The Cleveland-Ferguson Stance

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist, educator and 21-year investigative journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- National protesters seeking justice for slain Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, whom New York police choked to death, as well as John Crawford, another Black male killed by police at a Beavercreek, Ohio Walmart store for picking up an air soft gun from a store shelf, joined protesters in Cleveland over the weekend to rally against police brutality.

A couple of hundred protesters, some from as far away as Ferguson, Missouri, participated in some six weekend events, attention drawn to Cleveland as part of the national debate over the fragile and contentious relationship between police and the Black community, and growing concerns that in general, police have unchecked power.

Also highlighted were local police killings, including Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy slain last month by a rookie White Cleveland policeman for sporting a toy pellet gun under a gazebo at a public park on the city's largely White west side.

More than 100 protesters rallied in front of Cleveland First District police headquarters Saturday morning.

There were no Cleveland arrests, and nobody got physically hurt, in Cleveland, police said.

Many of the out-of-towners were brought in my buses from Ferguson, organizers told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper.

Protesters peacefully stormed the aisles at a Walmart at Steelyard Commons in Cleveland Saturday afternoon, and personally sparred with a casually dressed Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams there,  and at Tower City in downtown Cleveland

A  huge money-maker as Christmas approaches, Tower City was shut down only briefly.

"We've allowed you to do everything you've wanted to do ," said Williams while blocking the Tower City entrance doors to protesters, who accused police of planning to hurt them in retaliation for free speech, something Williams, who is Black, said would not happen under his watch.

At Walmart, Williams greeted protesters, including Rice's brother, saying that "I want to make sure you are safe."

Protesters shouted "who do you serve?" as the easygoing police chief engaged in civil discussions with them.

Protesters also marched through the heart of downtown Cleveland on Saturday, some of them subsequently sitting in the streets near PlayhouseSquare, and blocking traffic.

From top to bottom: Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, safety director Michael McGraft and former safety director Martin Flask, now a chief executive assistant to the mayor.

Williams, whom third-term Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson appointed earlier this year amid cries that his top brass had no Blacks, has taken a more visible role as protesters, some Cleveland councilmen, and both the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, and the Call and Post, a Black Cleveland print weekly, have called for administrative changes. Specifically, they want safety director Michael McGraft, a former police chief, to resign, along with executive mayoral assistant Martin Flask, a former safety director.

Both Flask and Martin are White. And both are under fire in conjunction with findings announced early this month by the U.S. Department of Justice of systemic problems in the largely White police department that they command, and have commanded for at least a decade. Those systemic problems are ingrained, the report says, and include a host of illegal deadly force police shootings that disproportionately impact the Black community, and illegal tasing and pistil whippings of innocent adults and children.

The protesters also rallied Saturday and Sunday morning at the Cudell Recreation Center where Rice was shot and killed. And as the Cleveland anti-police brutality rallies were going on, two New York cops, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were gunned down in an unrelated incident.

According to police, both police officers were shot in the head execution-style while on duty and sitting in a police cruiser  Saturday afternoon in a Brooklyn, New York precinct.

Suspected gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley reportedly shot and wounded a former girlfriend near Baltimore, Maryland, before heading to New York City to ultimately shoot Ramos and Liu. He then killed himself with a self inflicted gun shot wound in a nearby New York subway station, police said.

Brinsley, 28 and Black, is accused by police of killing the New York cops in retaliation for the deaths by police of Garner and Brown.

The Rev Al Sharpton, however, is skeptical on whether Brinsley shot the two policemen because of the killings by police of Brown, and Garner.

Nonetheless, the Civil Rights icon and MSNBC political talk show host called the killings tragic, and uncalled for.

“I have spoken to the Garner family and we are outraged by the early reports of the police killed in Brooklyn today,” said Sharpton. “Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown in connection with any violence or killing of police is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases.”

Incidents leading up to the weekend protests also occurred in Cleveland proper, another indicator that the tension around heightened police brutality is growing.

A White Motel 6  manager in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, got arrested on Friday and is charged with slapping and assaulting four protesters in town from Ferguson, and making racial slurs.

Angela Kocinski-Brown, 42, was allegedly drunk and off duty when she committed the alleged misdemeanor crimes against innocent protesters. She will be arraigned on Jan 7 on four counts of assault. And she has since been fired, Motel 6 management has said.

Middleburg Heights police are also under scrutiny for purported racial profiling, and are accused of luring outspoken Black activists to the city for police to illegally arrest during retaliatory traffic stops, all in violation of constitutional guarantees, like free speech, among other infractions. That activity, a Cleveland Urban News.Com investigation and public records reveal, is often followed by malicious prosecutions in the Berea Municipal Court that involve dirty prosecutors and cops, high-paid visiting judges, and Berea Judge Mark Comstock

Data also show that in Berea court, indigent Blacks are often denied counsel. This is also occurring  in other cities of Cuyahoga County, including Bedford court, and in the Cleveland Heights under Judge A. Deane Buchanan, who is Black. And written requests for assistance by the Cleveland NAACP on the issue of the denial of indigent counsel are denied by its uppity officials, and self-serving local branch attorneys, sources say, and data show.(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com