Constitutional Attorney Shahid Buttar (pictured above), executive director of the national Bill of Rights Defense Committee

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473.  Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

Coleman is a community activist, legal and political reporter, and a 22-year investigative journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Greater Cleveland Civil and Human Rights Coalition, together with the national Bill of Rights Defense Committee (www.bordc.org) and local greater Cleveland activists,  will co-host a open-to-the-public forum on police body-worn cameras, police accountability, and Civil Rights beginning at 11 am on Saturday, April 18 at the MLK Jr. Branch Public Library in Cleveland Ward 9 at 1962 Stokes Blvd. The media and others should contact CAIR-Cleveland Executive Director Julia Shearson, a Harvard University educated greater Cleveland community activist, at 216.830.2247 for more information.

Also at issue are privacy concerns pertaining to the body cameras, including in rape cases, and cases of police harassment through heightened surveillance.

Uncensored questions from the community are welcome during the questions and answers part of the forum, organizers told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news.

Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell will give remarks at the event.

The keynote speaker is  Shahid Buttar,  a constitutional attorney and executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a think tank and activists training organization which is headquartered in Northampton, Massachusetts and trains community activists across the country, including in the city of Cleveland.  Its primary mission though, is to promote the Bill of Rights, namely the first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution, including the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

Buttar is a constitutional scholar and a national activist, also on immigration reform, who was arrested  in February after protesting on the the U.S. Senate floor over what he says are illegal wire taps by the CIA, and other federal government intrusions.

In addition to Buttar, other panelists are Shakyra Diaz of the Ohio ACLU, Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Steve Loomis, Cleveland City Councilman and Safety Committee Chairman Matt Zone, college student Alyce Ragland,  Criminal and Juvenile Justice Policy Consultant Ed Little, and Cleveland State University Professor Dr. Ronnie Dunn.

The forum is in response to the deployment of the body-worn cameras by the Cleveland Division of Police in its efforts to build  community trust in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice's December 4, 2014 finding that the police department engages in a pattern and practice of violating the U.S. Constitution, including illegal excessive force shootings and harassment of innocent women and Black people.

Cleveland police killings of unarmed people in recent years, mainly Blacks, are escalating, and include 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Brandon Jones, Tanisha Anderson, Daniel Ficker , Malissa Williams, Timothy Russell and rapper Kenneth Smith.

Cleveland police body cameras took effect earlier this year pursuant to a city law passed by Cleveland City Council.

Loomis said that his union and police officers oppose the body cameras. Most in the Black community, including Black leaders, want them.

Pictured are 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio (D-OH), Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (in beard and eye glasses), Black Contractors Group president and community activist Norm Edwards (in beard and black turtleneck sweater), and Cleveland criminal defense attorney and Cleveland NAACP attorney Michael Nelson Sr. (in red tie).

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473.  Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

Coleman is a community activist, legal and political reporter, and a 22-year investigative journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes the city of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, issued a press statement on April 14 expressing opposition to efforts by a group of citizens, led by local criminal defense attorney Michael Nelson Sr. and Black contractors Group leaders Ken Bender and Norm Edwards, to recall Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson from office.

"The campaign to recall Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is not warranted and is counterproductive," Fudge told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper. "It detracts from community efforts to move the city forward and bring about meaningful change on important issues such as police reform, infrastructure improvements, and neighborhood redevelopment."

One of only two Blacks in Congress from Ohio, Fudge said that "in its December 2014 report on the Cleveland Division of Police, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) identified a series of concrete steps that, if fully implemented, can  lead to lasting police reform."

"Much will depend on continued citizen engagement,' the federal lawmaker said.

It is Jackson's initial opposition to the controversial DOJ report issued last December that found systemic problems in the largely White Cleveland Police Department, including illegal excessive force killings and cruel and unusual punishment against innocent women and children and the mentally ill,  that is the impetus for the recall effort.

