Imperial Avenue Murders: Racist Cleveland Fox8 News television station covers Imperial Women Coalition's 6th anniversary rally of the Imperial Avenue Murders and said in news coverage later that day of October 29, 2015 that the three Democratic Black elected officials slated to speak along with others should not have been included, though the White news station supports White local elected officials that speak out for White women victimized by violence, including the Ariel Castro victims.... The Imperial Women Coalition, which Fox8 News credits for organizing the rally, disagrees as to the harassment of Black elected officials, and calls the gesture racist and politically motivated.... Activists say that White people in general want to silence Blacks that stand up against their ongoing oppression of Black women, and the Black community.... By Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news www.clevelandurbannews.com
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| Convicted serial killer and death row inmate Anthony Sowell, who strangled 11 Black women to death at his since demolished home in Cleveland, Ohio on the majority Black city's largely Black east side, and raped three other Black women. His convictions and death sentence are on appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court |
Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland Fox8 News, a Republican sponsored local television station with a national affiliate that is often called racist and politically biased by most Democratic Black elected officials and Black people in general, criticized community activists of the Imperial Women Coalition that sponsored the 6th Anniversary rally of the Imperial Avenue Murders on Thursday, Oct 29, and said in a news story published later that day that the three Democratic Black elected officials slated to speak at the annual event should not have been included. (Editors Note: The news director of Fox8 News in Cleveland is Andy Fisher, and the national Fox News television station sponsored the first Republican presidential debate held in Cleveland this summer. Other mainstream media at the anniversary rally where Cleveland News Channels 5, 3 and 19 Action News. and the Call and Post Newspaper, a Black Cleveland weekly).
But when rallies are held for non-Black victims of rape or murder by the Imperial Women Coalition, such as Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight, who were held captive for a decade and raped and tortured by Ariel Castro on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland at his since demolished home on the city's largely majority White west side, Fox8 News and the local mainstream media promote White elected officials to speak out without question, data show, (Editor's note; The Ariel Castro victims, whom activists still support, got more than a half of million dollars each for the torture while the families of the 11 murdered Black women got practically nothing).
Thursday's event, which drew some three families where some eight families of the 11 Black women murdered by Sowell on Imperial Avenue on the city's majority Black east side did not attend, also drew the Black community, and attention to the unprecedented murders. (Editor's note: Cleveland Urban News.Com was advised that most of the family members stayed home saying that city officials and corrupt judges have done them wrong, and that police and city officials allegedly wanted to use them to lure White cops to the rally to harass community activists).
"We are pleased that Fox8 News saw fit to credit the Imperial Women Coalition for the well-attended and peaceful rally, and we hope that Black elected officials, the families of the 11 Black women murdered on Imperial Avenue, and the Black community in general can come together with community activists and policy makers to deal with this epidemic of violence against women, Black women in particular" said Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads the Imperial Women Coalition and has been a key organizer of the annual anniversary rallies since 2010.
Coleman said also that Black elected officials draw the media and that the city has to first make the families whole and compensate them for pain and suffering as to documented police malfeasance and neglect relative to the murders for the community to move forward.
"In addition to bringing the media, Black politicians bring an ear, which is important to our cause of fighting violence against women," said activist Lavitta Murray, a member the Imperial Coalition and the leader of the activist group the Million Women March Cleveland. "Fox8 News is angry because most Black elected officials of Cuyahoga County are Democrats and are for the poor."
Murray said that Fox8 News and the mainstream media in general are themselves political, and that "White people want to silence Blacks that stand up against their ongoing oppression of Black women, and the Black community."
Eleven cops are accused of harassing Black women activists at the rally on Thursday.
Activists say that they were threatened by police and told they could only rally across the street, a 1st amendment violation, they said.
"The media were there to promote nothingness and to harass Black women activists that will not sellout, and we were harassed by police and Black preachers that appeared at the rally to stalk us, and who have no respect for Black women," said activist the Rev Pamela Pinkney-Butts. "
Sowell's convictions, including 11 counts of murder and three counts of rape relative to three other Black women, and his death sentence, are on appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court, and Sowell and his lawyers want a new trial.
Patmon, a Fox 8 News ally and Cleveland Democrat who has long supported the Imperial Women Coalition at nearly every rally, did not show, and Tarver, also a Cleveland Democrat who is up for reelection and a former Cleveland NAACP executive director once illegally strip searched by police who worked previously for the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, came to the rally but did not speak after activists suggested she lay low to avoid anticipated political harassment from Fox8 News
Mitchell did show, but was torn between standing up for the disenfranchised women activists that police tried to subordinate, and some self serving Black clergy sent by the mayor and police to quiet free speech.
But the Imperial Women Coalition said that they want Black elected officials there, whether they are running for election or not, and said that they welcome all elected officials and the entire community each year to the anniversary rally, particularly for necessary policy changes.
Judge Tarver, said Coleman, has fought for women as the former executive director of the Cleveland NAACP, and she worked at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center.
"We were honored that Judge Tarver agreed to speak," said Coleman
. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
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