PRESS/COMMUNITY RELEASE, JULY 1, 2014 2014 (www.clevelandurbannews.com)
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio-Greater Cleveland community activists, other community members and police brutality victims families members gathered for a rally on July 1, 2014 in the parking lot at Heritage Middle School at 14410 Terrace Road in East Cleveland where a deadly shooting occurred the night of November 29, 2012 following a police car chase that began in downtown Cleveland and ended in neighboring East Cleveland. The purpose, in part, is to highlight police brutality issues and to make the following demands as to the 137 bullets fatal shooting by 13 non- Black Cleveland police officers of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams, 30, and Tim Russell, 43, (both pictured) at Heritage Middle School that dark night in November:
-That another Cuyahoga County Grand Jury convene, as is done with Black people when a previous grand jury fails to indict, since the previous grand jury failed to indict 12 of the 13 police officers that did the shooting on criminal charges following the prejudicial influence by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty. (Note: This grand jury should proceed independent of any prejudicial influence by Tim McGinty, who recommended to the previous grand jury and others that the 12 Cleveland cops at issue go free, after allegedly promising Cleveland Police Union President Jeffrey Follmer to protect police union members involved in the unprecedented shooting)
-That U.S. District Attorney Steve Dettelbach push for federal Civil Rights and other charges similar to the Rodney King case against the 13 police officers that did the shooting and collectively fired the 137 shots that killed Malissa and Tim, and the six police supervisors, five sergeants and one lieutenant, and none of whom are Black, involved in the tragic shooting.
-That the 13 Cleveland police officers that did the shooting, including Michael Brelo, who faces two counts of voluntary manslaughter for jumping aboard the hood of Russell's 1979 Chevy Malibu and firing 49 shots through the windshield, and the six police supervisors, who are charged with misdemeanor dereliction of duty, be immediately fired by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and the city of Cleveland for violating a host of city and police policies and due to the killings themselves as well as the negligence and malfeasance around the killings
-That the grand jury process be examined by state lawmakers and others for potential changes in public policy or state law, including amending the state law and precluding Ohio common pleas judges from choosing the county grand jury foremen to manipulate the process and possibly influence the outcome in a case that could subsequently end up before the judge that has handpicked the grand jury foreman (Note: Currently the state law at issue, under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 2939, permits either the grand jury itself or a common pleas judge to choose the grand jury foreman in Ohio)
-That the U.S. Department of Justice act upon its findings relative to the majority White Cleveland Police Department, including the need for more diversity among supervisors and the top brass, the community complaints against police that are getting ignored and deemed frivolous when they have merit, and that the entire police department needs to be overhauled to deal with documented systemic problems detrimental to the larger Cleveland community and the Black community in particular. (Note:The city of Cleveland is a majority Black major American city).
-That the Cleveland Chapter NAACP, under the leadership of President The Reverend Hilton Smith, other Civil Rights organizations such as the Urban League, and the Ohio ACLU, other community groups, Black clergy, and politicians, both Black, White and other, join community activists and police brutality victims families and sign on as to the aforementioned demands and relative to the call for justice for Malissa Williams and Tim Russell, and all like them that are subject to police brutality and excessive force
Activists groups include Black on Black Crime, Peace in the Hood, The Carl Stokes Brigade, The Imperial Women Coalition, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, The Oppressed People's Nation, The Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, The Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, Sister to Sister, The Task Force for Community Mobilization, The People's Forum, Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, The Joaquin Hicks Real People's Movement, People for the Imperial Act, The Women's Federation, and Revolution Books.
For more information call rally organizers of Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network President Don Bryant at (216) 772-6788, and Imperial Women Coalition Leader Kathy Wray Coleman at (216) 659-0473.
