Cleveland Police Commission Co-Chair Dr. Rhonda Williams invites community to open meeting with police commission and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community on February 3, 2016 at 6:30 pm at 6600 Detroit Avenue in Cleveland...Studies show that discrimination by law enforcement across the country against the LGBT community is an ongoing and pervasive problem....The meeting comes on the heels of a demand by the Cleveland NAACP for Cleveland police union president Steve Loomis to resign from the commission for harsh and derogatory statements against two unarmed Blacks gunned down by 13 non-Black Cleveland cops in 2012, some of whom were recently fired or suspended .....By Cleveland Urban News.Com Editor-in-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman
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| Dr Rhonda Y. Williams, co-chair of the Cleveland Community Police Commission |
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cleveland Community Police Commission, a group recently formed per the court-monitored consent decree between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the city of Cleveland on police reforms, will hold a public meeting from 6:30 pm -8:30 pm on Wednesday, Feb. 3 at the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community (LGBT) Center of Greater Cleveland at 6600 Detroit Avenue on the city's west side.
Established in 1975, the mission of the LGBT Community Center is "to create a community that celebrates the inherent worth and dignity of every person regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, and inclusive of class, race and ability."
According to a press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com from police commission co-chair Dr. Rhonda Y. Williams, also an associate professor of history at Case Western Reserve University, the event is part of the police commission's bias free policing initiative, and the community is encouraged to attend and to make recommendations to the commission.
A 2015 study by the Williams Institute, a national think tank at the UCLA School of Law, found that discrimination by law enforcement across the country against the LGBT community is an ongoing and pervasive problem, and LGBT members of greater Cleveland have complained at community forums led by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and other city officials that Cleveland police have allegedly harassed them.
Today's meeting comes on the heels of a demand by the Cleveland NAACP for Cleveland Patrolmen's Association President Steve Loomis to resign from the 13-member police commission after he made harsh and derogatory public statements against two unarmed Blacks gunned down in 2012 by 13 non-Black cops in response to the recent firings and suspensions of several of them.
Loomis has refused to step down and did not attend a police commission meeting held last month at the Harvard Community Services Center in Cleveland that drew community activists that also want the union head to resign from the commission. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
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