Pictured are Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (wearing beard), Cleveland Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed ( in black suit with grey tie) and Cleveland Ward 10 Councilman Jeff Johnson (in blue suit with gold tie)
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog, Tel: (216) 659-0473 Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson called for city council to adopt strict gun control ordinances during a press conference on Tuesday, a controversial posture that puts him at odds with conservative gun toting state laws adopted by the Republican-controlled Ohio State Legislature.
The press conference comes as the city's homicides are at an all time high for the year-to-date, the most in a five -year period with some 19 deaths before mid March got underway, a wave of seven shootings, including one homicide, two weeks ago, and four weekend east side killings, among others.
According to Cleveland police there have been 22 rapes, 45 homicides, 1263 robberies, and 886 assaults so far this year.
Jackson says that getting guns off the streets will help his police officers do their jobs better, not withstanding a 2010 Ohio Supreme Court decision that stops Ohio municipalities, villages and townships from passing stricter gun laws than what state law makers pass through state laws enacted by the Ohio General Assembly.
"Despite the hard work of the Cleveland Police Department and their law enforcement partners, we continue to face situations where convicted felons are using guns to murder, rob and assault people in our community," Jackson, a former assistant city prosecutor and city council president, told reporters on Tuesday.
Jackson is the city's third Black mayor, behind Carl B. Stokes in 1967, the first Black mayor of a major American city, and behind former three-term mayor Michael R. White. He won the seat originally in 2005, ousting then mayor Jane Campbell, who succeeded White. He has been reelected twice, the last time in November 2013, and via a non-partisan runoff with millionaire businessman Ken Lanci, both of them Democrats.
Jackson, some say , wants new restrictive gun law ordinances to substitute for city laws that were struck down relative to the high court's 2010 decision, and he argues that home rule governs, though the Ohio Supreme Court has almost said otherwise.
What the mayor is proposing as to the requested city legislation includes criminal sanctions for school officials that fail to report that guns have been found on school premises, though state laws cover malfeasance that places Ohio children in harms way while at school. He also wants people that turn in guns to be able to do so void of any legal penalties, an ambitious proposal that shows his urban thrust but also brings into question whether city council can usurp the authority of law enforcement officials, and conflicting state laws.
And the third major thing Jackson wants in the proposed Cleveland legislation is to ban the sell of gun replicas, again a gesture that could put any legislation of that type in conflict with state law.
Or the mayor might just be seeking a good faith modification of Ohio's heavily debated gun control laws.
Nonetheless, the politically astute mayor knows full well that he is in for a fight.
But what is clear is that Jackson is tired of heightened crime in the city that he loves and where he won a third four year term as mayor just last year.
It might not appear that way though, as Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed and Ward 10 Councilman Jeff Johnson, both of whom are Black and represent wards on the city's largely Black east side, want Jackson to do more to minimize crime, including more police and detectives on the streets.
"Too may people are getting murdered," said Reed during an interview on Friday for an upcoming article by Cleveland Urban News.Com on violent crime in Cleveland and police assignments. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
