Black on Black Crime Inc,. Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, community activists picket Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Safety Committee Chair Councilman Kevin Conwell, city council over disproportionate abundance of red light traffic ticket cameras on majority Black east side that they say that as situated primarily in Black community represent racial profiling and are unconstitutional by targeting young Blacks, activists will discuss issue, among other matters, at forum with community activists and Cleveland Mayoral Candidate Ken Lanci on Thursday, May 30 at 6 pm at Lil Africa in Cleveland, 6816 Superior Ave., read here to find out where the 42 new red light traffic ticket cameras will be erected at intersections throughout the city of Cleveland

Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, who chairs Cleveland City Council's safety committee, and who introduced legislation for 42 more red light traffic ticket cameras that city council passed last week, most on the majority Black east side of the city. Conwell is also under fire for being quiet about no Blacks on Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's law enforcement leadership team, the rape and murders of Black women, and the gunning down of unarmed Blacks and others by Cleveland police.

Community Activist Art McKoy, who leads Black on Black Crime Inc. and who led a picket against Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland City Council on Friday over a disproportionate abundance of red light traffic ticket cameras on the predominantly Black east side of Cleveland

Cleveland Mayoral Hopeful and Millionaire Businessman Ken Lanci, who will participate in a community forum with community activists on Thursday, May 30 at 6 pm at Lil Africa in Cleveland, 6816 Superior Ave. (For more information contact Imperial Women at 216-659-0473)

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who is running for reelection to a third four year mayoral term this year as elections for mayor and city council will begin with a Sept. 10 non-partisan runoff and a November general election will follow

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief,  Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black newspapers (www.clevelandurbannews.com) Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Community activists protested against Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and city council at E. 124th St and Superior Ave. in Cleveland Friday afternoon in response to a disproportionate abundance of  red light traffic ticket cameras on the predominantly Black east side of the majority Black major metropolitan city. They say it is  unconstitutional , particularly since more than 69 percent of the traffic tickets are issued to Black people, and  that the cameras, as situated throughout the city, and more so in areas where Blacks reside, represent racial profiling and the arbitrary and capricious abuse of power against the Black community by Jackson, the City of Cleveland, and Cleveland City Council. (Editor's Note: Read more at the end of this article for the 42 locations where more traffic cameras will go up at street intersections in Cleveland as a result of legislation passed by Cleveland City Council last week).

While the Ohio Supreme Court has said that traffic cameras in Ohio are legal under the Ohio Constitution, no litigation has been pursued under the legal argument that when the cameras are disproportionately situated in the Black community it is an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment since Black people are members of a protected class. Activists say that these kinds of questions can be addressed through federal lawsuits filed on behalf of impacted Blacks and their families by the NAACP and that the Cleveland Chapter NAACP should take on these kinds of cases regardless of any relationship it might have with the city's Black mayor. Mayor Jackson, though, also controls the city schools under state law, and the careers and purse strings of some very powerful people.

"We have to protest on this,'" said Community Activist Art McKoy, who leads Black on Black Crime Inc and who led the rally on Friday at the intersection where one of the 42 traffic cameras will soon go up, a protest attended by various groups including the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, which is led by Community Activist Don Bryant. 

Activists said that they will discuss the issue, among others, at 6 pm forum with Cleveland Mayoral Candidate Ken Lanci on Thursday, May 30, at Lil Africa in Cleveland, 6816 Superior Ave. For more information on the event contact Imperial Women at 216-659-0473.  

Next to Boston Cleveland is the second most segregated city among major metropolitan cities nationwide. It is roughly 58 percent Black and is divided along racial lines by the Cuyahoga River with Blacks primarily residing on the east side and Whites dominating the west side of town. 

Currently the cameras that take snap shops of alleged speeders for tickets at some $125 an episode are at 51 Cleveland intersections, 35 on the east side and 16 on the west side of the city. But Jackson and a majority of the nine Blacks on the 18 member city council want a disproportionate number of more cameras on the east side to stop crime they say, though opponents say it is really nothing but a way to get more money by spy techniques and that the cameras are a cover up for police allegedly not doing their jobs.

The west side council persons, all of whom are White, balked, sources say, so in order to meet the revenue criteria that the cameras will likely bring to the city coffers more cameras, which amounts to more money, were allegedly slated by Jackson, who is Black,  and Cleveland City Council President Martin Sweeney, who is White, and for the east side. 

Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, who chairs city council's safety committee and has not spoken out against no Blacks on the mayor's law enforcement leadership team, the rapes and murders of Black women, and the gunning down by police of unarmed Black people in droves, introduced new legislation for the 42 new traffic cameras, 26 on the east side and only 16 on the west side. And this is addition to the 51 already in place that target the Black community.

That proposed legislation is now a city ordinance or city law as 15 council members, enough out of the 18 for a majority, passed it at a city council meeting last week.  

Read below to find the intersections of the 42 more traffic cameras that Cleveland City Council voted on last week to erect at intersections throughout the city, a city that CNN reports as having double the crime rate of other major American cities.

Woodland Ave at E. 55th St.
Lakeview Road and Superior Avenue
East 105th Street and Superior Avenue
East 124th Street and Superior Avenue
East 156th Street and Waterloo Road
Neff Road at East 185th Street
East 55th Street at Broadway
Orange Avenue at East 30th Street
Chester Avenue at East 105th Street
St. Clair Avenue at East 152nd Street
Kinsman Road at East 93rd Street
Lee Road at Miles Road
Stokes Boulevard at Cedar Avenue
West 25th Street at Clark Avenue
West 65th Street at Clark Avenue
I-490 at East 55th Street
Pearl Road at Denison Avenue
Broadview Road at Brookpark Road
St. Clair Avenue at East 105th Street
Woodland Avenue at East 30th Street
Lorain Avenue at West 65th Street
Broadview Road at Spring Road
St. Clair Avenue at East 55th Street
Puritas Avenue at West 150th Street
Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at East 105th Street