Pictured is Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's third Black mayor
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief (A longtime Cleveland activist and community organizer, Coleman, also a former educator, attended the rally and march in Cleveland, Ohio on May 30 for justice for George Floyd)
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's third Black mayor, has been sued along with the city for issuing curfew restrictions following riots that broke out Saturday in downtown Cleveland at the George Floyd protest, a suit filed Wednesday in federal district court by Attorney Mark Ondrejech that seeks an injunction against the curfew and says Jackson's actions are arbitrary and capricious, unconstitutional, and otherwise illegal.
The curfew runs from 8 pm to 6 am and ends Friday, a court ruling likely to come after the curfew ends since by the close of the business day on Wednesday the case had not yet been assigned to a judge.
In essence, the lawsuit says the city is not in crisis mode now and that there is no direct or indirect danger that necessitates a curfew, which the suit says is an abuse of power by the popular mayor.
The mayor overstepped his bounds, the lawsuit says, and had no legal basis for the curfew restrictions, the city arguing in response that torching police cars, throwing debris, writing profanity on government buildings and breaking out the windows of more that 45 downtown businesses and other venues during Saturday's protest warranted the mayor's actions.
Whether Jackson and city officials hope to chill free speech of protesters by shutting down downtown Cleveland as they so please is also at issue, such speech protected under the first amendment.
The suit says police blocked access to people working downtown to their jobs because of the curfew orders, which is what occurred initially, and that they threatened jail to some people found disobeying the orders, some of them just trying to make a living.
The suit could set the stage for a lengthy court battle on how far governmental officials can go in imposing restrictions on businesses and people unrelated to, in Jackson's case, his duties under the city charter and state and federal law, among other authorities.
On the other hand, the court could rule that the issue is moot if the case is heard after the curfew orders expire, though the request for an injunction also seeks a ruling on whether Jackson can issue curfew orders in the future in the manner in which his current orders were issued.
Cleveland is a largely Black major American city of some 385,000 people.
A four-term Black mayor up for reelection in 2021 and a former city council president who represented Cleveland Ward 5, one of the city's poorest wards, and the east side ward where he and his siblings grew-up, Jackson, 73, is a fighter, which signals no resolution anytime soon on a legal issue around what powers the mayor has when riots ensue.
Some 99 protesters, most of them White and residents of Cleveland and its outer suburbs, were arrested at Saturday's riots in Cleveland, 45 of them felony arrests.
Charges range from disorderly conduct to criminal damaging and aggravated rioting.
Police shot off pepper spray and tear gas repeatedly at the protesters at the rally of more than three thousand people, and in some instances unnecessarily, said activists.
One woman purportedly lost her eye from debris.
The violence at Cleveland's rally follows a national pattern of racial unrest since Floyd's death last week by Minneapolis police.
Five people were arrested and two cops injured following two nights of protests over Floyd's death in Columbus, Ohio's state capital. And seven people were shot in Louisville, Kentucky last Thursday, one critically, during a protest for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year Black EMS worker whom Louisville police shot and killed in March when three cops barged into her home.
Other incidents with police and protesters have occurred across the country, including during protests in Oakland, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Floyd, 46, died Monday after since fired White cop Derek Chauvin, the arresting officer, held his knee on his neck until he killed him, and before a crowd of people as the Black man and father of two pleaded for his life and cried out that he could not breathe.
He was pronounced dead an hour later at an area hospital.
The disturbing video of the incident, taken by a bystander, has shocked the conscience.
Chauvin and the other three involved officers, all of them White, were immediately fired.
Chauvin has since been charged with second degree murder and manslaughter and the other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting, all four in jail in custody with bail set at $500 thousand for Chauvin, and $750 thousand each for the other three officers, who, if convicted, face up to 40 years in prison.
Protesting in Minneapolis began with rioting and widespread looting last Tuesday night as crowds of protesters clashed with police, who met them with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Multiple businesses were destroyed and an unmanned police station and an airport were set on fire.
The governor has called in the National Guard.
Arrested on a forgery charge over a counterfeit $20 bill, the murder by police of Floyd has caught on nationwide as Black people and others are obviously fed-up with excessive force by police against America's Black community.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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