Pictured are 12-year-old fatal Cleveland police shooting victim Tamir Rice, and his mother Samaria Rice. Samaria Rice took center-stage at the symbolic March on Washington on Saturday, December 13, 2014 along side of the mothers of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin. Garner and Brown were also killed by police, Brown, 18,  in Ferguson Missouri, and Garner, in New York City. Martin was killed by Florida nightwatchman George Zimmerman, whom a largely White jury set free. Saturday's march in the nation's capital was sponsored by the Rev Al Sharpton and his New York-based National Action Network.

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. Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist, educator and 21-year investigative journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.-A day after a Cuyahoga County coroner formally ruled the police killing of her son a homicide, the  strong Black mother of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy slain by police on Nov. 22 for sporting a toy pellet gun at a city park on Cleveland's largely White west side, was center-stage with the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, and the mothers of a host of other Black boys and men that have fallen to police killings.

'"To all of the families experiencing the same pain as me, we will have justice of a God of our understanding," said Samaria Rice, Tamir's mother, who took to the national stage Saturday afternoon at symbolic March on Washington.

The elder Rice has has said that she wants the White cop that killed her son late last month summarily convicted.

Sponsored by the Rev Al Sharpton and his New York-based Civil Rights group the National Action Network, and supported by a host of other grassroots and Civil rights organizations, and unions from across the country, the event was billed as  a gathering against police brutality, repression, racism, and America's unyielding attack against Black men and Black male children, notwithstanding that Black women are becoming more and more victimized by police too.

It drew thousands to the nation's capital, and to marches and other events across the country that same day, including in New York City,  and Boston, where people got arrested after a standoff with police.

Just 17-years-old at his death in 2012, Martin was unarmed and killed in a Florida suburb by volunteer nightwatchman George Zimmerman.

The unarmed Brown, 18, was gunned down in August by a White former cop in Ferguson, Missouri. And Garner was killed earlier this year when a group of Staten Island cops strangled him to death with a choke hold as he held up his hands and begged them to let him breath.

In Zimmerman's case, a majority White jury set him free, and in the instances of Garner and Brown, cops escaped criminal charges by largely White grand juries.

Rioting broke out in Ferguson in response to the grand jury decision, and amid disgust with the nation's legal system and its mistreatment of Black people, including Black children, not to mention a war on the poor.

Led by  Donnie Pastard, a member of the grassroots groups Black on Black Crime Inc and the Carl Stokes Brigade, and  also a retired school teacher, some greater Cleveland community activists took the D.C bus trip, more than 50 of them, said Pastard.

Pastard told Cleveland Urban News.Com as the buses were in route home Saturday night that the gathering was moving, and in fact legendary, as the stories of arbitrary police killings of Black people in Cleveland over nearly three decades were told to reporters. They include, said Pastard, Michael Pipkens in 1992, Brandon McCloud in 2005, and  whom police put 12 bullets into as the teen lay in a closet, and Tanisha Anderson, whom Cleveland police slammed to the sidewalk and killed last month while she was in handcuffs at her home.

Also, said Pastard, they mentioned Malissa Williams and Tim Russell, two unarmed Blacks gunned down in 2012 by 13 non- Black Cleveland police officers slinging 137 bullets following a car chase from downtown Cleveland to neighboring East Cleveland.

"It was moving," said Pastard. "And memorable."

Seasoned Cleveland activist Ada Averyhart, a member of several grassroots groups the Carl Stokes Bridade and the Imperial Women Coalition, is a 50-year community activist who says that something must be done about police brutality in Cleveland and that she still supports Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who has come under fire from the Call and Post Newspaper, a Black Cleveland weekly, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper. Both newspapers have taken on Jackson, a Black mayor in his third term, in editorials, to say the least, and partly for his stubborn stance in hanging onto White police officials while Cleveland is in a crisis, namely safety director Michael McGrath, a former police chief,  and former safety director Martin Flask, now a chief executive assistant to the mayor.

Both Flask and Martin retired a couple of years ago and were re-hired by Jackson to get their pensions and six figure salaries.

Two weeks ago U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced findings by the U.S. Department of Justice of systemic problems in the largely White Cleveland Police Department, from illegal deadly force, to vicious pistil whippings of adults and children, and "cruel and unusual punishment against the mentally ill.

" If some changes are not made it is going to get worse before it gets better," said Averyhart, 80. "If Mayor Jackson has any scruples at all, he has got to try and change some things."

From the Metro Desk of 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 (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio-BELOW IS A RE-PRINT OF A  CALL AND POST NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL THAT IS ALSO ON THE STANDS AND IN STORES THIS WEEK

A fleeting passage of time. Two ticks of a second. Pull out a stop watch. Count “one (1,000) – two (1,000).” Then imagine … BANG! Your child is dead.

The blink of an eye was all the time it took for a Cleveland police officer to engage and gun down a 12-year-old child playing in the park. After watching the video recording that shows the killing of Tamir Rice at Cudell Park, the community as a collective was both saddened and outraged.

As a result, the community is not only calling for the resignation of Executive Assistant Marty Flask and Safety Director Michael McGrath, but it has also been recognized that if Mayor Frank Jackson insists on supporting this blatantly racist, brutal and unconstitutional treatment of Black people at the hands of the Cleveland Police Department, then he too will have to follow suit. We stand behind the community.

