CLEVELAND, Ohio—The Tamir Rice Butterfly Memorial is now officially a Cleveland Historic Landmark. City council passed the ordinance making the designation, sponsored by Councilwoman Jenny Spencer, at its Oct 20. meeting.
The Butterfly Memorial, situated in Cudell Commons on the West Side of the city, honors the loss of Tamir and the ensuing fight for justice. It features a butterfly sculpture, and is situated at the site of his murder, next to the Marion C. Selzter School playground. It’s a beautiful display, and anyone visiting Cleveland should take a moment to stop by and pay their respects to this tragedy.
The Butterfly Memorial was born from years of struggle by the Tamir Rice Foundation and allies and is meant to preserve the memory of 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s tragic killing. On Nov. 22, 2014, Rice was murdered in broad daylight. In the span of two seconds, a police officer arrived and fired his gun at Tamir before he could even react.
Tamir’s mother, Samaria, has not rested since that terrible day. She formed campaign committees and spent years lobbying the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor and the U.S. Department of Justice for an indictment on civil rights violations and murder charges. Sadly, at every step, the system rallied around the officers who perpetuated this injustice.
For Samaria and Tamir, justice was never won. Timothy Loehmann, the officer who shot Tamir, walks free, never made to stand trial to account for his actions that day. Ultimately, the campaign fell short of its most important ambition.
But much has been written and said on the county’s grand jury proceedings, the prosecutorial farce, the triumphs and failures of the Tamir Rice Campaign. The tragedy gave birth to a community that still struggles for justice. The winning of the Butterfly Memorial is a bittersweet consolation for Samaria after years of facing what many saw as the city’s corruption.
“As I said before, that is a memory I have of my son. Although it’s not accountability, it’s acknowledgement, it’s acceptance, for what Cleveland has done to my family,” she said at the meeting.
This city has put her through the wringer, and a landmark designation is not justice. She could have walked away from this experience bitter and vindictive, and no one would have blamed her.
Yet, somehow, someway, she’s stayed in the fight. Samaria unflinchingly advocates for her community, even when the City of Cleveland failed to deliver justice.
While speaking on the resolution on the memorial, she chose to talk about the needs of her community rather than herself. Samaria, during the public comments session at the city council meeting, urged its members to reject a gas station she felt would disrupt the local neighborhood. She proposed they build a fire station instead.
When the spotlight is on her, Samaria’s first instinct is to use it to help the community. That’s also what the Butterfly Memorial represents. Even when the world seems against us, even when we’ve been wronged, we need to keep fighting, for ourselves, and for each other. To never lose perspective, never forget we rise and fall together.
I see the Butterfly Memorial as a bright ray of inspiration in a cloudy sea of injustice. Here, the community can gather to remember the life and image of a young boy taken far too soon. Here, children can learn of Tamir’s story. They can develop an understanding of the injustices still present in our world, and with it, nurture a desire to fight those injustices.
And they will learn they are not alone in that fight. They will see inspiration in a fighter like Samaria Rice, who battled her grief to rally every day for years on end in a relentless fight for her son. At every step of the way, she was betrayed and insulted by the system that was supposed to protect her son. Still, she persists.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
