of their legal team. “With our own eyes, and burned deeply into our memories, we watched white Americans destroy, kill, and loot.”
“And despite these obvious crimes against humanity, not one indictment was issued, most insurance claims remain unpaid or were paid for only pennies on the dollar, and Black Tulsans were forced to leave their homes and live in fear.”
Attorney Damario Solomon Simmons also called on the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the massacre under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, which allows for the reopening of cold cases of violent crimes against Black people committed before 1970. A message left with the DOJ seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit was an attempt under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law to force the city of Tulsa and others to make restitution for the destruction. Attorneys also argued that Tulsa appropriated the historic reputation of Black Wall Street “to their own financial and reputational benefit.” They argue that any money the city receives from promoting Greenwood or Black Wall Street, including revenue from the Greenwood Rising History Center, should be placed in a compensation fund for victims and their descendants.
Pennsylvania
Union sues over requirement that city workers return to the office full time
A union that represents thousands of Philadelphia city employees asked a judge Tuesday to block Mayor Cherelle Parker’s requirement that they return to their offices full time as of July 15.
The lawsuit, filed by District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, claims the mandate violates its contract and will harm city workers. The union, which represents 6,000 administrative and supervisory employees, also filed an unfair-practices complaint with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
Parker announced the mandate in May, saying she wanted to create a more visible and accessible government. The decision ended the city’s virtual work policy, put in place in 2021, and essentially returns employee scheduling to what it was before the coronavirus pandemic.
About 80% of the city’s 26,000 employees have been working fully on site since last year, while the rest have worked on site 31 to 75 hours per pay period, Parker said. Former Mayor Jim Kenney had left hybrid work decisions up to department heads.
The union sharply criticized the decision when it was announced, saying it was unilaterally imposed instead of going through collective bargaining. They also believe the policy will worsen the worker shortage the city has suffered since the pandemic.
They also argue that the city lacks enough office space to bring all employees back and that making the change over the summer, when children are out of school, complicates schedules for parents.
Parker, a Democrat, has said her administration does not believe the new policy is subject to collective bargaining. She also noted changes that were made to be more worker friendly, such as extending paid parental leave from six to eight weeks and designating the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday. Officials have also said there will be relaxed restrictions on sick leave to care for family members.
Officer who killed Tamir Rice leaves new police job
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The former Cleveland officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 has resigned from a police force in West Virginia, the third time in six years he left a small department amid backlash shortly after he had been hired.
White Sulphur Springs City officials said Timothy Loehmann resigned Monday afternoon as a probationary officer.
In a statement issued to WVVA-TV , Mayor Kathy Glover said Loehmann had been hired at the recommendation of White Sulphur Springs Police Chief D.S. Teubert.
“Since this is an employment matter, I will have no further comment,” Glover said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long Loehmann had been on the force.
Subodh Chandra, a Cleveland-based attorney for Rice’s family, said that while it’s a relief that Loehmann is no longer a police officer in White Sulphur Springs, “there must be accountability for the atrocious judgment of the police chief and any other officials involved” in having hired him.
White Sulphur Springs is home to the posh Greenbrier resort, owned by Republican Gov. Jim Justice in southeastern West Virginia along the Virginia border.
Rice, who was Black, was playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in Cleveland on Nov. 22, 2014, when he was shot and killed by Loehmann seconds after Loehmann and his partner arrived. The officers, who are white, told investigators Loehmann had shouted three times at Tamir to raise his hands.
The shooting sparked community protests about police treatment of Black people, especially after a grand jury decided not to indict Loehmann or his partner.
Cleveland settled a lawsuit over Tamir’s death for $6 million, and the city ultimately fired Loehmann for having lied on his application to become a police officer.
Loehmann later landed a part-time position with a police department in the southeast Ohio village of Bellaire in October 2018 but withdrew his application days later after Tamir’s mother, Samaria, and others criticized the hiring.
In July 2022, he was sworn in as the lone police officer in Tioga — a community of about 600 in rural north-central Pennsylvania, about 300 miles from Cleveland — but left without having worked a single shift amid backlash and media coverage over his hiring.
Oklahoma
Last known survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre challenge high court decision
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Attorneys for the last two remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday to reconsider the case they dismissed last month and called on the Biden administration to help the two women seek justice.
Viola Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, are the last known survivors of one of the single worst acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history. As many as 300 Black people were killed; more than 1,200 homes, businesses, schools and churches were destroyed; and thousands were forced into
internment camps overseen by the National Guard when a white mob, including some deputized by authorities, looted and burned the Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street.
In a petition for rehearing, the women asked the court to reconsider its 8-1 vote upholding the decision of a district court judge in Tulsa last year to dismiss the case.
“Oklahoma, and the United States of America, have failed its Black citizens,” the two women said in a statement read by McKenzie Haynes, a member of their legal team. “With our own eyes, and burned deeply into our memories, we watched white Americans destroy, kill, and loot.”
“And despite these obvious crimes against humanity, not one indictment was issued, most insurance claims remain unpaid or were paid for only pennies on the dollar, and Black Tulsans were forced to leave their homes and live in fear.”
Attorney Damario Solomon Simmons also called on the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the massacre under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, which allows for the reopening of cold cases of violent crimes against Black people committed before 1970. A message left with the DOJ seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit was an attempt under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law to force the city of Tulsa and others to make restitution for the destruction. Attorneys also argued that Tulsa appropriated the historic reputation of Black Wall Street “to their own financial and reputational benefit.” They argue that any money the city receives from promoting Greenwood or Black Wall Street, including revenue from the Greenwood Rising History Center, should be placed in a compensation fund for victims and their descendants.
Pennsylvania
Union sues over requirement that city workers return to the office full time
A union that represents thousands of Philadelphia city employees asked a judge Tuesday to block Mayor Cherelle Parker’s requirement that they return to their offices full time as of July 15.
The lawsuit, filed by District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, claims the mandate violates its contract and will harm city workers. The union, which represents 6,000 administrative and supervisory employees, also filed an unfair-practices complaint with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
Parker announced the mandate in May, saying she wanted to create a more visible and accessible government. The decision ended the city’s virtual work policy, put in place in 2021, and essentially returns employee scheduling to what it was before the coronavirus pandemic.
About 80% of the city’s 26,000 employees have been working fully on site since last year, while the rest have worked on site 31 to 75 hours per pay period, Parker said. Former Mayor Jim Kenney had left hybrid work decisions up to department heads.
The union sharply criticized the decision when it was announced, saying it was unilaterally imposed instead of going through collective bargaining. They also believe the policy will worsen the worker shortage the city has suffered since the pandemic.
They also argue that the city lacks enough office space to bring all employees back and that making the change over the summer, when children are out of school, complicates schedules for parents.
Parker, a Democrat, has said her administration does not believe the new policy is subject to collective bargaining. She also noted changes that were made to be more worker friendly, such as extending paid parental leave from six to eight weeks and designating the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday. Officials have also said there will be relaxed restrictions on sick leave to care for family members.
