Justice for #TyreKing; New Priorities for Columbus

Mayor Andrew Ginther, Columbus City Council

On Wednesday night, 13 year-old Tyre King was shot and killed in the street by Columbus police. Tyre was in eighth grade. He lived in a poor neighborhood. He was a member of the Columbus Day Stars youth football team. Police say Tyre had a BB gun.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Tyre is the third young Black person in recent memory to be killed by police in Ohio—an open carry state—while in possession of a toy gun. In 2014, John Crawford III was shot and killed by police in a Dayton-area Walmart after picking up a toy gun off a shelf. Three months later, Tamir Rice was gunned down by Cleveland police while playing with his BB gun in a park.

In cities across Ohio and across the country, poor neighborhoods and communities of color are policed differently than affluent neighborhoods and white communities. Our cities, and therefore our police, prioritize the protection of wealth and development over the safety Black citizens.

The killing of Tyre King is not an isolated incident. Nor is it simply a result of bad policing. Police follow orders. The orders they receive reflect our city’s priorities. Unless we change those priorities, Tyre will not be the last child we lose.

To: Mayor Andrew Ginther, Columbus City Council
From: [Your Name]

We believe that everyone in our city deserves safety and justice.

We’re calling on Columbus city leadership to reinvest funding from aggressive policing to programs that are proven to actually keep communities safe—drug treatment, violence prevention initiatives, and restorative justice programs.