Criminal Defense and Civil Rights Attorney Terry Gilbert, who represents the estate of 137 bullets shooting victim Timothy Ray Russell, to headline community forum at 5 pm at Lil Africa in Cleveland on Thursday Feb. 21 on Cleveland police shootings, and on Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath, forum to be moderated by Minister Robert "Brother Bob" Saffold, Councilman T.J. Dow to speak,... Gilbert says "McGrath is in a dream world if he believes that there are no systemic problems in the Cleveland Police Department," ...community activists to discuss 137 bullets deadly shooting by Cleveland police of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Ray Russell and will vote on whether they support McGrath, and on whether systemic problems exist in police department, will discuss how high unemployment contributes to crime, and police negligence around the Imperial Avenue Murders, ...community activists, Black contractors group, Black elected officials to speak, ....activists to remember Cleveland police deadly shooting victims Brandon McCloud, Michael Pipkins, Kenneth Smith and Daniel Ficker, ....activists, community to push Petition for Redress on deadly police shootings and other cases involving alleged police misconduct, .....activists to also discuss Rebecca Whitby nigger name calling incident by Cleveland police and the Bronaugh sisters, two Black Cleveland Collinwood High School teens arrested, jailed, and maliciously prosecuted for protesting teacher layoffs and school closings, .....sponsoring groups include Cleveland Urban News.Com, Lil Africa, The Cleveland African-American Museum, The Imperial Women, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Organize Ohio, Ohio Family Rights, The Oppressed People's Nation, Black on Black Crime Inc., The National Association for Parental Equality, The Black Contractors Association, Revolution Books, The Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, The Urban Education Strategy Group, The Family Connection Center, The Carl Stokes Brigade, The Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, .....activists want Congressional hearing on deadly shootings by Cleveland police
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| Cleveland Criminal Defense Attorney Terry Gilbert, who represents the estate of 137 bullets Cleveland police shooting victim Timothy Ray Russell and will headline a community forum on Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath and deadly police shootings in Cleveland on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 5 pm at Lil Africa in Cleveland, 6816 Superior Ave."When Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath says that there are no systemic problems in the Cleveland Police Department he is in a dream world," said Gilbert. Read the entire article below. |
Minister Robert "Brother Bob" Saffold, who will moderate a community forum on Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath and deadly police shootings in Cleveland on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 5 pm at Lil Africa in Cleveland, 6816 Superior Ave.
137 Bullets Cleveland Police Shooting Victim Malissa Williams
137 Bullets Cleveland Police Shooting Victim Timothy Ray Russell
CLEVELAND,Ohio- Cleveland Urban News.Com News Brief www.clevelandurbannews.com, and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com By Kathy Wray Coleman, publisher, editor-in-chief
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| Cleveland Ward 7 Councilman T.J. Dow, who will do the welcome and give remarks at a community forum in Cleveland Ward 7 on Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath and deadly police shootings in Cleveland on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 5 pm at Lil Africa in Cleveland, 6816 Superior Ave. |
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Minister Robert "Brother Bob" Saffold, overseer of the Nazareth Missions Inc, will moderate a community forum headlined by Famed Ohio Criminal Defense Attorney Terry Gilbert at 5 pm on Thursday, Feb 21 at Lil Africa in Cleveland, 6816 Superior Ave, for community activists groups and other community members to discuss Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath and deadly police shootings in the wake of the deadly 137 bullets police shooting last year of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell. (Editor's note: Community activists have repeatedly called for felony murder charges against the group of Cleveland police officers that gunned down Williams and Russell late last year following a police chase from Cleveland to the neighboring majority Black impoverished suburb of East Cleveland. Both were gunned down gangsta- style with 134 rounds of ammunition and with one cop literally standing a top Russell's 1979 Chevrolet Malibu and shooting 48 rounds through the front windshield).
Councilman T. J. Dow will introduce Brother Bob and will give the welcome since the forum is in his Cleveland Ward 7. For more info and to speak at the open meeting call The Imperial Women at 216-659-0473 or by email at editor@clevelanddurbannews.com, or call Brother Bob Saffold at 216-333-7299, or reach him by email at garth_saffold@att.net.
Ohio State Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10) said that he will speak at the event.
Ohio State Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10) said that he will speak at the event.
Activists will also talk about other tragic police shootings of greater Cleveland.
