Tamir Rice's mother and her attorney meet with activists for a meeting led by Kathy Wray Coleman to thank activists, who will picket Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley if he does not take the Cleveland police killing of the 12-year-old Black boy before another county grand jury.....Activist groups represented at the meeting include the Imperial Women Coalition, Black Lives Matter Cleveland, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the National Black Panther Party, Badass Teachers, the Cleveland Chapter of the National Action Network, BEMAD, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Medina County Together, the Fairfax Business Association, the Greater Cleveland chapter of the Council of Negro Women, Raise Up Cleveland, the Cleveland Peacemakers, and SEIU.....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of www.clevelandurbannews.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leaders
Pictured are Samaria Rice, the mother of slain 12-year-old Cleveland police shooting victim Tamir Rice, and Tamir Rice himself |
| Rice family attorney Subodh Chandra, who is representing Rice's mother, Samaria Rice, and the dead boy's estate along with New York attorney Jonathan Abady, and Chicago attorney Billy Joe Mills |
Former Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty
Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia Fudge
| (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 4.5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS. |
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
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Cuyahoga County ProsecutorMichael O'Malley
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CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio– The mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, whom Cleveland police gunned down in November of 2014 at the Cudell Recreation Center on the city's west side, and her attorney, Subodh Chandra, met with Black community members and grassroots community activists on Wed., June 7 at Chelsey's restaurant on the city's east side.
The meeting was led by Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads the Cleveland-based grassroots group the Imperial Women Coalition, and who edits ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com
A Black journalist, Coleman also trained as an investigative reporter for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, a Black weekly.
Other activist groups represented include Black Lives Matter Cleveland, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the National Black Panther Party, Badass Teachers, the Cleveland Chapter of the National Action Network, BEMAD, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, Medina County Together, the Fairfax Business Association, the Greater Cleveland chapter of the Council of Negro Women, Raise Up Cleveland, the Cleveland Peacemakers, and SEIU.
Samaria Rice, Tamir's mother, with the Black boy's sister by her side, thanked community activists for staying the course in getting the firing of Timothy Loehmann, the cop that killed Tamir, and a 10-day suspension of his partner, Frank Garmback, both disciplined last week, and nearly a two and a half years after the Nov 22, 2014 tragic shooting.
Both Loehmann and Garmback are White.
Samaria Rice also said that she intends to start a charter school in Tamir Rice's name, a comment that drew to applause from the audience, who gave her a standing ovation for her strength and tenacity when she walked in the restaurant that was filled to capacity.
"Thank you activists, " said Samaria Rice, with Attorney Chandra adding that "a mother's tear's alone would not have been enough."
Chandra is representing Rice's mother, and the dead boy's estate, along with New York attorney Jonathan Abady, and Chicago attorney Billy Joe Mills, the skilled legal team that won one of the largest wrongful death setllement's involving police in Cleveland history.
Chandra is representing Rice's mother, and the dead boy's estate, along with New York attorney Jonathan Abady, and Chicago attorney Billy Joe Mills, the skilled legal team that won one of the largest wrongful death setllement's involving police in Cleveland history.
A Cleveland resident, former Cleveland law director and former assistant federal prosecutor, Chandra said that community activists were the key to $6 million wrongful death settlement and the discipline last week of the the the two cops involved in Tamir's shooting death.
He also urged community activists to continue the fight, activists voting last night to first picket Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley if he fails to bring the police killing before another county grand jury for review and potential criminal charges against police, and, if necessary, to work to get the Black community and others to vote O'Malley out of office when his four-year term is up in 2020.
Chandra spoke on how prejudicial the initial grand jury process was under ousted former county prosecutor Tim McGinty, who, according to Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, whose congressional district includes Cleveland, tainted the first grand jury process, including handpicking a law enforcement expert to testify for the grand jury for the cops, and in a prejudicial manner, the grand jury ultimately issuing a no bill, which means no indictment.
McGinty, a former common pleas judge, is White like O'Malley, whom he lost the Democratic primary to last year by 10 percentage points, and with the help of the Black vote in Cuyahoga County, which includes the city of Cleveland and is roughly 29 percent Black, and also a Democratic stronghold.
Kathy Wray Coleman said that Blacks are sometimes repeatedly indicted under the same circumstances until prosecutors get the charges they want, often in an illegal manner, and are maliciously prosecuted and convicted, coupled with excessive bonds and unfair sentences by a cadre of corrupt and racist judges, who often protect corrupt cops like the county prosecutor's office often does.
Activists chose Coleman to send the letter demanding another grand jury to O'Malley with a June 28 meeting set to discuss his response or lack thereof.
A Democrat and an American-Indian by race, Chandra said that if it comes to pushing the ouster of O'Malley via either a recall or per any upcoming reelection, he would suggest either Common Pleas Judge Michael Donnelly or retiring Cleveland Municipal Court Presiding and Administrative Judge Ron Adrine, who is in his last year on the bench, as a good replacement for the county Democratic Party and community activists to consider, Donelly of whom is White, and Adrine, Black.
Police were summoned to the Cudell Park and Recreation Center on the city's largely White west side on the evening of Nov. 22, 2014 following a foiled 9-1-1 call to police dispatchers that a child was carrying a likely toy gun, a toy gun in fact of which was later revealed.
Rookie cop Timothy Loehmann fired the deadly bullet that killed the Black boy after Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, arrived at the scene and zoomed in on Tamir in less than two seconds, Garmback at the wheel of the police cruiser, precautionary action be damned.
Loehmann, however, was not fired for killing Tamir but for lying on his job application about discipline in another city as a former cop, his recent discipline in Cleveland that is more likely to stick than any discipline relative to excessive force.
Ongoing protests erupted nationally and locally in 2014 following the shooting of Tamir Rice, and racial unrest continues to mount against a largely White police department now under a consent decree for police reforms between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice, a consent decree despised by a police union that is use to doing as it pleases.
The Cleveland Police Patromen's Association, led by outspoken union head Steve Loomis, has been staunchly behind Loehmann and Garmback, Loomis saying the kid pulled the toy gun when police arrived, though no such evidence exist to prove such a claim, the union appealing the discipline of the two White cops via the grievance procedure and likely subsequent arbitration.
Activists, during the meeting on Wednesday with Tamir's mother and Attorney Chandra, also agreed to picket Loomis if he continues what they say is harassment of Samaria Rice to the mainstream media.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 4.5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
