Reprint Of Nov 4, 2011 Article: Mayor Jackson Tells Occupy Cleveland That He, Not Them, Led The Fight Against Corporate Greed, Corruption, But Says No To Camping On Public Square, Since This Article 5 Members of Occupy Cleveland Have Been Indicted For Allegedly Attempting To Blow Up A Cleveland Bridge, All 5 Pleaded Not Guilty To The Charges On May 7, 2012
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
Ken Silliman, Chief of Staff for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Leatrice Tolls of Occupy Cleveland
Erin McCardle of Occupy Cleveland
Occupy Cleveland protesters at a rally in front of Cleveland City Hall
last monthEditors' note: This is a reprint of an article published by Cleveland Urban News.Com on November 4, 2011. Since that time five members or affiliates of Occupy Cleveland have been indicted and charged with allegedly planning to blow up a Cleveland bridge, among other charges. All five pleaded not guilty to numerous criminal charges in federal district court on Mon., May 7, 2012. They remain in jail and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson did not renew the group's Public Square permit last week. The accused, all of whom are White and male, are Douglas L. Wright, 26, of Indianapolis; Brandon L. Baxter, 20, of Lakewood, Ohio; Anthony Hayne, 35, of Cleveland; Connor C. Stevens, 20, of Berea, Ohio; and Joshua S. Stafford, 23, of Cleveland. A comprehensive article on this issue is forthcoming with the position of various community activists on this controversial matter.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com(http://www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com/) and (http://www.clevelandurbannews.com/)
"I look forward to my day in court to see why the City of Cleveland and Mayor Frank Jackson think it is okay to deny me my constitutional right to peacefully assemble and to air grievances about our corrupt government in the free speech quadrant of Public Square," said Leatrice Tolls, one of the arrested 11 who resides in Cleveland Hts and has been active since she was 17 in politics and community issues. (Editor's Note: Tolls ultimately pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of criminal tresspass and prohibited hours on Public Square before Cleveland Municipal Cort Judge Anita Laster Mays and was given probation and no jail time. She has appelead the convictions and maintains her innocence, saying, as her attorney did, that the charges were illegal and trampled upon her free speech rights).
Occupy Cleveland emerged in Cleveland on Oct. 6, 2011 and marched against City Hall, holding additional protests before taking camp on Public Square. It is a local model of Occupy Wall Street, an international movement against corporate greed and malfeasance with local venues throughout the country that are popping up in other countries too, like the neighboring Canada.'s Toronto city.
A former pid campaigner for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's failed bid for president in 2008, the National Director of Special Events for U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-10) when the congressman from Cleveland ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004, Tolls got her first encounter with politics when as a teenager she campaigned for now retired U.S. Sen. John Glenn when he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1983. She rallied in New York with her son, also an activist, when Occupy Wall Street assembled to introduce itself to America, and she, like a few other veteran activists involved on the issues they are promoting, is more seasoned than the twenty-to-thirty -something- year-old members of Occupy Cleveland.
"They are colluding with the criminals that represent the banks and the mortgage companies that are destroying this country," said Tolls of Jackson, Cleveland's second Black mayor and one who in 2008 unsuccessfully sued 21 banks and mortgage companies after blaming them for the city's high foreclosure rates and the economic strife that plagues the predominantly Black major metropolitan city.
But Jackson spokesperson Ken Silliman, who is also the mayor's chief of staff, said the mayor is against corporate greed and corruption too and that he set the tone in Cleveland before Occupy Cleveland was ever heard of.
"Mayor Jackson led Cleveland City Council in passing a predatory lending law long before other cities were even aware of the issues and he sued over banks and mortgage companies for the damages that they caused to Cleveland neighborhoods," said Silliman. " Since Oct. 6 we have worked with the group members to ensure their constitutional permits but the one bone of contention is that we cannot allow more camping."
Kucinich, a Cleveland Democrat and former city mayor, has made his position known too, telling Occupy Cleveland members at a stop at Public Square shortly before the celebrated arrests of its key members on Oct. 21 that he is in their corner.
Asked if he is with them of all the way and even with the mayor's efforts in keeping them off Public Square the congressman said "I support Occupy Cleveland."
And it has been a win-win for the mayor and Occupy Cleveland thus far with Jackson losing when the group won a federal court injunction that permits them to protest around the clock on Public Square but not to pitch its tents, and him winning, he obviously believes, by continuing ahead with prosecutions of charges of resisting arrest, obstruction of official business and disorderly conduct against the arrested protesters.
Eric McCardle, 31, a member of the Occupy Cleveland group like Tolls, said that corporate greed and malfeasance have caused the recession and that Occupy Cleveland seeks more cooperation from the mayor as they fight for a better America for the poor and other disenfranchised groups.
"The mayor has not been very cooperative," said McCardle the Thurs. evening as she prepared to get arrested the following Fri. night with the other 10 people that say Public Square is a public thoroughfare where free speech is guaranteed without ambiguity pursuant to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Terry Gilbert, a Cleveland criminal defense attorney and constitutional lawyer who is among a group of prominent area lawyers representing Occupy Cleveland members that were arrested, cautioned Jackson and police to protect the city's image from that of Oakland, CA. where violence broke out between Occupy Oakland protesters and police after police began shooting them with pellet guns during peaceful assemblies there.
"We have been very careful to avoid the kind of incidents that happened in Oakland and we will continue to be careful," said Silliman, a licensed attorney in addition to Jackson's chief of staff who arose as a spokesperson for the mayor on the Occupy Cleveland issue.
Tolls, McCardle, and the others arrested were held overnight and released on their own recognizance the next morning after pleading not guilty before Cleveland Municipal Court Administrative and Presiding Judge Ron Adrine. A trial date has not been set.
Tolls said that Occupy Cleveland will hold a social and information forum with music and other entertainment from 2 pm- 5 pm on Sun. Nov. 6 at the Free Stamp next to Cleveland City Hall in downtown Cleveland . She said that it will be a celebration to mark their one month anniversary and will conclude with a march to Public Square at 5 pm.
For more information on the Occupy Cleveland Movement and its scheduled events go to www.occupyCleveland.com.
Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at editor@clevelandurbannew.com and by phone number: 216-932-3114.
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