Other issues of concern, say recall organizers, are the improper allocation of resources to big business, and Cleveland police killings of unarmed people, mainly Blacks, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, Brandon Jones, Malissa Williams, Timothy Russell, Daniel Ficker, and Kenneth Smith.

The mayor says now that there are institutional problems in his police department and that he sought ongoing police reform also as a former city council president.

Edwards, a community activist, along with Nelson, also an attorney for the Cleveland NAACP, has vowed to take out petitions by May 1 and to collect the roughly 12, 000 signatures by June 1 to get the recall effort on the ballot.

Edwards and Nelson say that the three-term Black mayor is beautifying downtown Cleveland while the inner city goes to hell in a hand basket.

"We will have the signatures," said Edwards, at a recall meeting last month on the city's largely Black east side.

He then went on to criticize the mayor, citing a litany of concerns.

Nelson said at the meeting that Jackson is running the city in the ground and has forgotten about poor Black people and other disenfranchised types.

Edwards says that Jackson, whom voters reelected by a landslide in  2013 in a non-partisan runoff over millionaire businessman Ken Lanci,  is the worst mayor in the city's history, and is giving police a pass to murder people with impunity.

Fudge disagrees with that perception of the mayor, whom she has repeatedly endorsed, and supported.

"Any effort to remove the mayor from office," said Fudge, "serves only to divide rather than to unite our community at this critical juncture."

But the congresswoman says she sympathizes with their concerns.

"I too feel the frustration many residents are expressing, and I stand ready to convene a meeting to discuss their grievances and work with responsible parties to achieve a positive path forward," said Fudge. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Pictured are new Cuyahoga County Sheriff Cliff Pinkney (wearing dark grey tie), Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish (in white shirt), and Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell (in white shirt with judicial robe and his hands folded)

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473.  Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

Coleman is a community activist, legal and political reporter, and a 22-year investigative journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

PUBLIC CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION BY CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S BLACK NEWS LEADER : JUDGES AND OTHER PUBLIC OFFICIALS ACTING BADLY WITH GANGSTA LAWYERS AND RICH AND CORRUPT JPMORGAN CHASE BANK ALSO AT THE HELM, AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION (XC: CLEVELAND FBI)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, on April 14, swore in former deputy chief Clifford Pinkney as the new county sheriff, a historical action as Pinkney is the county's first Black sheriff ever.

Cuyahoga County includes the city of Cleveland and is the largest of Ohio's 88 counties.

The swearing in came after Cuyahoga County Council unanimously approved the appointment moments earlier.

"With over nearly 25 years in the sheriff's department Cliff Pinkney has demonstrated his effectiveness, his integrity, and his commitment to get the job done," said Budish when he named Pinkney, 52, as county sheriff earlier this year.

The promotion of Pinkney comes following a commitment to diversity in county employees by Budish while on the campaign trail last year, and demands by community activists for more diversity in the rank and file of Cuyahoga County government.(Editor's note: As to the meeting with Budish and community activists last year while Budish was on the campaign trail CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACKDIGITAL NEWS).

Pinkney replaces ousted former sheriff Frank Bova, who was handed an artificial post with the county until he retires, sources said.

Pinkney is a 24-year veteran of the county sheriff's office where he worked with the narcotics bureau and the FBI on drug and gang-related cases. He was promoted to deputy chief in 2013. He is also leading the investigation into the Cleveland police shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, an unprecedented shooting that occurred late last year and has generated ongoing community protests.

Cleveland police killings are gaining national attention, including the shooting deaths in 2012 of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell by 13 non- Black Cleveland cops slinging 137 bullets. Only one of the police officers, Michael Brelo, was charged, and with  two counts of voluntary manslaughter.

Brelo is currently on trial before Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, a crook, public records reveal, who stole homes via fake foreclosure cases for banks and mortgage companies like JPMorgan Chase Bank, along with a host of other judges like Carolyn Friedland, and in cooperation with the office of the county sheriff, under Bova, ousted former sheriff Bob Reid, and former elected sheriff and convicted criminal Gerald McFaul.

