Pistured is Cleveland mayoral candidate Zack Reed
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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
(Cleveland, Ohio)- Cleveland mayoral candidate Zack Reed will unveil his safety plan on Wed., July 14 at 10:30 am on the front steps of Cleveland City hall in downtown Cleveland, a plan he says will go a long way toward reducing crime in Cleveland.
"The plan addresses pressing needs of both the police department and the community at-large," Reed said. “We are not going to simply police our way out of the scourge of violence that has enveloped this city."
He went on to say that "there must be acknowledgement of the symptoms that have caused this epidemic to spiral out of control in the first place, while also ensuring that our safety forces are staffed and equipped to deal with these issues in a constitutional manner.”
The former Ward 2 councilman who is Black and lost a nonpartisan runoff against Mayor Frank Jackson in 2017 is among seven all Democratic mayoral candidates seeking the open seat this year as Jackson, 74 and also Black, has opted not to seek a historic fifth term.
He said Monday that the time is now or never as to tackling Cleveland's crime problem.
"As crime has become a major issue in this year’s mayoral contest, we finally have a chance in this election to reverse these horrible trends and my administration will make the eradication of violence a daily priority," Reed said.
Crime has escalated in Cleveland and in other largely Black major American cities since the pandemic hit in March of 2020, prompting Mayor Jackson to join 27 other big city mayors in sending a letter last month to President Joe Biden seeking help on the issue.
Cleveland Division of Police Crime Analysis Unit statistics reveal that homicide cases are up 30% from last year, and incidents of felonious assault shootings are up 56%.
Cleveland police officers have confiscated over more than 1,400 guns so far in 2021, a 72% increase in firearms confiscations from this time last year.
Reed served for 16 years on city council, representing Ward 2 prior to his run for mayor four years ago, a largely Black east side ward that includes the Mount Pleasant, Union-Miles and Mill Creek Falls neighborhoods.
During his 2017 bid for mayor Reed's campaign theme was "Safety First," where he pushed a progressive agenda, including more police on the streets to deal with heightened crime in inner city neighborhoods, improvements to Cleveland schools that the city mayor controls per state law, economic development, and better city services.
Elections for mayor and city council are held simultaneously in the same year, which keeps most of the city legislators on the 17- member city council from giving up a relatively safe council seat for a possible, and often unlikely, mayoral win.
Reed did not seek reelection to city council in 2017 and instead entered the crowded mayoral race, hoping to unseat Jackson, the city's third Black mayor.
In addition to Reed the other six mayoral candidates on the ballot for the Sept 14 non-partisan primary election are Council President Kevin Kelley, former mayor and prior congressman Dennis Kucinich, state Sen Sandra Williams (D-21), attorney Ross DeBillo, Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones, and Justin Bibb.
The general election where the top two winners in the primary will square off is Nov. 2.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. 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.
