New Cleveland Police Commission sworn in by Mayor Jackson does not reflect the socioeconomic composition of the largely Black impoverished city, and has suburbanites but no Civil Rights leaders, women's advocates, prominent Black clergy, poor people, or grassroots activists....The Cleveland NAACP, SCLC and ACLU are shunned.... Former lt governor Lee Fisher of affluent Shaker Heights and representatives for Cleveland police unions make the cut....The Tamir Rice family calls the selection process a disgrace and says that commission members should live in the city.....By Editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Cleveland Urban News. Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper www.clevelandurbannews.com



District Attorney Steve Dettelbach



Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 22-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio.  (www.clevelandurbannews.com) /
 (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). 

READ WHO THE MEMBERS OF THE NEWLY SWORN IN 13-MEMBER CLEVELAND POLICE COMMISSION ARE AT THE END OF THE BELOW CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM ARTICLE. NEARLY A THIRD ARE SUBURBANITES, AND NOT ONE GRASSROOTS ACTIVIST OR CIVIL RIGHTS COMMUNITY LEADER MADE THE CUT. AND WOMEN'S GROUPS, THE CLEVELAND NAACP, THE GREATER CLEVELAND SCLC AND THE OHIO ACLU WHERE COMPLETELY IGNORED. THE ONLY TEACHER CHOSEN FOR THE COMMISSION IS A SHAKER HEIGHTS TEACHER. ALSO, PROMINENT BLACK CLEVELAND CLERGY WERE OVERLOOKED, THOUGH TWO UNION AFFILIATES REPRESENTING THE CLEVELAND POLICE RANK AND FILE MADE THE CUT, AS DID FORMER DEMOCRATIC LT GOVERNER LEE FISHER OF SHAKER HEIGHTS, A MAJORITY WHITE CLEVELAND SUBURB THAT HAS A RACIST AND CORRUPT  JUDGE THAT HAS BLACKS MALICIOUS PROSECUTED, AND ITS OWN POLICE ABUSE PROBLEMS.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio- Last week Cleveland  Mayor Frank Jackson swore in the 13 members of the first-ever Cleveland Community Police Commission that he and Steve Dettelbach, the district attorney for the northern district of Ohio, helped to handpick in conjunction with a court-monitored consent decree between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Cleveland city officials agreed this summer to a settlement of the consent decree with the DOJ, which mandates the police commission and follows a December 2014 DOJ report of systemic problems in the largely White Cleveland Police Department, including illegal excessive force fatal shootings, tasing of innocent women and children, and gross mistreatment of the mentally ill.      

There is no question that the commission, sworn in Tuesday morning at the Rotunda of Cleveland City Hall, four of its members of whom are suburbanites, does not reflect the socioeconomic composition of the major American city that is roughly 60 percent Black with most residents living below the poverty line.

And some people are angry and calling it a disgrace



Cleveland police fatal 12-year-old shooting victim Tamir Rice

"They should live in the city of Cleveland," said Latonya Goldsby, the activist cousin of 12-year-old Cleveland police murder victim Tamir Rice.

And while eight of the 13 people chosen are Black, none of them are grassroots activists, and nearly a third live in the suburbs.

Women's organization representatives, in a city with serial murders such as the Imperial Avenue Murders,  and high incidences of rape and murder against women and children, did not make the cut, and most on the commission are male.

Civil Rights leaders, prominent Black clergy,  and poor people are also missing from the group, whose applications where among some 200 candidates reviewed by a selection panel, one also chosen by Jackson, the city's three-term Black mayor, and Dettelbach, who is White.

The Cleveland NAACP, which is virtually defunct, the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Ohio ACLU were completely ignored.

The ACLU is suing the city over the arbitrary arrest of some protestors following the acquittal in May by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge of Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo on two counts of manslaughter in the 2012 fatal police shooting of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell.