O'Donnell stole homes for Chase without Chase even suing the homeowners, and he would allow Chase to purchase the homes at illegal sheriffs sales under fake names, and for a fourth of the county assessed appraisal value, in violation of state law. Technically, he could not getaway with the theft because the sheriff's office would then refuse to put the homeowners out of their homes, leaving a stalemate. O'Donnell, data also show, mainly targeted Black women that he had been stalking for years.

Complaints about the judge's theft and harassment, and that of some of the other 34 largely White general division common pleas judges,  fell on death ears to the Cleveland NAACP, former county prosecutor Bill Mason and current prosecutor Tim McGinty, and to police in county municipalities, including University Heights Mayor Susan Infeld.

Infeld doubles as a rarely seen safety director, and is a Jimmy Dimora ally.

Dimora, a former chair of the county democratic party and a former county commissioner and Democrat like Infeld, is currently serving a 28-year-federal prison sentence for racketeering and a host of other corruption-related crimes.

Chief Foreclosure Magistrate Stephen Bucha, a University Heights resident, and his wife, an attorney with the Lerner, Sampson and Rothfuss law firm, helped with the foreclosure fraud and other corruption  too, among others.

Bucha would also hear the fake foreclosure cases that had no plaintiff or mortgage company with Judge O'Donnell as his boss, and partner in public corruption, data show, and though O'Donnell had no jurisdiction or authority whatsoever to preside over cases without plaintiffs.

Appeals to the Ohio Eight District Court of Appeals of O'Donnell's corruption, and often that of other judges stealing homes, are often met with corruption, public records show, and are illegally dismissed by corrupt judges there, some of them of whom are operatives of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

And Bucha would also approve the theft of the homes and subsequent sheriff sales of them for a fourth of the county appraisal to Chase and others, sometimes friends of the Republican and Democratic parties , and Cleveland NAACP affiliates. If Bucha got caught in recent years,  the Chief Common Pleas Judge John Russo would replace him with other foreclosure magistrates in the cases at issue , common pleas court case dockets reveal.

The victims of the alleged theft and the harassment say that in retaliation for complaining they would get harassed by attorneys for the Cleveland NAACP and some of its officials, the county prosecutor, and police, including home break ins with police support, threats of harm,  false arrests and illegal jail stays in the county jail where they are held naked, defamation, and malicious prosecutions. Moreover, data show that the homeowners were current on their mortgages under the law and had often paid on them for nearly a decade without refinancing.

Law firms hired by Chase to assist O'Donnell and some other common pleas judges in the theft and harassment are Reimer and Lorber, Thompson Hine, Lerner, Sampson and Rothfuss, and Bricker and Eckler.

Longtime former sheriff McFaul was ousted from office in 2009 due to his criminal endeavors,including harassing employees for campaign donations. (Editor's note: McFaul, and former sheriffs Reid and Bova stole homes from county residents, data show, by having their appraisers violate state law to deflate the home values of foreclosed homes for sheriff sales below the county appraisal, and in effect denying former home owners that qualified monies sometimes due back after the sale. And in some instances there were no plaintiffs or mortgage companies in the foreclosure cases at issue, data show. State law allows a sheriff to hire appraisers for foreclosed homes for sheriff sales, but only in a legal fashion with the discount for a foreclosed home only being a third off). CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE OF JUDGE JOHN O'DONNELL'S CORRUPTION AND DOCUMENTED THEFT OF HOMES AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM).

Before Budish, who beat Republican County Councilman Jack Schron to win the seat in November, Ed FitzGerald held the county executive job for one four-year term.

Fitzgerald was the county's first county executive pursuant to a voter approved revised governance structure that scrapped the three-member Board of Commissioners and the elected county offices, including the sheriff, clerk of courts, auditor, treasurer, engineer and coroner, all but the elected judges and the county prosecutor. In their place came a county executive and 11-member county council, which now appoints those once elected positions, including the sheriff.

Longtime former sheriff McFaul was the last elected sheriff.

