Tavon Rice
Tavon, the brother of Tamir Rice, is 18 years old. He lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio. For background on Tamir, click here.
Guiding Questions
How might youth carry that trauma of losing close siblings?
How will that trauma be carried to future generations?
What is the effect of development and view of authority when youth are harmed by police in spite of innocence?
Learn More
Since the rise of media containing scenes of African Americans murdered by police, questions around the behavior and tactics of law enforcement have emerged. Many researchers, community groups, and advocates point to the phenomenon of increasingly militarized police. Because the U.S. armed forces regularly transfer large amounts of military grade equipment to local law enforcement, police have sophisticated weaponry that some argue drive their behavior. In Ferguson and Baltimore, the world witnessed militarized responses to protests in ways resembling full blown wars. Others argue that due to a lack of respect, police diversity, accountability for actions, and absence of connections to communities that experience this militarized policing, law enforcement is allowed to operate as if at war with many communities where Black, impoverished, and other People of Color live. While militarized policing is considered a new phenomenon, this violence against these communities has been documented throughout the past ten decades. The outcome of a militarized approach to marginalized communities is often trauma that is experienced by many generations.
Quotations from TTP video
“My little brother was Tamir Rice. You all saw the video. He was killed because he was carrying a BB gun. Just having fun, playing–you know, like a normal kid. I used to do it. We used to go to the park and play.”
“After he died, everything changed. I seen the world differently cause you never think it would hit so close to home. We seen Mike Brown; we seen Trayvon Martin; we seen a lot of different people get killed by the police and we never thought it would happen to us… Over something so stupid, so simple.”
“Life before was hard too, but we were making it.”
Clips from StoryCorps
Subtheme of Grief and Trauma ? Loss of Childhood
Cut 5:00 – 7:24
9:00 – 11:09 – interruptions in youth, growth, development and depression
11:30- 12:40 – mother finding out about murder of Tamir
Themes
Militarization of Police
Structural Poverty
Grief and Trauma
Youth Interrupted
Resources
Ferguson and the Self-fulfilling Prophecy of Violence