Protest at Cleveland Hts City Hall , Mon, 7-18 at 6:45 pm over unconstitutional curfew law that targets Black children

Submitted by JournalistKathy... on Sat, 07/16/2011 - 11:23.
07/18/2011 - 18:45
07/18/2011 - 20:30
Etc/GMT-4

 Community activist groups, including The Imperial Women, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, The Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, The Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network and The Spot Youth Empowerment Organization will rally with other community groups at 6:45 p.m. Mon, July 18 in front of Cleveland Hts City Hall, 40 Severance Circle, around a recently adopted curfew law that some say targets Black children and strips all children, regardless of race, ethnicity or gender, of a host of constitutional rights by giving police the authority to arrest them if they eat at restaurants after 6 pm in the Cedar-Lee Business District and the business district that stretches across Coventry Road and is between Mayfield Road and Euclid Hts Bld.

The curfew law also has a provision that requires that kids contact police before holding any protests on issues of public concern, a provision that has James L. Hardiman, Legal Director for the America Civil Liberties Union and Vice President of the Cleveland NAACP, crying foul as a violation of the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

After the 6:45 p.m. rally activists groups will attend the Cleveland Hts. City Council meeting at 7:30 pm that same evening to call for the curfew law at issue to be dropped from the books. And on Tuesday the groups will meet from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm at Aribica Coffee House University Circle, 1300 Juniper Rd in Cleveland, with State Sen. Shirley Smith (D-21), a Cleveland Democrat whose district includes Cleveland Hts. The meeting is open to the public and Smith's office number is 1-614- 466-4847.

Smith, who says her role is to protect the interests of the larger community including children and city businesses and has not yet voiced a stance on the controversial and unprecedented curfew law publicly, said that she will listen to community concerns at Tuesday's meeting and take them back to Cleveland Hts Mayor Ed Kelley, who supports the city ordinance.

Contacts for the rally are Imperial Women Leader Kathy Wray Coleman at 216-932-3114, Black on Black Crime Community Activist Denise Taylor at 216-548-3884 and Imperial Women and Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor Member Valerie Robinson at 216-321-1677. William Clarence Marshall, a member of The Carl Stokes Brigade, will also lead the rally, one that community activists say is necessary to protect the constitutional and statutory rights of the community's children from the arbitrary and capricious abuse of power by a runaway Cleveland Hts. City Council. 

Location

Cleveland Hts City Hall
40 Severance Circle
Cleveland Hts, OH 44118
United States
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Are kids encouraged to attend? Monday night

 
Large group--protest--arrests--civil rights--I hope you get a large turn out of kids.

You may need to turn to Facebook and texting to get this out during the summer :)

 Thanks The kids, Black and

Thanks. NO, KIDS ARE NOT ENCURGAGED TO ATTEND AND WE ARE NOT PROMOTING ARRESTS AS YOU DENOTE ABOVE IN YOUR COMMENTS, AND WE DO NOT WANT A LARGE CROWD--WE WANT A SMALL PEACEFUL RALLY OF ADULTS TO TAKE A STAND FOR OUR CHILDREN ON AN ARBITRARY AND CAPRICIOUS CURFEW LAW AMENDMENT THAT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL-- The kids, Black and White alike, and others,  are the city's greatest resource. Can't they figure that out?--Kathy Wray Coleman--Children under 18 in the absence of a parent or guardian  are not invited, though we cannot legally tell them that they cannot come--

The rally is being called by

The rally is being called by adults. As a former educator, I am cautious about calling children to any venue in the absence of parental permission and am not doing so in this instance, though an activist student, 15, will be coming with her mother. --Kathy Wray Coleman--216-932-3114--Children under 18 are not invited in the absence of a parent or guardian, though we cannot tell them what to do.