By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper
CLEVELAND,Ohio-A community forum held yesterday at Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland and sponsored by the Cleveland Chapter NAACP and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to address community outcries over the 137-bullets-shooting deaths by a group of White Cleveland police officers of Black unarmed victims Malissa Williams and Timothy Ray Russell, neither of whom was in trouble with the law, got heated as family members, community activists and others looked for answers.
"We are here to bring calm to the community," said the Rev. E. Theophilus Caviness, senior pastor at Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church who is also second vice president of the Cleveland NAACP and the executive director of The Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
The church meeting room where the event went on was packed to the hilt with some 250 people, including members of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association and its president, Jeffrey Follmer.
Black elected officials in attendance include Cleveland City Council members Jeff Johnson and Kevin Conwell, state Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10), and Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell (D-7), who is also the wife of Kevin Conwell, chair of the safety committee for city council.
"No justice, no peace," community activists chanted as the meeting got contentious after family members of the victims told Jackson, Community Relations Director Blaine Griffin, police chief Michael McGraft and Safety Director Martin Flask that police had murdered Williams and Russell in cold blood.
"Do you think it was racist?," asked Walter Jackson, an uncle of Williams to McGraft, who said "yes," to a whisper by Jackson to rethink his comment.
Still McGraft stayed firm and said that though not all Cleveland police officers are racist he supports most of what was said by Walter Jackson, who is no relation to the mayor.
Community Activist Art McKoy, who leads Black on Black Crime Inc, told the mayor that his worst nightmare had come to fruition and he could understand if he were scared behind it.
Mayor Jackson, in turn, griped that he is a man and has no fear and said that "a scared man is a dangerous man."
McGraph said that while some Cleveland police officers involved see his demand for a thorough investigation as ditching them, he sees it as necessary.
"Although I've been criticized for what some say is my attempt to throw people under the bus my primary concern is that we have a responsibility and a duty to disclose the truth," said McGraph
Abdul Quahhar, chairman of the Cleveland Chapter of The New Black Panther Party, said that the Black community has always had a hostile relationship with Cleveland police and that the shootings at issue only heightened tensions between police and Blacks.
Some 30 police cars, most from Cleveland and others from East Cleveland, were involved in a 25 minute police chase from the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in Cleveland of the car Russell was driving with Williams as a passenger that went into East Cleveland near Heritage Middle School at Wymore and Terrace Avenues with 137 bullets into the car.
Police have said that police allegedly heard a gunshot or a muffler backfire. Others sources say a hit was out on Williams, that Russell was trying to get to safety, and that Williams' alleged friend, Ebony Hall, is allegedly in hiding from police. Such allegations could not yet be confirmed.
Jackson, Flask and Police Chief McGraph said that a thorough investigation is underway, though East Cleveland will lead it , and will recommend any criminal charges, since the deadly car chase ended there.
Also at the forum were media cameras galore and representatives from the United States Department of Justice, which is also looking into the situation.
Whether the FBI is officially investigating the case is not clear, though McGraph suggested that they are not.
Sara Harper, 86, a retired Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals judge and the third vice president of the Cleveland NAACP, spoke during the forum and said that East Cleveland officials investigating the case should have been there.
Earlier this week the Cleveland NAACP issued a press release condemning the shootings as avoidable and calling for an examination of city policies on police car chases and the use of deadly force.
Activists groups attending the forum also include The Imperial Women, The Carl Stokes Brigade, The Oppressed People's Nation and Peace in the Hood.
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