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Cleveland City Council supports partnership with Cleveland Division of Police and U.S. Marshal Service to Combat heightened city crime.... Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

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CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland City Council learned earlier today of Operation 216, a planned partnership announced this afternoon between the Cleveland Division of Police and the U.S. Marshals Office to combat violent crime. The rise in violent crime this summer has unnerved many community members in the largely Black major American city of Cleveland.


Council President Blaine A. Griffin, an east side councilman,  said in a city council press release issued on Tuesday that he has confidence in U.S. Marshalsand  the city's police department and its leadership team under Police Chief Wayne Drummond and Mayor Justin M. Bibb.


, "I have a longstanding relationship with Chief Drummond and U.S. Marshal Elliot. I am confident they will build a comprehensive plan to apprehend the bad actors and that they will effectively get to the root of violent crime in our city. Clevelanders deserve safe neighborhoods. Safety is the top priority that our city can provide."

City Council Safety Committee Chair Mike Polensek, a Ward 8 councilman, and seasoned city lawmaker,  gave the following statement:


, "I thank the Cleveland Division of Police, US Marshal Pete Elliott, his team, and other law enforcement agencies who are involved in this initiative. I have been in contact with his office for months over the growing level of violence in this city. On July 27, I officially requested along with Council President that the US Marshals come to assist the Cleveland Division of Police in its efforts to combat the dramatic increases we have been experiencing in violent crimes and civil disobedience in our neighborhoods across the city. Again, we are thankful for their commitment and engagement to Cleveland. " (Click here to read Chair Polensek's letter to Marshal Elliot.)


Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog 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.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 August 2023 00:13

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news

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Former president Donald Trump indicted for a third time, pleads not guilty to all charges at arraignment....

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Former President Trump (pictured) was indicted on four counts Tuesday by a grand jury convened by special counsel Jack Smith over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He was arraigned in federal district court in Washington, D.C. on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog 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.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 August 2023 14:39

Black Cleveland activists say the city of Cleveland's prosecution of former Judge Pinkey Carr is selective and racist and demand that corrupt White judges are prosecuted.... By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

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Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in chief.....Investigative article below

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in chief.....Investigative article below

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Black Cleveland activists are calling out the city of Cleveland for bringing misdemeanor falsification charges against former Cleveland Judge Pinkey Carr, whom the Ohio Supreme court disbarred and removed from the bench last year, and leaving corrupt White judges alone

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"it is symptomatic of the prejudice we routinely see against Blacks in our courts, whether the people they are after are politicians or ordinary people." said activist Alfred Porter Jr of Black on Black Crime Inc and the Black Man's Army .


Porter said that activists want White crooked judges prosecuted too, or the charges against Carr dropped.


Porter added that "we do not intend to permit a double standard in Cleveland where Black judges are prosecuted and crooked White judges are allowed to continue to do as they please to the detriment of Black people."


Community activists want the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Marshals to investigate the municipal and common pleas courts of Cuyahoga County, courts they say "are as a whole plagued with systemic racism and sexism, and public corruption."


The Ohio Supreme Court decided 5-2 last year to indefinitely suspend Carr's law license of Carr, a serious action undertaken by the state's majority White and largely Republican high court that operated to immediately remove the Black judge from the largely Black 13-member municipal court bench.

On the bench since 2012 before her suspension, Carr, a former assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor who led the prosecution as to the convictions of the late serial killer Anthony Sowell, who strangled and murdered 11 Black women at his home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland on the city's east side and later died on death row, can apply to the court for reinstatement of her law license in two years. Her attorney had requested progressive discipline that would have permitted Carr to stay on the bench and told the court that her client began having issues only in the past two years and that she accepted responsibility for her behavior.


Sources also say that the decision to remove Carr from the bench was "racist and sexist, and politically motivated."


Similarly situated White and male judges, data show , were not treated as harshly by the office of disciplinary counsel for the Supreme Court, which recommended a two year suspension rather than an indefinite suspension. Few of the white judges who get in trouble are later prosecuted, research shows.


Carr is accused by the city of Cleveland of alleged falsification crimes, all misdemeanors, relative to three cases that form in part the basis for her suspension from the bench, though her supporters say racism is the impetus overall for the action..


In at least one case she is accused of dismissing the case without the signature of the prosecutor, something she denies Her arraignment in the falsification case is Aug 8.

In getting disbarred, Carr was accused of violating the ethical and other provisions of the Judicial Code of Conduct and the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility. In its 5-2 decision to strip Carr of her judgeship and law license, Republican Justices O'Connor and Fischer, and Justice Brunner, though a Democrat, voted to suspend her indefinitely as did the two stand-in judges for Democrats Johnb Donnelly and Melody Stewart, both former Cuyahoga County judges who recused themselves from the case for that reason, they claim.

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Justices DeWine and Kennedy, now the chief justice of the court, dissented with Kennedy writing  in her dissent that it was unfair to suspend Carr indefinitely based on the data before the court, and particularly since the office of disciplinary counsel for the court only recommended a two year suspension of her law license.

