Subject: Press Release on 137 shots aftermath rally coverage by mainstream media..Read below.. A message from journalist and community activist Kathy Wray Coleman (Note: Activists never planned the 137 shots rally in East Cleveland on March 6 for Heritage Middle School where a parent teacher conference was being held. That was some of community activist Art McKoy's slickness for a Channel 5 article with coverage. He is becoming a distraction and a tool for the media, himself and the police, some believe. The rally went forward as planned at the intersection of Lee and Terrace Roads in East Cleveland, a neighboring Black impoverished suburb of Cleveland, Ohio)
PRESS RELEASE TO ALL MEDIA : FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014, COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS APPLAUD NEW CLEVELAND POLICE CHIEF VEHICLE PURSUIT POLICIES (NOTE: The Cleveland urban news.com article on this is coming (WWW.CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM)
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From Kathy Wray Coleman (pictured): Dear Mainstream Media that attended the deadly 137 shots rally in East Cleveland last night (Channels 3, 5, 43. 19 and 8): (Read our coverage up to the rally at www.clevelandurbannews.com)
Thanks for coming to the rally I led, and the coverage. But remember that in addition to seeking police indictments, we for the most part like the new policies put in place by new Black Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams on Cleveland police chases in the wake of the 137 shots deadly shooting in 2012 of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Tim Russell. The chief addressed the new policies at a press conference yesterday afternoon. And we still want any new or old policies complied with. That is a given. The police killings followed a police chase that began in downtown Cleveland and ended in neighboring East Cleveland, a chase initiated by Cleveland police without either probable cause or reasonable suspicion.
"We want them indicted," said Dorothy Sigelmier, a close aunt of Malissa Williams who attended the rally.
"It was murder," said Ernest Smith at the rally, an East Cleveland activist who leads the East Cleveland grassroots groups the Oppressed People's Nation.
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As to the new policies adopted by Chief Williams (pictured), we like all policies that heighten requirements for police to pursue non-violent suspects without excessive force. Other than Art McKoy (pictured in hat), including Cleveland NAACP President the Rev Hilton Smith (pictured in suit) who also attended the rally, we made that clear at the rally and I told three mainstream media reporters that in one-on-one interviews yesterday, interviews they pursued, including 19 action news and channels 5 and 3, not to mention channels 8 and 43 at the rally. Please update your morning news (beginning at 4:30 am this morning) where only Channel 3 news with the talented legend Tom Beres got it right yesterday evening.
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A policy that precludes vehicle pursuits by Cleveland absent a violent felony or suspicion of OVI as one of the new policies reveals saves lives. Do not link all activists to the views of Art McKoy as to his stance and his ignorance in this matter. The Imperial women support the new polices and the new police chief until and unless he fails to measure up. We want the policies he has implemented to be adopted by council and state legislators into local and state laws, local laws among Cuyahoga County's 59 villages, municipalities and townships.
Thanks for your support.
Kathy Wray Coleman, Imperial Women Activists Group, 216-659-0473 ,www.clevelandurbannews.com
