By By Kathy Wray Coleman, publisher, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper (www.clevelandurbannews.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Family members and attorneys of alleged excessive force Cleveland police deadly shooting victims and community activists attended the Cleveland NAACP meeting Monday night to seek support from the local chapter of the nation's most prominent Civil Rights organization.
Chapter president the Rev Hilton Smith (pictured in red tie) led the meeting and was gracious and supportive, community activists said after the gathering.
More that 50 community activists were there.
Speakers include Criminal Defense and Civil Rights Attorney Terry Gilbert, the family of slain Parma father of two Daniel Ficker, 27 at his death, the mother of slain aspiring rapper Kenneth Smith, 20, and Gilbert for the family of murdered unarmed Black 137- bullets Cleveland police shooting victim Timothy Russel (pictured with beard)l, 43.
Gilbert represents the Russell, Smith and Ficker families.
The uncle and aunt of slain unarmed Black 137-bullets Cleveland police shooting victim Malissa Williams (pictured) also attended to say thanks to the community for its support.
Other speakers were Community Activists Kathy Wray Coleman, Mary Seawright, Nina McLellan, Dr. Stewart Robinson, Bettie Robinson and Gerald Henley.
On behalf of The Imperial Woman Coalition Coleman, who leads the group, presented a cadre of requests for support by the NAACP with Smith stating that "we have got to do something about this."
General requests by The Imperial Women Coalition and community activists for help by the national NAACP and the Cleveland Chapter NAACP are as follows: The need to address the absence of any Blacks on the law enforcement leadership team of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and for a new and diverse leadership team including a new chief of police; The need for a mechanism for monitoring the successes and failures of Black children in the absence of a Cleveland schools desegregation court order; The support from the Cleveland NAACP in requesting the firing of and felony murder charges against the group of Cleveland police officers, none of whom are Black, responsible for gunning down unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell with 137 bullets; The support from the Cleveland NAACP in requesting the firing of and felony charges against the Cleveland police officers responsible for gunning down Daniel Ficker and Kenneth Smith; The release of former Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven Terry from federal prison due in part to a sentencing disparity because he is Black; The support of area Black contractors for contracts, work and other amenities; An amendment of the state law (O.R.C. 2939.02) that permits common pleas judges to choose grand jury foremen and for the grand jury itself to choose, the latter of which is also permitted under the law; An amendment to the state law that gives welfare recipients, mainly poor women and children, three years for the subsidy when up to five years is permitted under federal law; The help for maliciously prosecuted Black woman Bettie Simpson, who was exonerated relative to bogus criminal charges pushed by the county prosecutor of mortgage fraud, and the release of her daughter from prison around the issue where her daughter was convicted of similar criminal charges; A moratorium on Cuyahoga County foreclosures and an investigation of the foreclosure process in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas and an amendment of the state law (O.R.C. 2329.17) that allows county sheriffs to appraise and sale foreclosed homes because they are illegally handing them to their friends and to mortgage companies and big banks for cheap with the amended state law precluding participation by the sheriff and appraisals based upon the last legal county appraisal for property tax purposes; The compliance by assistant county prosecutors in discontinuing the process of withholding discovery evidence against Black children prosecuted for alleged crimes in violation of federal law and the applicable rules of court; An investigation of the Cuyahoga County Department of Child and Family Services Department around the Emilliano Terry case where the murdered boy's 20 year old mother stands accused of his murder after her cries for help were ignored by the county agency; The compliance with the DeRolph decision handed down in 1997 by the Ohio Supreme Court that deemed Ohio's method of funding public education unconstitutional, or a sliding scale of student assessment by the Ohio Department of Education based upon how rich or how poor a school district might be; The support of a bill (Ohio House Bill 216) by state Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10) for Ohio trial court judges in multi-judge municipal and common pleas courts to at all times be assigned and reassigned to criminal and civil cases at random; A discussion with Cleveland NAACP officials and Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Chief Judge Nancy Fuerst as to a study commissioned by the group that shows that the 34 majority White judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas where felony criminal cases and other matters are heard give harsher sentences to Blacks than their similarly situated White counterparts; An amendment of state law (O.R.C. 2701.03) that gives the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court sole authority to decide if an Ohio trial common pleas court judge is removed from a case for bias or conflict and for the entire seven-member Ohio Supreme to decide; and, An amendment of state law (O.R.C. 2701.031) that gives the chief judge of the county common pleas court sole authority to decide if an Ohio municipal court is removed from a case for bias or conflict and for a panel of judges to decide coupled with the statutory right to appeal the decision to a state appellate court.
Community activists groups and/or their members that are participants as to the aforementioned include The Imperial Women, The Oppressed People's Nation, The African-American Museum, The Cleveland Black Contractors Association, The Urban Education Strategy Group, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Ohio Family Rights, The National Organization for Parental Equality, The Carl Stokes Brigade, Black on Black Crime Inc, The People's Forum, The Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, The Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Organize Ohio, The Family Connection Center, and The Cleveland Chapter of The New Black Panther Party.