Former county prosecutor Mason, current prosecutor McGinty, Budish, FitzGerald, and Pinkney, and former sheriffs McFaul, Reid,and  Bova are all Democrats.

Judge O'Donnell is also a Democrat, and was the Democratic candidate who, in November, tried unsuccessfully to unseat Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judi French, a Republican.

FitzGerald was elected in 2010 and opted not to seek reelection. He was trounced last year in an unsuccessful bid to unseat popular Gov. John Kasich, who is contemplating a run for president in 2016.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473.  Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

Coleman is a community activist, legal and political reporter, and a 22-year investigative journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Greater Cleveland community activists groups and area college students will rally tomorrow, Tuesday, April 14 against mass incarceration and police murder beginning at 3 pm where they will gather in downtown Cleveland outside in the back of the  Cleveland Public Main Library at 325 Superior Avenue. The group will then march to Cleveland City Hall, organizers said yesterday. (Call Carol at (216) 932-3474 for more information).

The event is part of a national action in cities across the nation sponsored by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network.

One in every 31 adults of the population is under some form of correctional control, such as jail, prison, probation, parole or house arrest, a national NAACP study found, many of them of whom are low income, and people of color.

Affiliated greater Cleveland activists groups include Puncture the Silence and Revolution Books, who are the organizing groups, and Black on Black Crime Inc, the Imperial Women Coalition, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, and the Black Man's Army.

The rally will address police killings nationally, like Sean Bell, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Walter Scott, and Cleveland police killings of many, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, Brandon Jones, Malissa Williams, Timothy Russell, Daniel Ficker, and Kenneth Smith.

Data show that Blacks are disproportionately prosecuted and sentenced, and they receive harsher sentences than their White counterparts from the majority White 34 judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. A Cleveland NAACP commissioned study that confirms such is gathering dust.

Cuyahoga County, which includes the majority Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland, is roughly 29 percent Black, and is the largest of 88 counties of Ohio.

Blacks are also getting harassed and are denied indigent counsel in Cleveland suburbs, including Cleveland Heights, Berea and Bedford municipal courts, all with support from officials of the Cleveland NAACP, which is essentially shut down and under investigation by national headquarters.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473.  Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

Coleman is a community activist, legal and political reporter, and a 22-year investigative journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who later became a New York U.S. senator, and was secretary of state in the Obama administration during the president's first term, announced by Internet video at 3 pm today, April 12, that she will make a second bid for president in 2016.

"I'm running for president," said Clinton, a two-minute video reveals. "Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion."

Clinton said that she is "hitting the road to earn your vote because its your time, and I hope you'll join me on this journey."

The overwhelming front- runner for the Democrats, and the only announced Democrat thus far, Clinton lost the nomination for president to Barack Obama in 2008. He was then a junior U.S. senator representing the state of Illinois.

The news on Clinton's candidacy, though not officially announced until today,  was no secret.

The former first lady had already devised a tentative campaign budget, and had made some campaign hires, a source close to the campaign said. She is the only announced Democrat thus far,

Former President Bill Clinton's chief of staff, John Podesta, who will likely be the campaign manager of Clinton's campaign, had sent an email to former staffers shortly before today's announcement confirming the much anticipated news.

If Clinton were to win in 2016, she would become America's first female president.

President Barack Obama said this week that his former secretary of state [Hillary Clinton] is a friend, and "would make an excellent president."

To date, prominent Republican contenders for the Republican nomination for president include U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Marco Rubio of Florida, and presumptively, former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

Hillary Clinton may have lost the Democratic nomination in 2008, but she won Ohio's Democratic primary that year against Obama, and by eight percentage points, 53 percent to 45 percent. And she endorsed Obama in the general election.

America's first Black president, Obama went on the beat Republican nominee Arizona Sen John McCain for the presidency. He won a second four year term in 2012, easily defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor.

"For everyone here in Ohio and across America whose ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you," Clinton said before supporters after winning Ohio's Democratic primary over Obama in 2008.