Community Activist Art McKoy, who failed to win over community activists in requesting that they support the Cleveland Hts City Council ordinance amendment supported by Forbes. Community activists say the ordinance amendment is racist because it targets Black teens in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution
[1]
Community Activist Sharon Danann, leader of the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, visits a prisoner at the Lucasville Prison that she says has been illegally convicted of crimes following a riot there in 1993. Danann says that the Cleveland Hts city ordinance amendment that makes it illegal for teens under 18 to patronize businesses in the Coventry-Lee business District is racist because it targets Black children and does not impact similarly situated White kids. [2]
Former three-term Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, reportedly the city's most brilliant mayor, who stole the mayoral election from then City Council President George L. Forbes in 1989 in Cleveland's first Black-on Black mayoral runoff. [3] Forbes went on to become Cleveland's longest serving local NAACP president, holding the realm since 1992, but the friction between the two Democrats never waned.
From the Metro Desk of the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com [4])
Black on Black Crime Inc and other activist groups, including the Imperial Women, the Oppressed People's Nation, and the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, have refused an invitation by Cleveland Branch NAACP President George Forbes to join him with his position to go against Black children in Cleveland Hts. in support of a a 6 p.m. curfew ordinance amendment adopted Tuesday evening by Cleveland Hts City Council that mandates the arrest of any child caught patronizing shopping centers in select area of the city after 6 p.m.
A city ordinance is a law passed by member's of a city council and an amendment to a city ordinance is either a change or an addition to a law previously passed by a city council.
Sharon Danann, who leads the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, asked McKoy why he would want to give police more power to arrest and harass Black teens and that White children are not treated that way.
"Why would you support something that gives police more power to arrest Black children when business areas that White children frequent have no such curfew?," said Danann, a longtime community activist with a master's degree from Harvard University, and a White woman who routinely fights against racial discrimination and the disenfranchisement of the less fortunate.
Kathy Wray Coleman, a local journalist and a leader of the Imperial Women, agreed and said the next move by the predominantly White City Council of Cleveland Hts would be to pass a city ordinance for Black children to ride in the back of the bus in certain areas of the city. She said that grassroots factions want no parts of either Cleveland NAACP President George L. Forbes or the Cleveland NAACP until organization leaders stand up for Black women like those murdered on Imperial Ave. in Cleveland, and other people that have been mistreated and subjected to race discrimination by police, the legal system countywide, and operatives at Cleveland City Hall and elsewhere.
"My research reveals that Cleveland Hts police, that let alleged serial killer Anthony Sowell remain free from a necessary arrest on a rape complaint to allegedly kill the last 5 of the 11 Black women murdered on Imperial Ave. in Cleveland, need more sensitivity training and should stop arresting innocent Black people for money through court costs and fines and because of a disdain for the Black community," said Coleman.
"It is a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution to target only Black children of Cleveland Hts. for an antiquated and obviously racist curfew law amendment, "said Coleman "And the Cleveland NAACP Executive Board should fire Mr. Forbes and get a leader that will not sellout the Black community at the drop of a hat."
In an editorial in its weekly newspaper this week the Call and Post Newspaper, a weekly that targets Cleveland's Black community, supported the Cleveland Hts curfew ordinance amendment, calling it a crackdown on unruly Black children.
Activists also rejected a request for a dual fundraiser with the Cleveland NAACP and Forbes, 79, the general counsel and editorial page editor for the Call and Post Newspaper, Cleveland's Black Press that has distributions also in Cincinnati and Columbus and is owned by a company owned by nationally known boxing promoter Don King.
"No, I cannot support that," said Donnie Pastard, a school teacher and member of Black on Black who said that the Cleveland NAACP is not worthy of support by the grassroots community because it no longer has the true interests of Black people at heart.
Most at Wednesday's Black on Black Crime meeting agreed with Pastard though Carl C. Newman suggested that Black on Black Crime and other grassroots factions unite with the local branch of the nation's oldest and most respected Civil Rights organization to collectively fight causes for the betterment of the Black community.
"I think a fundraiser with the Cleveland NAACP should happen," said Newman, also a member of Black on Black Crime.
The controversial Coventry- Lee 6 p.m. curfew ordinance amendment pertains to Cleveland Hts teens only and is applicable only to the Coventry-Lee Business District. City parents would be fined $50 if their children violate the ordinance amendment by patronizing businesses or otherwise visiting the off limits commercial areas after 6 pm in the absence of either a parent or guardian.
Also at its meeting this week Cleveland Hts City Council amended other aspects of the curfew ordinance already on the books that precludes a child, without a parent or guardian, out after dark if under the age of 12, requires children 12 to 15-years-old in at 10:30 pm, and mandates that teens 16 and 17 are in by midnight. That ordinance amendment adds exceptions like exclusion from the general curfew requirements for coming from school, a school related activity, movies, religious gatherings, or an emergency with written parental consent.
Journalist and Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman can be reached at 216-932-3114 and ktcoleman8 [at] aol [dot] com.
Posted By Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman to THE KATHY WRAY COLEMAN ONLINE NEWS BLOG.COM [5] at 7/09/2011 07:11:00 AM
Links:
[1] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YSRFJokvGjI/TX03HA_BYvI/AAAAAAAABSc/aeLPyc5J_gY/s1600/large_Art%252520McKoy.jpg
[2] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5j27fbqXahQ/Thh3XBmy1OI/AAAAAAAABfw/_UXcr9Xb0Iw/s1600/Sharon%2BDanann.jpg
[3] http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7zsIASAFRBw/ThknKN4w2yI/AAAAAAAABf4/H92g4oVNMGg/s1600/Michael%2BR.%2BWhite.jpg
[4] http://www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
[5] http://www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com/2011/07/black-on-black-imperial-women-other.html