Cleveland community activist and Imperial Women Coalition member stabbed and seriously injured, she fought around the Imperial Ave Murders, the Trayvon Martin case, and against the theft of new born Black babies by Cuyahoga County officials to hand to affluent Whites, Cleveland, CMHA police ignored cries for help from stabbed woman and from community activists prior to the stabbing, activists want negligent policemen fired
CLEVELAND,Ohio-A community activist and member of the Imperial Women who fought for changes in public policy around the Imperial Ave Murders and attended rallies on that and other community issues such as the Trayvon Martin case was stabbed in the back and seriously injured last week allegedly by a teen whose mother was arguing with her over an ongoing feud between that teen and one of the stabbed woman's teen daughters.
Angelique Cunningham, 39, was taken to University Hospitals Friday night and then flown by helicopter to the trauma unit at Metro- Health Hospital in Cleveland, a family spokesperson said.
After nearly a week in intensive care with possible bleeding from her liver, she was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon.
The teen accused of the stabbing was arrested, taken into custody, charged with attempted murder, and given house arrest.
No trial date has been set.
Both Cleveland police and Cuyahoga County Metropolitan Authority police ignored Cunningham's cries for help, even after the teen that allegedly stabbed her had allegedly broken out the glass to her CMHA apartment front door in Cleveland near the Morris Black Housing Project where the incident occurred, as well as her windows to her automobile.
Cunningham was featured in Dec. as a spokesperson to national news outlets, including the Huffington Post, on behalf of grassroots organization called the Imperial Women when city officials tore down the home on Imperial Ave. where since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, raped, murdered and dismembered the 11 Black women.
"We want the police that ignored her complaint fired," said Community Activist Ada Averyhart, 77.
"I personally called both the Cleveland police and the CMHA police prior to this ill fated tragedy and can testify to the fact that both ignored my request for help for Angelique and her family," said Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads the Imperial Women Coalition. "They ignored her, we collectively believe, because she is Black, poor and a community activist who has fought with us on pertinent issues of public concern and who would not let the establishment steal her grandchildren without a fight, and we call for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to demand a full investigation around the apparent negligence relative to this seemingly preventable matter."
Denise Taylor, a member of Black on Black Crime, the Imperial Women, the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party and the Joaquin Hicks Real People's Movement, said that she too was aware that Cunningham sought police help and was ignored.
"It had been going on for more than a month," said Taylor during a telephone interview on Thurs.
Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime Inc said that activists groups are still looking into the situation.
Cunningham became active in grassroots ventures when she sought help about two years ago after the Cuyahoga County Department of Family and Children Services stole two of her grandchildren, Jamela and Jamyla, as healthy new born babies to hand to an affluent White couple with the famous last name of Gallagher, though state law requires that they be given to qualified family members that had applied for temporary custody of them.
Data show that county officials never really provided justification for taking the children..
Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Judge Alison Nelson Floyd has the cases and has not yet ruled on whether the children, who are first cousins and now three years old, will be returned to their biological mothers.
"When a community activist is stabbed after fighting for her family and on community issues, and after police blatantly ignore legitimate cries for help, that concerns us," said Coleman, who led two protests last year around the alleged theft of the Black babies, both of whom have been allegedly forced to call the Gallagher's of Solon, Oh., "mommie and daddy."
"I do believe that police disregarded Angelique Cunningham's request for help because she is a community activist," said Roz McAllister, a member of the Imperial Women who also leads the grassroots group dubbed Ohio Family Rights.
Coleman said that activists may need to picket to bring more attention to Black on Black crime that is sometimes perpetuated by some insensitive police that are seemingly not doing the job that they have been hired to do.
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