Protests Held in US Over Officers' Non-Indictment in Murder of Black Teen

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Monday, a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury in Cleveland, Ohio, decided not to indict police officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback on murder charges after they shot and killed Rice, who was black, on November 22, 2014. Right before the incident, Rice had been playing in a park with a toy gun. Prosecutors argued that the officers’ actions were not criminal, since there was no way of telling whether the gun was real or not.

Following the decision, a lawyer representing the Rice family issued a statement stating the family was not surprised by the decision, but would like to renew their request that the Department of Justice step in to conduct an investigation into the shooting.

Protests were held on Monday in several cities, including Cleveland and New York City, according to media reports.

In Cleveland, protesters and sympathizers with the Rice family left stuffed animals, books and Christmas presents in the gazebo where the shooting occurred.

Last year, the unrelated killings of unarmed black men, including Eric Garner and Michael Brown, by white US police officers caused domestic and international outcry as the officers responsible for the killings were not indicted, leading to protests against institutionalized racism and police brutality.

In mid-2015, an ICM poll conducted for Sputnik revealed that a third of US citizens considered police racism to be the primary cause of the high number of African Americans killed by police in the United States.