Cleveland City Council Passes Resolution Supporting Crime Bill That Would Give Felons, Their Families Compensation As Victims Of Crime
Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson
Ohio State Rep Bill Patmon (D-10)
Cleveland Ward 7 Councilman TJ Dow
Ohio State Rep. John Barnes Jr. (D-12)
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
Cleveland Criminal Defense Attorney Terry Gilbert
Cleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committeeman John Boyd
Community Activist Art McKoy
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com and www.determinerweekly.com)
The Imperial Avenue Murders have prompted Cleveland City Council to pass a resolution in support of a crime bill drafted by State Rep Bill Patmon (D-10) that would amend a state law to eliminate a stipulation that denies crime victims and their family members reparations if the victims have been convicted of a felony within the last 10 years.
The reparations come from Ohio's Crime Victims Compensation Fund and provide up to $50 thousand for things such as counseling and even funeral expenses for crime victims families to bury them. But the state funded venue has recently come under fire as a safe heaven for the state's elite thorough limitations that some say disenfranchise Blacks, other minorities and poor people who traditionally lack the resources to fight unconstitutional prosecutions or to hire big time lawyers to get felony charges reduced to misdemeanors.
Sponsored by Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson and co-sponsored by Ward 7 Councilman T J Dow, the resolution passed 18 to 1 Monday night with Council President Martin Sweeney casting the lone dissenting vote.
"It passed,” said an enthusiastic Johnson, who had lobbied his fellow council members for the resolution.
A former Cleveland councilman himself who ran two times for Cleveland mayor and was the 2009 run-off candidate against Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Patmon said that the provision in the current law that denies compensation to the families of crime victims and to the victims themselves for felonies was put in place by state legislators during the mob wars that were prevalent in the 1970's so that the families of mobsters could not benefit from mob crimes. The Cleveland Democrat said that to become law his bill would have to make it out of committee, be passed by both the Republican led Ohio House and Senate, and escape any potetial veto by Ohio Rebublican Gov. John Kasich, a staunch conservative.
“We will need the Imperial Women to testify before legislators after the bill is introduced,” said Patmon, on hand at the council meeting on Monday too, along with a broad base of some 50 community activists such as Valerie and Stewart Robinson, Carol Fisher, Bill Swain, Carl Newman-Bey and Frances Caldwell, also director of Cleveland's African-American Museum. The mother of Imperial Ave Murder victim Tishana Culver was also in attendance and spoke to city council prior to the passage of the resolution.
Sweeney did not return phone calls seeking comment on why he voted against a resoution supporting a bill designed to level the playing field for Blacks and others, including community activists illegally sanctioned with felonies for speaking out on issues of public concern.
Cleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committeeman John Boyd, who ran unsuccessfully for city council in 2009, was outraged by Sweeney's lone refusal to support the resolution.
“Martin Sweeney has in my mind demonstrated repeatedly that he has no respect for Black people or the Black community,” said Boyd. “How can anybody in good conscience oppose something that is so morally right?”
Maureen Harper, a spokesperson for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, said the mayor supports the crime bill.
“The mayor signed the resolution and supports the bill,” said Harper.
Patmon said he decided to draft the bill after reading a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, where the families of 4 of the 11 women whose remains were found in 2009 at the home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell were denied compensation because the women had felony convictions.
State Rep John Barnes Jr. (D-12), also a Cleveland Democrat, said he is a co-sponsor of Patmon's crime bill and that the current law is antiquated and does not take into account that once people pay their dept to society neither the crime victims nor their family members, who pay taxes like everybody else, should be penalized as to compensation.
“That is even more so since the Imperial Ave. Murders were such a heinous crime,” said Barnes.
Cleveland Criminal Defense Attorney Terry Gilbert, who is suing the City of Cleveland, among others, on behalf of the families whose loved ones are among the 11 murdered women, some of whom were denied compensatiopn from the Crime Victims Compensation Fund, agreed.
“The limitation should not be determined by whether a person has been convicted of a crime because compensation is for victims of crime and their family members,” said Gilbert. “And why deny compensation to people that have paid their debt to society?
Community Activist Art McKoy said that an amendment to the law to give crime victims with felonies their just due should have been initiated long ago, particularly since the legal system is so flawed where judges routinely refuse to dismiss frivolous criminal charges and innocent people are often illegally convicted, many Black and many from impoverished backgrounds.
"The amendment is long overdue and the law was set up to serve White suburbanites,” said McKoy.
Though city council's resolution is ministerial in effect and has no legal emphasis, it is indicative of the support of Patmon's crime bill by key Black Cleveland leaders and others.
