New #VotingWhileBlack Video Highlights Importance of Local Prosecutor Elections

By Kenrya Rankin Oct 20, 2016

On December 28, 2015, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty announced that a grand jury, acting on information provided by his office, would not indict the Cleveland Police Department officers responsible for the death of Tamir Rice. Rice was a 12-year-old Black child who was killed while playing with a toy gun.

On March 15, 2016, Cleveland voters turned out at the state’s primary election to vote McGinty out of office. As student organizer Malaya Davis wrote for Colorlines: “McGinty has been terrorizing the people of Cleveland for 24 years. He served as a judge for 20 years, spending most of his time convicting and criminalizing poor Black people. In his four years as prosecutor, he did the same thing. Some of Cleveland’s highest-profile police-involved killings occurred during his time as prosecutor, with little to no accountability in any of those cases.”

Now, a new video from Color of Change PAC’s #VotingWhileBlack initiative and Aubin Pictures breaks down how residents worked to remove McGinty from his position—and explains why it’s important for communities of color around the country to vote for officials who have their best interests at heart. Watch “Why Prosecutor Races Matter: The Tamir Rice Story,” which was released today (October 20), below.