It is the second time the state's high court has suspended a Cleveland judge from the bench since the  removal in 2014 of former judge Angela Stokes, a daughter of the late 11th congressional district congressman Louis Stokes and a niece of former Cleveland mayor Carl B Stokes, a late Black mayor and a former Cleveland municipal court judge himself. But Angela Stokes, who is older than Carr, was allowed to continue practicing law, and to draw upon her retirement where applicable, and she was not prosecuted by the city of Cleveland.

Carr stood accused in several complaints before the bar in past years of issuing illegal capias warrants, which is routine for municipal and county judges, dismissing cases without the approval of city prosecutors, carrying on court when Cleveland Administrative and Presiding Judge Michelle Earley thought she had closed court due to the pandemic, and of mistreating and being rude to defendants and attorneys who came before her. Still, say her supporters, and on condition of anonymity, "she did what White and other judges traditionally do and her biggest problem was being strong, Black and female, and angering White men in power." Others say Carr's style was harsh at times and that she was abrasive and sometimes had a prosecutorial demeanor, and that O'Connor, the court's second female chief justice, is fed up with out-of-control judges.

The job of judge, whether a municipal or common pleas judge of Cuyahoga County, is no easy task as judges must juggle crowded case dockets, limited resources, unruly defendants who will literally curse you out, as well as anxious and sometimes arrogant criminal defense attorneys. Some of the judges are corrupt and unfair, data show, two of them formerly on the general division common pleas bench imprisoned and kicked off the bench via an ongoing county public corruption probe.

Carr had drawn the ire of Cleveland's mainstream media, which is routine when complaints are leveled against Black judges by  prominent White men This time those of prominence who lodged complaints against her include then Chief Cuyahoga County Public Defender Mark Stanton,  who has since retired, and well-known criminal defense attorney Ian Friedman, the former president of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association.

White male judges brought up on disciplinary charges like Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul, a judge who regularly hands Blacks excessive sentences, breaks the rues and often loses on appeal for murder convictions  of Blacks that occur following suspect activity at trial in his courtroom, get off easy they are rarely even disciplined research shows.

A since removed Bedford Municipal Court judge, convicted Harry Jacob,  who allegedly pimped women in his court, ran an outright brothel, and falsified court dockets and documents, and even after criminal convictions of crimes in office, still has his law license, compliments of the Ohio Supreme Court.  Moreover, an investigation  by Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com also reveals that Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell has stolen homes for JPMorgan Chase Bank from Blacks in illegal foreclosure cases before him coupled with using his power and influence to have Blacks who complained maliciously prosecuted and stalked by police at their homes and otherwise, police routinely breaking into their homes and stealing personal property include high- priced cars.

A  Democrat and three time loser as to three unsuccessful bids for a Supreme Court seat O'Donnell, however, like Gaul, remains free of any discipline from the state's highest court. And there are so many more White judges, both men and women alike, who do as they please in Ohio without consequences, and to the detriment of so many innocent and poor Black people, and others.

Municipal court judges in Ohio handle cases bound over to the common pleas court for possible felony indictments and cases involving traffic, non-traffic misdemeanors, evictions and small civil claims (in which the amount in controversy does not exceed $15,000.).


Cleveland is a largely Black major American city of some 372,000 people and a Democratic stronghold It is the largest city in Cuyahoga County, a 29 percent Black county, and also a Democratic stronghold.Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog 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.

Last Updated on Thursday, 03 August 2023 21:07

Booker, Padilla and Shontel Brown introduce congressional resolution declaring racism a public health crisis nationally.... By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH),  and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) have reintroduced a Senate Resolution to declare racism a public health crisis nationally. Brown first introduced the legislation in July 2020, and reintroduced it again in April 2021 and December 2022.


“This resolution is an important step toward recognizing the racial disparities in healthcare that have existed for far too long, while also outlining concrete action we can take now to help reverse them,” said Rep Brown. a greater Cleveland Democrat out of Warrensville Hts., Ohio and one of three Blacks in Congress from Ohio, all of them women. “Your background or the color of your skin shouldn’t determine whether you get quality, respectful care, or whether your air and water are clean, or whether there’s a good hospital nearby. This declaration will help to lay the foundation for change, so that all Americans can live longer, healthier lives.”


“Across the United States, communities of color continue to be disproportionately affected by negative health outcomes, from chronic diseases to maternal and infant mortality,” said Senator Booker. “These health inequities stem from years of discriminatory policies that have disenfranchised, neglected, and disrespected Black, Indigenous, AAPI, and other communities of color. Declaring racism a public health crisis is a small, but vital, step toward raising awareness around the racial health disparities in our country and addressing the systemic inequities affecting communities of color.”


“Over generations, racism and its compounding impacts have harmed the health and well-being of communities of color across America,” said Senator Padilla. “Our resolution declaring that racism is a public health crisis is a first step toward bringing more attention to these deep-rooted inequities but there is much more work to be done. This resolution must serve as a catalyst in the urgent need to address these disparities and deliver justice for millions of Americans.”