Ohio State Rep Bill Patmon (D-10)
Cleveland Ward 7 Councilman TJ Dow
Ohio State Rep. John Barnes Jr. (D-12) Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
Cleveland Criminal Defense Attorney Terry GilbertCleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committeeman John Boyd
Community Activist Art McKoy
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com and www.determinerweekly.com)
The Imperial Avenue Murders have prompted Cleveland City Council to pass a resolution in support of a crime bill drafted by State Rep Bill Patmon (D-10) that would amend a state law to eliminate a stipulation that denies crime victims and their family members reparations if the victims have been convicted of a felony within the last 10 years.
The reparations come from Ohio's Crime Victims Compensation Fund and provide up to $50 thousand for things such as counseling and even funeral expenses for crime victims families to bury them. But the state funded venue has recently come under fire as a safe heaven for the state's elite thorough limitations that some say disenfranchise Blacks, other minorities and poor people who traditionally lack the resources to fight unconstitutional prosecutions or to hire big time lawyers to get felony charges reduced to misdemeanors.
Sponsored by Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson and co-sponsored by Ward 7 Councilman T J Dow, the resolution passed 18 to 1 Monday night with Council President Martin Sweeney casting the lone dissenting vote.
"It passed,” said an enthusiastic Johnson, who had lobbied his fellow council members for the resolution.
A former Cleveland councilman himself who ran two times for Cleveland mayor and was the 2009 run-off candidate against Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Patmon said that the provision in the current law that denies compensation to the families of crime victims and to the victims themselves for felonies was put in place by state legislators during the mob wars that were prevalent in the 1970's so that the families of mobsters could not benefit from mob crimes. The Cleveland Democrat said that to become law his bill would have to make it out of committee, be passed by both the Republican led Ohio House and Senate, and escape any potetial veto by Ohio Rebublican Gov. John Kasich, a staunch conservative.
“We will need the Imperial Women to testify before legislators after the bill is introduced,” said Patmon, on hand at the council meeting on Monday too, along with a broad base of some 50 community activists such as Valerie and Stewart Robinson, Carol Fisher, Bill Swain, Carl Newman-Bey and Frances Caldwell, also director of Cleveland's African-American Museum. The mother of Imperial Ave Murder victim Tishana Culver was also in attendance and spoke to city council prior to the passage of the resolution.
Sweeney did not return phone calls seeking comment on why he voted against a resoution supporting a bill designed to level the playing field for Blacks and others, including community activists illegally sanctioned with felonies for speaking out on issues of public concern.
Cleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committeeman John Boyd, who ran unsuccessfully for city council in 2009, was outraged by Sweeney's lone refusal to support the resolution.
“Martin Sweeney has in my mind demonstrated repeatedly that he has no respect for Black people or the Black community,” said Boyd. “How can anybody in good conscience oppose something that is so morally right?”
Maureen Harper, a spokesperson for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, said the mayor supports the crime bill.
“The mayor signed the resolution and supports the bill,” said Harper.
Patmon said he decided to draft the bill after reading a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, where the families of 4 of the 11 women whose remains were found in 2009 at the home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell were denied compensation because the women had felony convictions.
State Rep John Barnes Jr. (D-12), also a Cleveland Democrat, said he is a co-sponsor of Patmon's crime bill and that the current law is antiquated and does not take into account that once people pay their dept to society neither the crime victims nor their family members, who pay taxes like everybody else, should be penalized as to compensation.
“That is even more so since the Imperial Ave. Murders were such a heinous crime,” said Barnes.
Cleveland Criminal Defense Attorney Terry Gilbert, who is suing the City of Cleveland, among others, on behalf of the families whose loved ones are among the 11 murdered women, some of whom were denied compensatiopn from the Crime Victims Compensation Fund, agreed.
“The limitation should not be determined by whether a person has been convicted of a crime because compensation is for victims of crime and their family members,” said Gilbert. “And why deny compensation to people that have paid their debt to society?
Community Activist Art McKoy said that an amendment to the law to give crime victims with felonies their just due should have been initiated long ago, particularly since the legal system is so flawed where judges routinely refuse to dismiss frivolous criminal charges and innocent people are often illegally convicted, many Black and many from impoverished backgrounds.
"The amendment is long overdue and the law was set up to serve White suburbanites,” said McKoy.
Though city council's resolution is ministerial in effect and has no legal emphasis, it is indicative of the support of Patmon's crime bill by key Black Cleveland leaders and others.
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