The family of Tamir Rice will receive $6 million from the city of Cleveland in settling their wrongful death lawsuit. Jonathan Abady, one of the lead lawyers representing the family of Tamir Rice in their wrongful death lawsuit, spoke about this case and the trend of civil settlements in lieu of criminal indictments against police officers.

Abady addressed statements by legal experts who have said the settlement spares Cleveland the possibility of a federal civil rights trial, which could have brought new attention to Tamir’s death and to the city’s troubled police force, a scenario that could bode favorably for Tamir Rice's family and the social justice movement in general. 

"There is a value to a public airing of a tragedy of this sort that is connected to all these systemic problems that our country and our nation seems unable to address and solve, and there's certainly an argument that having a public trial on this helps break through the denial and the systemic problems by exposure, " Abady said. "But you have to remember that there are individual lives that are at play here. This is a grieving mother who I think desperately wants to try to move forward with her life and it's ultimately her decision. And the prospect of a trial is incredibly traumatic. This entire family is traumatized."