U.S.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch

Cleveland NAACP Attorney James Hardiman

And the Cleveland NAACP, led by Civil Rights and criminal defense attorney James Hardiman, has filed an amicus brief in federal district court seeking changes in the consent decree that he says are needed for the long-haul to protect the Black community, including more community input, a brief challenged in court by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who now leads the DOJ, an arm of the federal government.

An effort to get a recall initiative against Jackson on the ballot this November, which was led by Cleveland NAACP Attorney Michael Nelson, a local criminal defense attorney, and activist Norm Edwards, failed miserably, the duo getting only roughly 2 percent of the more than 12,000 petition signatures needed.

Former Ohio Lt governor Lee Fisher, also a former senatorial candidate and prior president and CEO of the Center for Families and Children in Cleveland, and a Democrat like Mayor Jackson and Dettelbach, is the most prominent member of the commission.

Fisher is Jewish and resides with his wife Peggy Zone-Fisher in neighboring Shaker Heights, an affluent majority White middle and upper middle class suburb with police abuse and judicial malfeasance problems of its own, and a municipal court judge, K.J. Montgomery in fact, that routinely harasses and malicious prosecutes Blacks that complain of racial discrimination in housing and widespread public corruption in Cuyahoga County.

Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone, chair of city council's safety committee is Zone- Fisher's younger brother, and Lee Fisher's brother-in-law.

The only teacher on the commission, Mario Clopton,  is a Shaker Heights teacher  rather than one from the majority Black Cleveland Municipal School District that is affected by police reforms, an obvious slap in the face to the largely White Cleveland Teachers Union that often quarrels with the mayor, who oversees the schools under state law, and appoints the Cleveland Board of Education.

A president of the police union for Cleveland patrolman, a representative for the police union rank and file, and one from the unofficial union group that supports Black police officers, were among those selected, an indication, said sources, that Mayor Jackson, and Dettelbach purportedly care more about appeasing cops than fair play and viable community input.

Dr Rhonda Williams, an associate professor of history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland comes the closet to an activist, but she is really an academician and a community advocate.

“We now have a commission where police officers and community members sit side-by-side to deal with tough issues," said Dettelbach at the swearing in ceremony at City Hall.

The consent decree, which is being overseen by Chief Federal District Court Judge Solomon Oliver, who is Black and can override the selection process if he chooses, requires that commission members represent religious and Civil Rights organizations, the business community, academicians, and organizations representing minorities, youth, and the mentally ill.

It does not however, require that members reside in the city of Cleveland, which sources say is elitist, and racist, and designed to cater to the mayor's police force ,and to give White corporate bigwigs and others that do not have a direct stake in the impoverish city more power over Black people.

In addition to the 10 members selected  leaders of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 8 and the Black Shield are represented to round off the 13 total members.

The 13 Cleveland Police Commission  members are as follows:

Anthony Body, Good Neighbor Ambassador Supervisor, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District

Craig Boise, Dean and Professor, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University

Dr. Kathleen Clegg, Medical Director, Recovery Resources; Director, Medical Student Education, UH Case Medical Center; and, Associate Professor, Psychiatry, CWRU School of Medicine

Mario Clopton, Teacher, Shaker Heights City Schools

Rev. Dr. Yvonne Conner, Retired, Greater Cleveland Congregations

Lee Fisher, President & CEO, CEOs for Cities

Amanda King, Graduate Diversity Coordinator, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Case Western Reserve University

Rev. Max Rodas, Executive Director, Nueva Luz Urban Resource Center

Dylan Sellers, Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools

Dr. Rhonda Williams, Associate Director of History/ Director, Social Justice Institute, Case Western Reserve University

Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association (CPPA) Commission Member:

Steven Loomis, President, Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 8 (FOP 8) Commission Member:

Timothy Higgins, Sergeant, City of Cleveland, Bureau of Community Policing

Black Shield Police Association Commission Member:

Detective Lynn Hampton, Cleveland Division of Police, Personnel Department and President of the Black Shield Police Association

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) /
 (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).