Thursday, February 11, 2016

Now if they would only admit to the murder


The city of Cleveland has a cruel and heartless automated billing system. At least that is the excuse the city has used for billing the family of Tamir Rice $500 for his last ambulance ride after a city policeman duly murdered him in 2014.
Nearly 15 months after a Cleveland police officer fatally shot Tamir Rice, 12, while the boy was playing with a pellet gun near a recreation area, the city sued to collect $500 for his “last dying expense” — the cost of his emergency medical treatment.

The documents were signed by legal officials and posted online, drawing condemnation from the family’s lawyers, one of whom called the suit by the city on Wednesday “nothing short of breathtaking.”

But on Thursday, officials told local television stations that the bill had been generated automatically and that they were withdrawing the claim.

Court documents published online showed that the city of Cleveland filed suit against the boy’s estate Feb 10. The final moments of his life were itemized in an emergency medical services bill: $10 for each of the five miles it took to get him to the hospital, where he later died; $450 for advanced life support in the ambulance that took him there.

The lawsuit said that it wanted Tamir’s family to pay the bill by March 11.

A lawyer for the Rice family, Subodh Chandra, denounced the suit and told the Cleveland Scene on Wednesday, “The mayor and law director should apologize to the Rice family and withdraw this filing immediately.

“That the city would submit a bill and call itself a creditor after having had its own police officers slay 12-year-old Tamir displays a new pinnacle of callousness and insensitivity.”

On Thursday, another lawyer for the family, Earl S. Ward, said in a telephone interview that the lawsuit was “cold and callous,” especially coming shortly after an announcement that no charges would be filed in the case.

The lawsuit, he added, was “really rubbing salt into the wounds” of the family “when in fact the city of Cleveland is responsible for his death.”
Kind of hard to believe that someone didn't review the list of claims before they were filed. Kind of sad to think that someone really didn't care.

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