Breaking News: President Trump to send in military troops to Cleveland and some other major cities with Democratic mayors, action taken behind the George Floyd riots, and heightened crime in some of the cities during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump says....Congresswoman Fudge says it's "unconstitutional"....Cleveland is led by four-term Black mayor Frank Jackson....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest

United States President Donald Trump, who announced Wednesday that he is sending in military troops to patrol the streets of Cleveland and other major cities behind the George Floyd riots and heightened crime during the coronavirus pandemic

Protesters in Cleveland who rallied for justice for George Floyd on May 30 torched  police cars as violence erupted in the largely Black major American city

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson

Thousands gather at the Free Stamp next to Cleveland City Hall in downtown Cleveland on Sat., May 30 for a rally for  justice for Minneapolis police murder victim George Floyd, a rally that turned violent and erupted into riots. Photo by Tristan Rader 

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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, associate publisher, editor-in-chief. Coleman is a longtime Cleveland activist and community organizer who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper as a reporter, and she is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher. She attended the rally and march in Cleveland, Ohio on May 30 for justice for George Floyd, an event that turned violent and erupted into riots, and part of the impetus for President Trump sending military troops down on the largely Black major American city)

George Floyd

CLEVELAND, Ohio-President Trump announced Wednesday that the largely Black city of Cleveland is among 11 cities the federal government will militarize in coming weeks with unidentifiable federal troops toting guns, tear gas and pepper spray, a response to the May 30 George Floyd riots in the city and heightened crime during the coronavirus pandemic, which last month began re-spiking.

Sources said that Cleveland can expect the military patrols in the city's downtown area and mainly on its majority Black east side within the next three weeks. 

The president has dubbed the militarization-of-cities  program, “Operation LeGend,” and has said it is designed  to support high crime communities in major cities “to the greatest extent possible.”

LeGend Taliferro was a four-year-old Black boy gunned down in his sleep on June 29 in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Operation LeGend comes to Cleveland less than four months before the November 2020 presidential election and on the heels of the militarization by the Republican president of cities this month such as Portland and Chicago in which unidentified military agents rode around in unmarked cars and intimidated, harassed and arrested Civil Rights protesters without probable cause, few, if any of those arrested, charged to date.

Also part of the program is $60 million in federal monies to primarily hire and train more cops as the Black Lives Matter movement continues to demand the de-funding of police across the country and the reallocation of departmental resources to community venues.Sources say 

In addition to Cleveland, Portland and Chicago, other cities on the president's list include New York, Albuquerque, Kansas City, Detroit and Milwaukee.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's third Black mayor, said he is unaware of Trump's initiative that targets his city with government-supported military insurgents, an indication, said sources, that the president is not even giving local mayors heads-up as he takes over law enforcement in their respective towns.

A four-term Democratic mayor up for re-election next year if he decides to seek a fifth term, Jackson has not spoken out  against the president's newly found militarization efforts, unlike the mayors of Portland and Chicago, who have both publicly opposed the intrusive and possibly unconstitutional measure in their cities.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Trump ally, has said that he opposes the federal government intrusion in cities in Ohio for so-called law enforcement purposes, Ohio a pivotal state for presidential elections that Trump won in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

But this week DeWine stepped back and straddled the fence, saying it might be a good thing, a posture also taken by Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio.

Ohio's entire Democratic congressional delegation, including U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S. Reps Marcia Fudge and Marcy Kaptur, all three of whom's constituents include Cleveland, voiced opposition to the military troops coming onto Cleveland soil.

A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus whose 11th congressional district is largely Black, Fudge called it "unconstitutional."

Critics say the president is targeting cities led by Democratic mayors.

During Cleveland's riot May 30, one of many nationwide behind Floyd's death by Minneapolis police nearly two-months ago, rioters torched or completely destroyed some five police cars, broke out the windows of multiple businesses, including the downtown Arcade, destroyed some downtown shelters, and threw rocks and boulders at police.

They wrote messages and profanity on some government buildings, and a group of protesters clashed with police.

Police shot off tear gas repeatedly, and in some instances unnecessarily, said activists.

Some 99 protesters, most of them White, and young, were arrested with charges ranging from disorderly conduct to criminal damaging and aggravated rioting.

There were more than 45 felony arrests and practically all of those arrested were from Ohio, mainly Cleveland and its suburbs.

And while there were no casualties, one protester reportedly lost an eye from the debris thrown by a fellow protester.

Given Cleveland's history of excessive force killings against Blacks and a pending consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice for police reforms and the climate nationally relative to police brutality, the upheaval was not at all surprising, sources said, though Cleveland's Black leaders have said for years that Cleveland is a sleepy town when standing up against police brutality.

Cleveland's riot in the downtown area of the city in May proves otherwise.

City officials say that it was a small group of agitators who precipitated the violence.

Others say it is deeply rooted in systemic racism and the ongoing undercurrent between police and the Black community and that it cannot be laid at the feet of protesters alone.

Five people were arrested and two cops injured following two nights of protests over Floyd's death in Columbus, Ohio's state capital. And seven people were shot in Louisville, Kentucky, one critically, during a protest for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year Black woman whom Louisville police shot and killed in March when three cops barged into her home via a no-knock warrant looking for drugs that were never found.

Other incidents with police and protesters have occurred across the country, including during protests in Oakland, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Chicago.

Also center stage at Cleveland's violent protest were Staten Island police murder victim Eric Garner, whom New York police choked to death in 2014, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, whom Cleveland police gunned down  in 2012 at a park and recreation center on the city's largely White west side, and the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old community activist who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas in 2015.

Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, both Black and unarmed but gunned down in a car in 2012 by some 13 non-Black Cleveland cops slinging 137 bullets, were a subject of the protest too.

Floyd, 46, died after since fired White cop Derek Chauvin, the arresting officer who has since been charged with second degree murder and manslaughter and is out on bond awaiting trial, along with three other Minneapolis police officers who were at the scene and later charged, killed him.

Chauvin held his knee on Floyd's neck during an arrest over a forgery charge, and until he killed him.

A  crowd of Black bystanders looked on in shock.

The other three officers at the scene, all of them subsequently fired and charged with aiding and abetting, did nothing as the Black man cried  for his mother and told officers repeatedly that he could not breathe.

Riots in the city immediately erupted and sparked racial unrest nationwide, unrest that shows no sign of deteriorating any time soon.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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.