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.

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