Pictured are Cleveland Browns new starting quarterback Johnny Manziel (in grey suit) and Cleveland Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer (in red shirt)

From the Metro Desk of 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 (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, a rookie Browns recruit also nicknamed 'Mr. Football,' will start his first NFL game Sunday, Dec.14 in the showdown between the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, taking over a 7-6 Browns team led by quarterback Brian Hoyer.

In spite of breaching the playoffs, Hoyer was left hanging as head coach Mike Pettine chose to start the more popular Manziel.

"This decision is really not about Brian Hoyer or Johnny Manziel, it is about the Cleveland Browns," said Pettine in a statement on his decision.

A former Texas A&M quarterback, Manziel,  22, who has played but has not started, was chosen as the 22nd pick in this year's NFL Draft. Though some opponents  joke that he is a midget, Manziel stands 6 feet tall.

Hoyer's numbers began to decline last month and Pettine toyed with replacing him before the Browns 25-24 lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

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

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Community activists, led by the Oppressed People's Nation, the Imperial Women Coalition, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, Puncture the Silence and Revolution Books, will rally at 5 pm on Thursday, Dec 11 at the intersection of Ansel and Superior Roads  in Cleveland where Tanisha Anderson was killed by Cleveland police some three weeks ago.

Anderson, who was Black,  was slammed to the sidewalk and killed after police allegedly came to the family home following a  non-violent mental health disturbance. The family said that they sought an ambulance through a 9-11- call, but police came instead. Police killed Anderson when she objected by slamming her to the sidewalk,. the family said.

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice announced a scathing report of systemic problems in the Cleveland Police Department, from police killings to cruel and unusual punishment against the mentally ill. For more information call (216) 659-0473.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (in eye glasses), safety director Michael McGraft (in White shirt) and former safety director Martin Flask (in green suit with maroon tie), now a chief executive assistant to the mayor. Data show that Jackson, who is Black,  protects these White men at any cost, even rehiring them after both retired, and paying them annual salaries in excess of $120,000 a piece. Before recently hiring a Black police chief following calls for diversity in the top brass by community activists,  the Black mayor had no Blacks as law director, safety director, chief prosecutor, chief of police, and ems commissioner in the predominantly Black major metropolitan city, insensitivity to the Black community supported by Black preachers and an all but defunct Cleveland NAACP that is currently under investigation by the national headquarters.

From the Metro Desk of 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 (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Hundreds of people, mainly college students, community activists, union affiliates and a handful of area Black ministers, peacefully rallied against police killings outside and inside of Cleveland City Hall Monday night, and called for the resignations of safety director Michael McGraft, and Martin Flask, the former safety director who is now the chief executive assistant to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.

"We want accountability and when the system is broken, you get rid of the leaders," said Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women Coalition while leading chants on the steps of City Hall and demanding the ouster of Flask and McGraft." We are not dumb."

Inside at the regular city council meeting community activists and Councilman Jeff Johnson echoed the sentiment that McGrath and Flask need to go, a posture also demanded at a press conference earlier that day by the attorneys for the family of 12-year-old Cleveland police shooting victim Tamir Rice, and Dr. Jawanza Karriem Colvin, the dynamic young Black pastor at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church on Cleveland's east side.

As Johnson was speaking the entire Jackson administrative team walked out in disgust, prompting Councilman Brian Cummins to say that they have no respect for the community.

"This is disrespectful to the community," said Cummins.

Some 30 of the many protesters there were escorted out of the council meeting by police for demanding justice.

There were over 19 different activists groups represented at the gathering, and there were no arrests.

The protesters were rallying against police brutality nationally and locally, from Michael Brown in Missouri, to the killing death by police of Eric Garner in New York, and recent arbitrary police shootings in Cleveland, including Tanisha Anderson, and Rice, who was slain by Cleveland police for sporting a toy pellet gun at a public park on the city's largely Black west side.

Both Flask and McGrath are White, and Jackson, who is Black, seems to have a fixation with White men, even in the midst of the announcement last week by the U.S. Department of Justice of systemic problems in the largely White Cleveland Police Department from reckless police killings, to the tasering and pistil whipping of people, mainly Black people.

Moreover, neither can get along with the rank and file of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, the police union that says the duo has no respect for the collective bargaining agreement and has contributed to the overall low morale among Cleveland police.

Until recently hiring Black police chief Calvin Williams following demands for diversity among the city's top brass by community activists, Jackson had no Blacks as law director, safety director, chief of police, chief city prosecutor and ems commissioner in a largely Black major American city. And even when he had the opportunity to replace McGrath and Flask because of their retirements a couple of years ago, he re- hired them so that on top of their pensions they could maintain the high paying jobs that exceed salaries of $120,000 a piece, annually, jobs that could support the families of young Black professionals.

And the mayor is supported in his insensitivity to the Black community by some self-serving Blacks that he gives favors to,  from Black preachers seeking grant monies from the city and its affiliates, to the all but defunct Cleveland NAACP that has done virtually nothing in at least the last decade and is currently under investigation by the national headquarters.

Both Flask and McGraft also came under fire by Cleveland area community activists, who demanded their resignations in 2009 at a protest in front of the mayor's home during a rally led by the Imperial Women Coalition around police negligence as to the the killings of 11 Black women on Imperial Avenue on the city's east side by since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell. Following a 2008 rape complaint police went to Sowell's home, and according to a CNN report, smelled death and saw blood, and still released him from custody. He was recaptured a year later, and convicted in 2011 of charges of aggravated murder and rape, among other charges, convictions on  82 of 83 counts, in fact. He sits on death row as his convictions and death sentence are on appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court