Saturday, May 23, 2015
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
For Cleveland’s maligned police department, the barrage began with a car chase that ended when officers fired 137 rounds and killed two unarmed black people.
Then late last year, a white, rookie police officer shot and killed a 12-year-old black boy carrying a pellet gun in a park. Around the same time, a U.S. Justice Department report slammed the entire department, outlining a string of excessive force and civil rights violations.
Somehow, despite the repeated stains, Cleveland has been spared from violent protests that have erupted in places like Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo.
Cleveland’s politicians and community leaders are now working to make sure protests remain peaceful as the city awaits a verdict in the trial of a white officer in the deaths of the two unarmed people and a decision on whether charges will be filed in the 12-year-old’s death.
There’s nothing at this point that indicates there’s a cauldron of dissent in the predominantly black, largely poor city that’s about to boil over into violence. Cleveland and the region’s biggest concern at the moment appear to be a hoped-for march by the Cleveland Cavaliers to an NBA title.
“I think the mayor’s been very clear. We’re interested in making sure that those who want to protest for whatever reason do it in a responsible way,” said Dan Williams, spokesman for Mayor Frank Jackson.
Cleveland has worked hard to burnish its image as a decaying Rust Belt city. Downtown has become a vibrant place for people to live, work and play. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame attracts tourists from near and far, and Republicans are bringing their national nominating convention here next year. But not far away are neighborhoods ravaged by poverty and blight, and a long history of ill will between citizens and police, especially on Cleveland’s overwhelmingly black east side.
The Justice Department slammed police in December when Eric Holder, attorney general at the time, announced that a lengthy investigation concluded officers unnecessarily fired their guns, hit suspects in the head with their weapons, and punched and used Tasers on people already handcuffed.
Discontent with police has gone beyond allegations of excessive force. Six years ago, the department came under criticism after the discovery of 11 women’s bodies in a home where the stench of death hung over a poverty-stricken neighborhood for months. The victims’ families accused police of failing to properly investigate the disappearances because most of the women were drug addicts and poor.
Mayors have for decades struggled to rein in the police department. Jackson and his administration have made a very public show in the past weeks of how they’re working to keep the peace before a judge delivers his verdict for the trial of Michael Brelo in the 137-shot case.
What has helped ease the tension so far is Cleveland’s long history of electing black leaders along with a strong network of seasoned activists and clergy in the black community, said Ronnie Dunn, an urban affairs professor at Cleveland State University.