Above: A demonstrator protests the shooting of Tamir Rice at Cudell Park in Cleveland, Monday, Nov. 24, 2014. Photo:Mark Duncan/AP
Says He Is ‘No Longer Proud’ To Work For City
In a resignation letter obtained by the Northeast Ohio Media Group, dated December 17th, former fiscal manager Shawn Gidley explained that he once believed that his job “was making the City of Cleveland a better place to live.”
The City of Cleveland’s fiscal manager for the Public Safety Department has just issued his resignation, citing his inability to work for a city that refuses to prosecute Officer Timothy Loehmann. Loehmann fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice on November 22nd of last year.
Tamir had been “armed” only with a toy BB-gun, and had never aimed it at the officer who virtually shot him on sight, in spite of the 911 caller stating repeatedly that Rice was a juvenile and that the “gun” was likely a toy.
In a resignation letter obtained by the Northeast Ohio Media Group, dated December 17th, former fiscal manager Shawn Gidley explained that he once believed that his job “was making the City of Cleveland a better place to live.”
Read the full text of the letter below:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1392408/gidley.pdf
Gidley explains that the shooting of Tamir Rice, and the refusal of the City of Cleveland to prosecute him, as well as “years of mismanagement, poor leadership and improper training in the Public Safety Department” led to his disillusionment with the city administration and have “ended with a child paying the ultimate price.”
The shooting death of Tamir Rice remains under investigation. All of this comes on the heels of a Department of Justice report that identified the Cleveland Police Department as thoroughly corrupt, and marked by the routine use of excessive force.
“The Department of Public Safety and the City of Cleveland is no longer an employer for which I am proud to work,” Gidley said in parting. “It does not provide the leadership that the residents of Cleveland deserve.”
(Article by Reagan Ali; h/t and document via Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group)