Pictured is Desmond Franklin, a 23-year-old Black father of four whom Cleveland police shot and killed on April 9, 2020 on the majority Black city's largely White west side
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief. Coleman is a legal, political and investigative reporter who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years.
CLEVELAND, Ohio-A week after riots broke out in downtown Cleveland, Ohio during a protest of some three thousand protesters upset over the killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter Cleveland, which hosted the justice for Floyd rally in Cleveland last week, will rally again on Sat, June 6 beginning at 2 pm against police at the 2nd District Police Station on Fulton Road on the city's largely White west side. (Editor's note: More than 1,500 people attended the event, organizers said Saturday after the protest)
Saturday's rally is in response to the April 9 fatal police shooting by off-duty Cleveland cop Jose Garcia of 23-year old Desmond Franklin, a Black man and father of four whose ambition was to be a plumber.
Franklin's children, ages 3 months-5-year old, are all now fatherless, an all too familiar story relative to anxious cops who routinely gun down Black men in Cleveland and elsewhere with impunity.
The Black Lives Matter Cleveland Facebook event page for the protest, titled "Justice for Desmond: The Fight for Justice Continues" says over 656 people noted on Facebook they are going and more than 1,300 say they are interested in the gathering.
A curfew imposed by Mayor Frank Jackson for downtown Cleveland following Saturday's riots ended Friday morning.
Members of Franklin's family are also sponsoring the protest and have hired Attorneys Shean Williams and Stanley Jackson of the Cochran Firm to represent them and Franklin's estate in what the attorneys say was allegedly outright "murder."
The police account of the incident is that Franklin was with a 17-year-old teen who allegedly stole items off the back of a box truck at a local convenience store.
Out of uniform and allegedly on his way to work, Garcia says he allegedly witnessed the alleged incident and that they exchanged words.
After a heated exchange, Franklin allegedly followed Garcia in his car, both cars eventually side by side at one point on West 25th Street.
Garcia and Cleveland police claim that either Franklin or the 17-year old pointed a gun at him, and he, in turn, shot at the car, shooting Franklin in the head.
Franklin veered off the road after getting shot by the cop and crashed into a fence at Riverside Cemetery.
The teen jumped from the car and began running, police said, but on-duty cops caught up with him.
Garcia purportedly told a 911 dispatcher that "he was trying to shoot me and I shot back."
The attorneys for the Franklin family say Garcia, who has not been charged and is on administrative leave with pay after the shooting as required by city policy, is allegedly at fought and have provided a surveillance video to the media for review.
They say Garcia allegedly used a racial slur, which he denies, and that neither their client nor the 17-year-old pointed a gun at him as he and city officials claim.
Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Jeff Follmer has publicly said that the police union is backing Garcia and his account of the incident, and that the allegation that Garcia used a racial slur is "absolutely untrue."
Franklin's death at the hands of Cleveland police comes as the city is a party to a consent decree for police reforms with the U.S. Department of Justice following questionable police killings of unarmed Black people since 2012, including Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell in 2012, Tanisha Anderson, whom police killed at her home in 2014 after slamming her to the ground following a 9-1-1 call from a family member for mental health assistance, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
Cleveland police gunned down Rice at a park and recreation center on the largely Black city's west side in 2014, claiming his toy gun was mistaken as real, the incident also generating national protests and a discussion on racism and police brutality and excessive force against America's Black community.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
Pictured is Breonna Taylor, whom Louisville Metro police shot and killed in March when they barged into her home unannounced. Taylor would have turned 27 on June 5
Pictured are actors and comedians Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, both of whom, on Thursday, were among an array of celebrities who attended the first of four scheduled memorial services for George Floyd, whom Minneapolis police killed May 25, sparking nationwide protests and a discussion on racism and police brutality in America
