Bill Of Rights Defense Committee Field Organizer Meets With Grassroots Around Imperial Avenue Murders And Complaints Against Police And Courts
National Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Field Organizer George Friday
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog
A national field organizer sent in by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee met with
leaders and members of the Imperial Women, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Oppressed People's Nation and a host of other organizations on Saturday around the Imperial Avenue Murders and other concerns impacting the Black community.
About 40 people representing community grassroots factions, including the People's Forum, Black on Black Crime, Cleveland FIST, Worker's World and the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, listened attentively as George Friday, a nationally renowned field organizer, told the group of community activists that empowerment is key to community organizing and that the strength in fighting
community issues must come from the local level.
"You have the power," said Friday, who was in town that week to represent the Massachusetts based organization committed to restoring Civil Rights and demanding adherence to the Bill of Rights, which is the first 10 Amendments of the United States Constitution, including the free speech clause under the First Amendment.
"My role is not as an advocate but as a facilitator."
Also at the meeting was Cleveland Fifth District police officer Vince Schneider, who said he volunteered with the blessing of Chief of Police Michael McGraft to answer any questions from the community.
Schneider spoke about city policies as to police reports following questions raised about alleged police brutality against Black women and girls in Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood, which encompasses Ward's 10 and 11. He also pledged to take back the group's request for an audience with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, McGraft and Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask.
At issue, activists said, is neglect as to the release of serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell, who is accused of raping and murdering 11 Black women on Imperial Ave
in Cleveland's Mt. Pleasant area , six of whom were killed after he was released from custody in 2008 on an attempted rape complaint by Gladys Wade, who told CNN that police said his home had blood that lined the walls and "smelled of death."
Sowell is awaiting trial on numerous charges of aggravated murder, rape, and other charges.
"We want action," said Valerie Robinson, whose concerns followed complaints about the malicious prosecution by the City of Cleveland of Destini Bronaugh, a recent Collinwood High School graduate awaiting trial before Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough on misdemeanor charges of obstruction of official business and resisting arrest in alleged retaliation for participating in a student organized protest at Collinwood High School in May around school closings and the layoffs of hundreds of Cleveland schools teachers. Also discussed was the alleged malicious prosecution by county prosecutors of 24-year old college student Rebecca Whitby, who is accused of felony assault againt two White male Cleveland Fifth District police officers and a host of other charges following an internal complaint by the Whitby family that says that police beat her unnecessarily last year and called her a "nigger."
"The policeman that beat up my daughter was rehired after being fired for shooting
a 15 year-old Black male in the back and killing him," said Tina Bronaugh, Destini Bronaugh's mother.
Friday said that she would return Dec. 4 for either a meeting or rally and that she will chair a meeting on December 6 that Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller said he will attend.
Schneider, who is White, manage to escape criticism, even though he was not invited but was welcomed by the activists because he had taken the time to come to the meeting.
"He did a good job as a young officer, and we hope his bosses can be as sophisticated as he is," said Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women. This is about community building, which requires cooperation from all stakeholders. We demand the immediate dismissal of all charges against Rebecca Whitby and her mother as well as Destini Bronaugh. And we still seek support from the NAACP and we want a diversified top level law enforcement leadership team, given the unprecedented tragedy around the Imperial Avenue Murders and the obvious disenfranchisement of Black women."
Not all issues were limited to Black people.
"My daughter-n -law was raped and we cannot get help and she is White," said one Cleveland resident, who is also a member of the Imperial Women. And Betty Brown, who leads the organization dubbed the County Grand Jury.Org, told of her alleged mistreatment by the Lyndhurst Municipal Court at the hands of sitting judge Mary Kaye Bozza, who routinely hears criminal cases brought by the Mayfield Hts. Police Department where her husband is employed.
Coleman said she was relieved not to have been arrested with fake and illegal warrants issued by Keough in exchange for support by city officials and a handful of Black men for her recent win for a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, and in Berea Municipal Court, where she is being threatened for challenging in the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals alleged ongoing case fixing by the former and current Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. That activity, says Coleman, occurs where retired and former judges come to town to replace biased judges who recuse themselves in municipal court cases only to harass people subject to malicious prosecutions for political and racial reasons.
"I was relieved when Officer Schneider said that he came in support and perhaps the certain sell out Black leaders that are seeking to criminalize me illegally and for political and financial gain will realize that Judge Keough no longer needs them and Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown lost by 68 percent of the vote to Chief Justice Elect Maureen O'Connor in the November election," Coleman said.
Other matters raised at the meeting were the need for national support for innocent prisoners sentenced to life in connection with the 1993 riots at the prison in Lucasville, Oh. and for Joaquin Hicks , who was sentenced earlier this year to 61 years to life in prison by Cuyahoga Judge Daniel Gaul following a heated trial.
Hicks, 29, was accused of a robbery outside a downtown bar that left one man murdered and another recovering from a gun shot wound. His lawyers argued at trial that he was at home with family and unsuccessfully sought a mistrial on several grounds, including the claim that jurors were deliberating with the assistance of cell phone calls.