Activists said that they will vote at the forum on whether there are systemic problems in the Cleveland Police Department, a controversial subject, though data show repeatedly that there has been dissension between police and the Black community for years. This data is more notably reflected relative high profile cases such as the police killing of Michael Pipkins in 1992, the killing of unarmed Black teen Brandon McCloud , who was shot by Cleveland police some 12 times in 2005 when they entered his home with a warrant over an alleged altercation with a pizza man, and the Imperial Avenue Murders that saw 11 Black women raped and murdered on Cleveland's largely Black east side by since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell.
Sowell, 52, was captured and released from police custody in 2008 only to thereafter rape and murder the last six of his 11 dismembered victims. He was recaptured a year later and convicted in 2011 of 82 of 83 counts, including multiple counts of aggravated murder. The former marine now sits on death row while his convictions are on appeal.
Other high profile cases include a 27-year Parma , Ohio man and father of two named Daniel Ficker who was gunned down at his Parma home in 2011 when two Second District Cleveland police officers left Cleveland and drove to Parma and waited outside of Ficker's home claiming he allegedly stole some jewelry at a Cleveland house party earlier that day that was never found, Gilbert said.
The unarmed Ficker was White, a rare but also important case where data show that most Cleveland police shooting and police brutality victims are Black, and a disproportionate number of them are Black males. Another case is that of then 20-year-old aspiring rapper Kenneth Smith, Gilbert said, whom Cleveland police allegedly stopped while he was driving his car in downtown Cleveland, snatched out of the car and shot in the head with three witnesses watching in shock. Cleveland police claim that Smith might have fired a gun into the air after leaving a Cleveland night club earlier the night of the shooting.
Activists will also discuss the Rebecca Whitby case , a 20-year-old Collinwood neighborhood woman arrested, jailed , maliciously prosecuted and beaten and called nigger by Cleveland fifth police in 2010 around a family quarrel, and the Bronaugh sisters case, then Collinwood High School students arrested at the school by Cleveland police in 2010, jailed, and maliciously prosecuted for protesting school closings and teacher layoffs . (Editor's Note: The Bronaugh sisters were both exonerated with both malicious criminal cases ultimately dismissed).
"The purpose of the meeting is to give the community a forum and then take a vote on the police chief," said Saffold, whom activists chose to moderate the event because he is also a community activist and is not a Black elected official that can be more easily targeted by the establishment for standing up for the community on issues of pertinent public concern.
Saffold said that the forum will be fair, that it is open to the public, and that it will give the community an opportunity to voice concerns that other groups would not provide on whether McGrath is still suited to run the Cleveland Police Department, which is less that 26 percent Black, and whether systemic problems are rampant in the Cleveland Police Department to the detriment of the greater Cleveland community.
Community Activist Genevieve Mitchell , who is also a member of the Cleveland NAACP legal redress committee, will read a petition for redress of grievances around the deadly shootings of Williams and Russell that took place the night of Nov 29., 2012.
Williams and Russell were gunned down following a police chase from the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in Cleveland that went on for some 23 minutes until a group of Cleveland police officers, 13 White and 1 Hispanic, finally cornered the car near a middle school in East Cleveland and shot at it 137 times.
The petition, said Mitchell, also deals with a host of other area deadly police shootings, and seeks intervention by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Community activists also want a Congressional hearing around the unprecedented murders of Williams, 30, and Russell, 43, both of whom died at the scene of the crime, and relative to other deadly shootings by Cleveland police.
Other speakers for the open community forum include members of the family of the shooting victims and others victimized by Cleveland police, Black Contractors Association Leader Ken Bender, Peace in the Hood Leader Khalid Samad, Black on Black Crime Vice President Al Porter, Revolution Books Representative Bill Swain, Carl Stokes Brigade President David Patterson, Imperial Women Leader Kathy Wray Coleman, Oppressed People's Nation Leader Ernie Smith, Ohio Family Rights Leader Roz McAllister, Family Connection Center Leader Prisscilla Cooper, Cleveland African-American Executive Director Frances Caldwell, Community Activist Willie Stokes, Entrepreneur Michael Nelson, Urban Education Strategy Group Leader Gerald Henley, and Stop Targeting Ohio Poor Leaders Dr Stuart Robinson and Valerie Robinson.
A community discussion will also occur at the open-to-the-public event.
Bender, who says Black contractors of greater Cleveland are continually disenfranchised and denied contracts and employment on lucrative contracts such as the Cleveland Horseshoe Casino and the upcoming Medical Mart, said that he will talk about the relationship to high unemployment and crime in largely Black major American cities.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473.
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