“For America to reach its full potential we must address the underlying racial injustices that remain deeply embedded in our nation, deepening wounds that have yet to be addressed,” said YWCA USA CEO, Margaret Mitchell. “The introduction of the resolution declaring racism a public health crisis lays the groundwork to continue building a more equitable future for people of color. YWCA applauds the introduction of this critical resolution and looks forward to working with Members of Congress to advance a public health approach that can effectively disrupt and end racial injustice in our communities.”


The resolution acknowledges the history of racism and discrimination within health care and the systemic barriers that people of color continue to face when seeking care. The resolution also highlights the effects of systemic racism on the health and wellness of communities of color, resulting in shorter life expectancy, worsened health outcomes, and enhanced exposure to harmful or dangerous environments. This resolution encourages concrete action to address health disparities and inequity across all sectors in society.

In addition to Brown, Booker, and Padilla, the resolution was cosponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tina Smith (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tom Carper (D-DE), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).


Full text of the resolution is available HERE.

A full list of Supporting Organizations is available HERE.


Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog 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.

Last Updated on Sunday, 30 July 2023 17:37

Ohio Senator Nickie Antonio commends women's rights activists in Ohio for getting abortion on the November ballot.... By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Today, Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio  (pictured)(D-Lakewood) issued a keen statement after Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, her public policy nemesis among some other anti-abortion Republicans in Ohio, announced that a proposed amendment to codify abortion access in the state constitution has enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

"I applaud the dedicated citizens who tirelessly gathered signatures to place this proposed amendment on the November ballot," said Sen.Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat whose 23rd state Senate district of Ohio also includes 14 of Cleveland's 17 wards."This is a critical step in ensuring that every individual can make personal healthcare decisions without government interference. The hard work and determination of Ohio citizens have made this important milestone possible. Today, the results of their efforts showcase the power of grassroots perseverance and the collective voice of Ohioans standing up for reproductive rights and justice."

Secretary of State LaRose on Tuesday certified petitions for a ballot initiative in November in Ohio where voters will determine whether to enshrine the legal right to an abortion in the Ohio Constitution. a controversial issued that has upset grassroots community activists and rocked political circles in Ohio.

Ohio advocates for reproductive rights and abortion access made their last big push collecting petition signatures late last month and by the July 5 deadline . The coalition, which includes an array of groups, including local Black and other seasoned activist groups and organizers  in Cleveland that have pushed for reproductive rights for women for years,  turned in  some 710,000  signatures-by the July 5 deadline, more than double the roughly 313,000 signatures needed to place the abortion rights issue before voters via the Nov. 7 general election.The campaign needed 495,938 total valid signatures from 55 counties to qualify for the November ballot.

Republicans have placed a ballot initiative before voters for an Aug. 8 special election dubbed State Issue 1 It asks voters to raise the threshold for future constitutional amendments from a simple majority to a super-majority, or 60 percent of voters, an effort, say abortion supporters, to derail their abortion ballot initiative for this fall.

Many who want to pass the constitutional amendments change say a special August election is necessary to prevent out-of-state, special interest groups from amending Ohio’s constitution Opponents of Issue 1., mostly abortion rights advocates, call the assertion political bull designed to further disenfranchise women in Ohio and to strip voters of one person-one vote.  But it has also become a tug-of-war between Republicans and Democrats from the White House on down, and Ohio, once a pivotal state that has turned red in recent years, is center-stage.

Last year, on June 24, 2022, the nation's high court ended access to abortion for women nationwide and gave individual states the authority to legislate abortion, including to restrict or outright outlaw the procedure all together, causing a firestorm of protests throughout the country.

A key organizer of Women's March Cleveland since 2018, Cleveland activist Kathy Wray Coleman said that "the unconstitutional denial of abortion access to women in Ohio will disproportionately impact poor women, Black women and other women of color  and that Women's March Cleveland has other rallies and marches planned this fall to rally the community in support of their plight as Republicans like Secretary of State LaRose argue that putting abortion on the ballot in November is 'radical."  Coleman said that Secretary of State LaRose "is obviously no rose and is a thorn in the side to us as we  seek abortion access and equality across the board for women in Ohio, including Black women, poor women and other women of color.'' She called LaRose an "opportunist whose day of political reckoning for his sins against women in Ohio is approaching.

Ohio will become the seventh state in the country to vote on abortion rights behind Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, Vermont, Montana and California. All those states had either proposals that enshrined the right to an abortion, or allowed the state to regulate abortion.

More than 14 states have near-total abortion bans during any point in pregnancy in effect, and at least six states have implemented abortions bans with other limits from six to 20 weeks bans. Abortion remains legal in Ohio up to 22 weeks, notwithstanding a six-week abortion ban dubbed "the heartbeat bill" that is on hold per a judge's ruling as the issue makes its way through the courts.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog 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.

 

Last Updated on Friday, 04 August 2023 21:07

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