Imperial Women, Peace in the Hood, The New Black Panther Party And Others Call For Mayor To Fire Police Chief, Law Director And Chief Prosecutor
Cleveland, Ohio Mayor Frank G. Jackson
Protesters Rally With The Imperial Women Seeking The Firings Of Cleveland Chief Of Police Michael Mcgrath, Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez And Law Director Robert Triozzi Around The Imperial Ave. Murders
Posted Thursday, November 26, 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 newly formed Imperial Women's group, along with Peace in the Hood, The People's Forum, The Cleveland Chapter of The New Black Panther Party, The Carl Stokes Brigade, The Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, and The Divine Victory MGO, rallied on Imperial Ave. Tuesday night in Cleveland, Oh. And did they rally.
Flanked by media such as Cleveland news channels 3, 8 and 5, the groups called for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to fire Cleveland Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez, Law Director Robert Triozzi, and Chief of Police Michael Mcgrath, whom they want replaced with former acting police chief Mary Bounds. The more than 70 protesters also demand a review of all complaints of sexual assault filed with the city over the past 10 years and an analysis of those deemed not credible by race, age and gender. None of the men of whom resignations are sought is Black, though Cleveland is 57 percent Black and majority female.
“We want Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez, Law Director Robert Triozzi and Chief of Police Michael Mcgrath fired”, said a member of The Imperial Women, a diverse women's group that was recently formed around the unprecedented murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave, allegedly at the hands of Anthony Sowell, a convicted sex offender now in custody on charges of kidnapping, rape, assault, and 11 counts of murder.
Sharon Danann, an organizer of The Imperial Women, made it clear that the women's group that has stepped to the plate to seek justice for the 11 women murdered that the group has dubbed “ The Imperial Eleven” will not be moved until justice prevails.
“We will take to the streets if we don't get justice,” she said, shortly before the protesters marched down Imperial Ave. chanting “We are family, I got all my sisters with me.”
The justice at issue pertains to the failure by Triozzi and Perez to prosecute Sowell in 2008 on behalf of the city following a complaint of attempted rape by a Black woman, and after finding blood and evidence of a struggle around her complaint at the scene of Sowell's Imperial Ave. home where the bodies of the 11 women where found earlier this month. City officials claim they lacked evidence and witnesses, claims that grassroots and Civil Rights organizations dispute, particularly since the duo had a Black female journalist maliciously prosecuted in May of this year on an erroneous charge of resisting arrest, even though sole White male arresting deputy sheriff Gerald Pace did not accuse her of it or testify at trial or otherwise. They claim further that Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough railroaded the illegal resisting arrest conviction by illegally manipulating jurors and that her alleged biased and prejudice have been erroneously upheld by Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell, who has since been replaced by Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst as the administrative judge of that court.
At Tuesday's protest Black men stood tall in calling for the firings of those in the law enforcement arena responsible for not prosecuting Sowell in 2008.
“We want all of them fired,” said Khalid Samad, a longtime community activist and founder of Peace in the Hood, an organization that, among other issues, addresses police brutality and the disenfranchisement of the Black community. Samad wants the chief of police, law director, chief prosecutor and Safety Director Martin Flask fired. His sentiments were echoed at the rally by Abdul Qahhar, the chairperson of Cleveland Chapter of The New Black Panther Party.
The Imperial Women also plan to lobby Congress to pass legislation that calls for more information to the community around sex offenders such as Sowell and sensitivity to women that complain to authorities of alleged rape, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation.
Protesters said that they will rally again if Jackson fails to heed to their demands.
Protesters Rally With The Imperial Women Seeking The Firings Of Cleveland Chief Of Police Michael Mcgrath, Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez And Law Director Robert Triozzi Around The Imperial Ave. Murders
Posted Thursday, November 26, 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 newly formed Imperial Women's group, along with Peace in the Hood, The People's Forum, The Cleveland Chapter of The New Black Panther Party, The Carl Stokes Brigade, The Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, and The Divine Victory MGO, rallied on Imperial Ave. Tuesday night in Cleveland, Oh. And did they rally.
Flanked by media such as Cleveland news channels 3, 8 and 5, the groups called for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to fire Cleveland Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez, Law Director Robert Triozzi, and Chief of Police Michael Mcgrath, whom they want replaced with former acting police chief Mary Bounds. The more than 70 protesters also demand a review of all complaints of sexual assault filed with the city over the past 10 years and an analysis of those deemed not credible by race, age and gender. None of the men of whom resignations are sought is Black, though Cleveland is 57 percent Black and majority female.
“We want Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez, Law Director Robert Triozzi and Chief of Police Michael Mcgrath fired”, said a member of The Imperial Women, a diverse women's group that was recently formed around the unprecedented murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave, allegedly at the hands of Anthony Sowell, a convicted sex offender now in custody on charges of kidnapping, rape, assault, and 11 counts of murder.
Sharon Danann, an organizer of The Imperial Women, made it clear that the women's group that has stepped to the plate to seek justice for the 11 women murdered that the group has dubbed “ The Imperial Eleven” will not be moved until justice prevails.
“We will take to the streets if we don't get justice,” she said, shortly before the protesters marched down Imperial Ave. chanting “We are family, I got all my sisters with me.”
The justice at issue pertains to the failure by Triozzi and Perez to prosecute Sowell in 2008 on behalf of the city following a complaint of attempted rape by a Black woman, and after finding blood and evidence of a struggle around her complaint at the scene of Sowell's Imperial Ave. home where the bodies of the 11 women where found earlier this month. City officials claim they lacked evidence and witnesses, claims that grassroots and Civil Rights organizations dispute, particularly since the duo had a Black female journalist maliciously prosecuted in May of this year on an erroneous charge of resisting arrest, even though sole White male arresting deputy sheriff Gerald Pace did not accuse her of it or testify at trial or otherwise. They claim further that Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough railroaded the illegal resisting arrest conviction by illegally manipulating jurors and that her alleged biased and prejudice have been erroneously upheld by Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell, who has since been replaced by Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst as the administrative judge of that court.
At Tuesday's protest Black men stood tall in calling for the firings of those in the law enforcement arena responsible for not prosecuting Sowell in 2008.
“We want all of them fired,” said Khalid Samad, a longtime community activist and founder of Peace in the Hood, an organization that, among other issues, addresses police brutality and the disenfranchisement of the Black community. Samad wants the chief of police, law director, chief prosecutor and Safety Director Martin Flask fired. His sentiments were echoed at the rally by Abdul Qahhar, the chairperson of Cleveland Chapter of The New Black Panther Party.
The Imperial Women also plan to lobby Congress to pass legislation that calls for more information to the community around sex offenders such as Sowell and sensitivity to women that complain to authorities of alleged rape, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation.
Protesters said that they will rally again if Jackson fails to heed to their demands.