The case is currently on appeal.
Field Organizer George Friday
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog
A national field organizer sent in by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee met with
leaders and members of the Imperial Women, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Oppressed People's Nation and a host of other organizations on Saturday around the Imperial Avenue Murders and other concerns impacting the Black community.
About 40 people representing community grassroots factions, including the People's Forum, Black on Black Crime, Cleveland FIST, Worker's World and the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, listened attentively as George Friday, a nationally renowned field organizer, told the group of community activists that empowerment is key to community organizing and that the strength in fighting
community issues must come from the local level.
"You have the power," said Friday, who was in town that week to represent the Massachusetts based organization committed to restoring Civil Rights and demanding adherence to the Bill of Rights, which is the first 10 Amendments of the United States Constitution, including the free speech clause under the First Amendment.
"My role is not as an advocate but as a facilitator."
Also at the meeting was Cleveland Fifth District police officer Vince Schneider, who said he volunteered with the blessing of Chief of Police Michael McGraft to answer any questions from the community.
Schneider spoke about city policies as to police reports following questions raised about alleged police brutality against Black women and girls in Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood, which encompasses Ward's 10 and 11. He also pledged to take back the group's request for an audience with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, McGraft and Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask.
At issue, activists said, is neglect as to the release of serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell, who is accused of raping and murdering 11 Black women on Imperial Ave
in Cleveland's Mt. Pleasant area , six of whom were killed after he was released from custody in 2008 on an attempted rape complaint by Gladys Wade, who told CNN that police said his home had blood that lined the walls and "smelled of death."
Sowell is awaiting trial on numerous charges of aggravated murder, rape, and other charges.
"We want action," said Valerie Robinson, whose concerns followed complaints about the malicious prosecution by the City of Cleveland of Destini Bronaugh, a recent Collinwood High School graduate awaiting trial before Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough on misdemeanor charges of obstruction of official business and resisting arrest in alleged retaliation for participating in a student organized protest at Collinwood High School in May around school closings and the layoffs of hundreds of Cleveland schools teachers. Also discussed was the alleged malicious prosecution by county prosecutors of 24-year old college student Rebecca Whitby, who is accused of felony assault againt two White male Cleveland Fifth District police officers and a host of other charges following an internal complaint by the Whitby family that says that police beat her unnecessarily last year and called her a "nigger."
"The policeman that beat up my daughter was rehired after being fired for shooting
a 15 year-old Black male in the back and killing him," said Tina Bronaugh, Destini Bronaugh's mother.
Friday said that she would return Dec. 4 for either a meeting or rally and that she will chair a meeting on December 6 that Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller said he will attend.
Schneider, who is White, manage to escape criticism, even though he was not invited but was welcomed by the activists because he had taken the time to come to the meeting.
"He did a good job as a young officer, and we hope his bosses can be as sophisticated as he is," said Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women. This is about community building, which requires cooperation from all stakeholders. We demand the immediate dismissal of all charges against Rebecca Whitby and her mother as well as Destini Bronaugh. And we still seek support from the NAACP and we want a diversified top level law enforcement leadership team, given the unprecedented tragedy around the Imperial Avenue Murders and the obvious disenfranchisement of Black women."
Not all issues were limited to Black people.
"My daughter-n -law was raped and we cannot get help and she is White," said one Cleveland resident, who is also a member of the Imperial Women. And Betty Brown, who leads the organization dubbed the County Grand Jury.Org, told of her alleged mistreatment by the Lyndhurst Municipal Court at the hands of sitting judge Mary Kaye Bozza, who routinely hears criminal cases brought by the Mayfield Hts. Police Department where her husband is employed.
Coleman said she was relieved not to have been arrested with fake and illegal warrants issued by Keough in exchange for support by city officials and a handful of Black men for her recent win for a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, and in Berea Municipal Court, where she is being threatened for challenging in the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals alleged ongoing case fixing by the former and current Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. That activity, says Coleman, occurs where retired and former judges come to town to replace biased judges who recuse themselves in municipal court cases only to harass people subject to malicious prosecutions for political and racial reasons.
"I was relieved when Officer Schneider said that he came in support and perhaps the certain sell out Black leaders that are seeking to criminalize me illegally and for political and financial gain will realize that Judge Keough no longer needs them and Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown lost by 68 percent of the vote to Chief Justice Elect Maureen O'Connor in the November election," Coleman said.
Other matters raised at the meeting were the need for national support for innocent prisoners sentenced to life in connection with the 1993 riots at the prison in Lucasville, Oh. and for Joaquin Hicks , who was sentenced earlier this year to 61 years to life in prison by Cuyahoga Judge Daniel Gaul following a heated trial.
Hicks, 29, was accused of a robbery outside a downtown bar that left one man murdered and another recovering from a gun shot wound. His lawyers argued at trial that he was at home with family and unsuccessfully sought a mistrial on several grounds, including the claim that jurors were deliberating with the assistance of cell phone calls.
The case is currently on appeal.
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