Sharpton to Visit Cleveland Around Allegations Of Police Negligence Of Imperial Ave. Murders, Rep To Join Protest at 6pm Nov. 24 On Imperial Ave.
The Rev. Al Sharpton 
Posted Monday, November 23, 2009
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
By Kathy Wray Coleman
(Editor of The Determiner Weekly.Com and The
Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network)
The Rev. Al Sharpton, leader of the grassroots Civil Rights organization The National Action Network, announced publicly today that he is coming to Cleveland, Oh. relative to claims of police negligence around the murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Avenue in the predominantly Black major metropolitan city, allegedly at the hands of Anthony Sowell, 50, a convicted sex offender.
“Yeah, I'm coming to Cleveland,” said Sharpton from Atlanta Ga., where he led a national protest on urban violence with the support of NAN officials, who led similar protests around the country, including Richard D. Jones, the local representative for Cleveland. “I am ready to come to hear more about what this man was able to get away with police. Again, this is the devaluing of lives.”
Standing on Imperial Ave. with a small group of supporters Jones told Sharpton on national radio through a local broadcast on Cleveland's WERE 1490 Radio One station that Cleveland is in trouble and that residents need leadership in the community.
“This community is in trouble and I do not know how long it will last,” said Jones. “We don't value Black women and this has got to stop. It is wrong.”
The Sowell saga unraveled Nov. 1 after authorities announced that the bodies of several women, all Black, were found in and around a home on Imperial Ave., then occupied by Sowell, who is now in police custody on various charges including aggravated murder, felonious assault, rape and kidnapping. To date 11 bodies have been found, 10 identified by Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller, according to spokesman Powell Caesar.
Community outrage is brewing after reports surfaced accusing police and city prosecutors of branding a Black woman not credible who alleged that Sowell attempted to rape her in 2008 where five of the murdered women went missing thereafter. Those reports also say that Cleveland Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez and Law Director Robert Triozzi, who doubles as chief prosecutor and law director for the impoverished city, had evidence of blood and a struggle at the scene of an investigation of Sowell's home in 2008, but neither pursued criminal charges in spite of what some believe was a clear threshold of probable cause necessary to charge him. Instead, he was released without charges.
Perez and Triozzi, neither of whom is Black, have also come under fire for maliciously prosecuting Black women in cases of alleged resisting arrest without any accusation of record or testimony from the arresting police officer, causing some to question how they can allegedly embrace an alleged serial murderer while harassing Black women in the same vain.
Grassroots organizations will protest tomorrow at 6 pm on the now infamous Imperial Ave. to call for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to fire the duo. The protesters are also demanding that no alleged rape victim be deemed not credible, and a review of all rape reports and evidence to police and city prosecutors over the past 10 years for analysis of not credible findings based on race, age and gender.
“We look forward to tomorrow's protest and we will not go away until we get justice for the Black women murdered on Imperial Ave, including the five that went missing after city prosecutors ignored evidence to charge Sowell in 2008, said Patricia Rowell, 21, a member of a recently fomed but diverse group of Cleveland area women dubbed “Imperial Women,” who will lead Tuesday's protest.
The Rev. Deves Toon, national field director for NAN, said that Jones will participate in Tuesday's protest on Sharpton's behalf.
"He will be there," Toon told a leader of the "Imperial Women."
In addition to Jones and Rowell speakers for the rally include James Avery, Kathy Wray Coleman, Don Bryant, Sharon Danann, the Rev. Dr. LaDonna Blalock Ernest Smith and Willie Stokes.
Posted Monday, November 23, 2009
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
By Kathy Wray Coleman
(Editor of The Determiner Weekly.Com and The
Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network)
The Rev. Al Sharpton, leader of the grassroots Civil Rights organization The National Action Network, announced publicly today that he is coming to Cleveland, Oh. relative to claims of police negligence around the murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Avenue in the predominantly Black major metropolitan city, allegedly at the hands of Anthony Sowell, 50, a convicted sex offender.
“Yeah, I'm coming to Cleveland,” said Sharpton from Atlanta Ga., where he led a national protest on urban violence with the support of NAN officials, who led similar protests around the country, including Richard D. Jones, the local representative for Cleveland. “I am ready to come to hear more about what this man was able to get away with police. Again, this is the devaluing of lives.”
Standing on Imperial Ave. with a small group of supporters Jones told Sharpton on national radio through a local broadcast on Cleveland's WERE 1490 Radio One station that Cleveland is in trouble and that residents need leadership in the community.
“This community is in trouble and I do not know how long it will last,” said Jones. “We don't value Black women and this has got to stop. It is wrong.”
The Sowell saga unraveled Nov. 1 after authorities announced that the bodies of several women, all Black, were found in and around a home on Imperial Ave., then occupied by Sowell, who is now in police custody on various charges including aggravated murder, felonious assault, rape and kidnapping. To date 11 bodies have been found, 10 identified by Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller, according to spokesman Powell Caesar.
Community outrage is brewing after reports surfaced accusing police and city prosecutors of branding a Black woman not credible who alleged that Sowell attempted to rape her in 2008 where five of the murdered women went missing thereafter. Those reports also say that Cleveland Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez and Law Director Robert Triozzi, who doubles as chief prosecutor and law director for the impoverished city, had evidence of blood and a struggle at the scene of an investigation of Sowell's home in 2008, but neither pursued criminal charges in spite of what some believe was a clear threshold of probable cause necessary to charge him. Instead, he was released without charges.
Perez and Triozzi, neither of whom is Black, have also come under fire for maliciously prosecuting Black women in cases of alleged resisting arrest without any accusation of record or testimony from the arresting police officer, causing some to question how they can allegedly embrace an alleged serial murderer while harassing Black women in the same vain.
Grassroots organizations will protest tomorrow at 6 pm on the now infamous Imperial Ave. to call for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to fire the duo. The protesters are also demanding that no alleged rape victim be deemed not credible, and a review of all rape reports and evidence to police and city prosecutors over the past 10 years for analysis of not credible findings based on race, age and gender.
“We look forward to tomorrow's protest and we will not go away until we get justice for the Black women murdered on Imperial Ave, including the five that went missing after city prosecutors ignored evidence to charge Sowell in 2008, said Patricia Rowell, 21, a member of a recently fomed but diverse group of Cleveland area women dubbed “Imperial Women,” who will lead Tuesday's protest.
The Rev. Deves Toon, national field director for NAN, said that Jones will participate in Tuesday's protest on Sharpton's behalf.
"He will be there," Toon told a leader of the "Imperial Women."
In addition to Jones and Rowell speakers for the rally include James Avery, Kathy Wray Coleman, Don Bryant, Sharon Danann, the Rev. Dr. LaDonna Blalock Ernest Smith and Willie Stokes.
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