Cleveland meetings target racism, injustice
By
Workers World Cleveland bureau
Published Feb 5, 2011 4:16 PM
The level of passionate determination expressed by the speakers at two meetings
in Cleveland on Jan. 29, and the enthusiasm of the crowds in attendance show
that the movement is growing to fight back against injustice.
Rebecca Whitby’s
daughter and
grandaughter.
|
A speakout at an East Side church heard riveting testimony on various
miscarriages of justice, which were addressed to Stanley Miller, executive
director of the Cleveland NAACP. Speakers asked for the NAACP’s
involvement in supporting their cases.
Presenters included Denise Taylor, an aunt of Joaquin Hicks who was sentenced
to 61 years to life in prison on a false conviction. Tina Bronaugh also spoke.
She is the mother of two high school students who were brutalized by Cleveland
police during a peaceful protest against school closings. One of these students
is still facing charges.
Another speaker was Rebecca Whitby, who is the mother of a young woman who was
beaten without provocation by Cleveland police. Whitby faces charges along with
her daughter for reporting this brutality. Kevin Mitchell, who is a union
activist wrongfully fired by Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, also
spoke. Sharon Danann addressed the group on behalf of the wrongfully convicted
Lucasville uprising prisoners, and John Hunter spoke as the brother and cousin
of two of several women murdered on nearby Imperial Avenue.
In a key moment, Miller revealed that the police testimony regarding the
Whitbys, which was presented to the grand jury — of which he had been the
foreperson — was at odds with the reality presented by the family about
the night of horrors in April 2009 and with the sworn statements that form the
basis for the current indictments. This revelation of false statements by the
police is extremely helpful since the Whitbys’ trial begins on Jan.
31.
A church on the West Side was standing-room-only for a program in support of
wrongfully convicted Arthur Tyler, who has been on death row for 27 years. One
of the speakers, Joe D’Ambrosio, was released last year after spending 20
years on death row on a false conviction.
The crowd cheered the announcement that some public figures have recently made
statements opposing the death penalty. Retired director of the Ohio Department
of Rehabilitation and Correction, Terry Collins, and Ohio Supreme Court Justice
Paul Pfeiffer urged Gov. John Kasich to commute all death sentences to life in
prison without parole.
Also celebrated was the victory of the Lucasville uprising hunger strikers in
achieving more humane conditions of confinement. The spirit of unity in calling
for overturning all convictions that are based solely on “snitch”
testimony was electric.
This dynamic movement to challenge injustice will come together again on Feb.
26 for a Prison Emergency Summit at Cleveland State University’s Black
Studies Department. The event is being co-sponsored by many of the coalitions
whose activists filled the churches on both sides of Cleveland, along with
prisoner advocacy organizations and several fired-up student groups. For more
information, call 216-925-9108 or e-mail [email protected].
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