白人警察枪杀黑人 克利夫兰赔偿600万美元

AS IT IS 2016-04-26 Cleveland Settles Tamir Rice Case for $6 million 白人警察枪杀黑人 克利夫兰赔偿600万美元

This is What’s Trending Today:

The relatives of Tamir Rice will receive a $6 million settlement from Cleveland, Ohio.

Rice was 12 years old when he was killed by police officers in November 2014. Rice was playing with a toy gun in a park. The police thought it was real.

Rice, an African-American, became one of the symbols of the Black Lives Matter social justice campaign. The movement highlighted a number of young black men and women who were killed by police officers in recent years.

Michael Brown was killed by officers near St. Louis, Missouri in the summer of 2014. Freddie Gray died while in custody¹ of the Baltimore, Maryland police in the spring of 2015.

The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was one of the most important trending topics of 2015. The social justice movement continues to be part of the political conversation in the U.S. as the presidential election gets closer.

A grand jury² decided³ not to charge the police officers who killed Rice with a crime. They concluded that the use of deadly force against Rice was justified⁴. They said the officer did not know if the gun was real.

The decision generated⁵ more protests in Cleveland.

Rice’s family filed a “wrongful death” lawsuit⁶ against the city and the police officers shortly after Rice was killed. A judge announced the decision to award $6 million to Rice’s family on Monday.

Lots of people had something to say about it on social media. #TamirRice was one of Twitter’s top hashtags on Monday.

Many people reacted to one part of the settlement. It says the city does not have to accept responsibility for doing something wrong.

One person  wrote “the settlement [with] #TamirRice is infuriating.”

Another, Devin Lamar, wrote “I'm glad #TamirRice family is getting $6 million from the city of Cleveland, but it'd be a lot cheaper to just train police not to shoot us.”

Cerece Rennie Murphy wrote, “no amount of money could ever make this right.”

While many people have sympathy for Rice and his family, others think it is time for the people behind the Black Lives Matter movement to take action.

One of those critics is President Barack Obama. During his visit to London over the weekend, Obama was asked about racial profiling. He turned his attention to Black Lives Matter during his answer.

Obama said “[when] elected officials or people who are in a position to start bringing about change are ready to sit down with you, then you can’t just keep on yelling⁷ at them.”

He continued, saying “the value of social movements and activism is to get you at the table, get you in the room, and then to start trying to figure out how is this problem going to be solved.”

Words in This Story

racial profiling – n. the act of suspecting a person of a crime because of their skin color, religion or ethnic⁸ background

justified – adj. something that is right or reasonable

grand jury – n. a group of people who look at the evidence against someone who has been accused of a crime in order to decide if there should be a trial

1 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

2 jury   

n.陪审团，评委会；adj.临时用的；vt.挑选

参考例句：

• These twelve men are believed to compose the jury.据信，陪审团是由这12人组成的。
• The members of the jury were discharged from their duties.陪审员们被解除了职务。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

5 generated   

a.生成的

参考例句：

• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。
• It generated much excitement and frenetic activity. 这使人们非常激动并导致了狂热的行动。

6 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

7 yelling   

v.叫喊，号叫，叫着说( yell的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The coach stood on the sidelines yelling instructions to the players. 教练站在场外，大声指挥运动员。
• He let off steam by yelling at a clerk. 他对一个职员大喊大叫，借以发泄怒气。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。