Ohio Democratic Party : Pepper: Status Quo Isn’t Good Enough

From Chairman David Pepper:

Tamir Rice is dead. 12 years old. Playing in a neighborhood park. Given only one to two seconds to justify his actions that day. Shot dead by a person hired to keep our families safe. Whose actions were this week justified by someone also hired to keep our families safe.

The sequence of events should upset every American. But Democrats should feel especially compelled to step up and address the deep problems this and other cases reveal about our criminal justice system.

After all, as Democrats, we believe in electing leaders who protect and are accountable to allcommunities. Indeed, our core strength is the diversity of communities that we proudly, passionately represent.

And we are Democrats because we believe that through government, we collectively can do certain things better than we can do for ourselves as individuals. Education. The environment. Public safety.

In those areas and many more, we believe that by working together, our families - allfamilies - will be safer, better educated, healthier.

Tamir Rice tears at our community because his death represents a deep failure of that system when it comes to public safety. It cuts deeply into the belief that our system for keeping families safe actually does so, and does so for every family. Equally.

Prosecutor Tim McGinty stated that this could have been his grandson. But too many photos of white Americans of all ages openly brandishing guns - and too many tales of armed caucasian suspects given time to surrender in safety - undermine his assumption. Particularly when compared to incidents such as the shootings of Tamir Rice and John Crawford.

Without intending to, the prosecutor raised the central question - does this criminal justice system treat Tamir Rice, his grandson, and my young son, equally? The evidence is clear…and the answer is no.

And until we have a system that all families feel keeps them safe, protects them equally, holds people accountable equally, we are failing.

The Ohio Democratic Party does not enact policy directly. But we do support and help put candidates into office that set broad policy while also making critical decisions, every day, that shape our criminal justice system. So we have an important role to play. A leading role.

That's why I'm proud to see so many Ohio Democrats saying the status quo isn't good enough - not even close. And acting on that belief. We have leaders pushing forward ideas every day to reform our criminal justice system. Alicia Reece and the members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, along with other legislators, are championing important reforms, from body cameras to grand jury processes to independent investigations of officer-involved shootings. Nina Turner and Sandra Williams serve on the Ohio Criminal Justice Reform Panel, also pushing for important reforms. Local officials - sheriffs, mayors, council members - across Ohio are taking on numerous reforms in the criminal justice system, such as enhanced treatment and increased transparency. We have candidates running in '16 on a mantle of criminal justice reform. And months ago, our Party passed a resolution supporting the substance of their collective work.

But we clearly have a long way to go.

As a Party, we will redouble our efforts to ensure that our candidates, and our elected officials, fulfill their enormous responsibility to make our criminal justice system work for everyone, equally. That we and they adhere to a high standard of fairness, transparency and equal justice. And that we all strive to rebuild the trust that must exist between the thousands of hard-working public servants who put their lives on the line to keep us safe, and the millions of families they are working to protect.

Tamir Rice should have had the same opportunity to be safe as my son, and Prosecutor McGinty's grandson. Until we can say that that is our reality - and it will take great soul-searching and hard work to put us in a position to say that - none of us should be satisfied.

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