Pictured is CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper
From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com
, Ohio's most read online Black newspaper. (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com). Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by phone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio- A stop the violence against women rally that drew nearly 400 people on July 24 near the intersection of Shaw and Hayden Avenues in East Cleveland in the area where the decomposed bodies of 3 Black women were found wrapped in plastic bags last week in vacant buildings in the majority Black impoverished suburb of Cleveland, Oh. will air this week on Cable News Network (CNN) beginning on Thursday, July 25, 2013 during the Anderson Cooper 360 Show. The popular show runs daily, at least, at 8 pm, 11 pm, and 3 am eastern time.
The rally was the largest in the greater Cleveland Black community in recent years, and was organized by the grassroots groups Imperial Women and the Oppressed People's Nation in conjunction with a host of other community activists organizations.
Suspected serial killer Michael Madison, 35, is in custody on a $6 million bond. He was charged earlier this week with 3 counts each of kidnapping and murder. He told police to look for more bodies in Cleveland, East Cleveland and Mansfield, Oh, but gave no further specifics, law enforcement authorities said.
"We appreciate what CNN does and we thank the producers and reporters that were in town to bring more needed attention to the epidemic of violence against women, which is a universal problem that disproportionately impacts women of color," said Imperial Women Leader Kathy Wray Coleman, who led the well attended rally.
Other participating grassroots groups include the Carl Stokes Brigade, Revolution Books, Peace in the Hood, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, the Fairfax Business Association, Ohio Family Rights, the Audacity of Hope Foundation, the Task Force for Community Mobilization, Organize Ohio, the Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Rights Campaign, the National Organization for Parental Equality, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Survivors/ Victims of Tragedy, the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, and Black on Black Crime Inc.
The rally drew a host of community activists, Black elected officials, and the family members of the 3 dead women, namely Angela Deskins, 38, Shetisha Sheeley, 28, and Shirellda Terry, 18, whose bodies were uncovered last week, two of whom were strangled, and the remains of Terry too decomposed to access the extent of the damage.
The segment, which airs on basic cable television on the CNN 24-hour channel, ends with a call by Coleman, on behalf of community activists and the Black community, for outside help to find missing women, even if it requires going into thousands of vacant and abandoned buildings in both Cleveland and East Cleveland.
"We call on the president [Barack Obama]to bring in the national guard to find these missing women," said Coleman during the rally, as reflected during the CNN segment, which runs repeatedly all week.
CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer stood in for Cooper.
The CNN segment also features activists, led by Art McKoy, climbing in and out of vacant and abandoned buildings in East Cleveland to search for missing women, and the Terry and Sheeley families were featured, as well as Community Activist Ernest Smith of the Oppressed People's Nation.
East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton told CNN that he and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson lack the resources to comb through vacant and abandon homes in Cleveland and East Cleveland to find a score of missing persons.
Black elected officials on hand for the rally include Mayor Norton, state Sen Nina Turner (D-25), state Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10), state Rep. John Barnes Jr (D-12), Cleveland Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed, Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell,and East Cleveland City Council members Nate Martin, Chantelle C. Lewis, Mansell Baker, and Dr. Joy Jordan, who is president of East Cleveland City Council.
"I grew up poor and I am not a criminal," said state Sen. Nina Turner at the rally, taking aim at Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich and his public comment earlier this week that the recent serial murders at issue are the by-product of poverty.
Yvonne Pointer, who works for the city of Cleveland communications department, spoke also. Her 14-year-old daughter was raped and murdered on her way home from school decades ago.
East Cleveland has now joined the ranks of some other cities nationwide where serial killers are staking their prey, including Cleveland, a largely Black major metropolitan city where the remains of 11 Black women were uncovered at the home of serial killer Anthony Sowell in 2009. Just two and a half months ago three women, Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight, were freed from captivity after being held kidnapped for over nine years by Arial Castro on Cleveland's majority White west side. Castro took a plea deal on July 26 that guarantees life in prison.
Since March of this year, the raped and murdered bodies of several more women on Cleveland's predominantly Black east side were uncovered and include Christine Malone, 43, Ashley Leszyeski, 21, and Jazmine Trotter, 20.
The killers of both Malone and Leszyeski are still at large, law enforcement authorities have said.
"This violence against women has got to stop and we need more resources to find their killers," said Angelique Malone, a daughter of Christine Malone who spoke at the rally.
