137 bullets killer Cleveland cops get their jobs back via arbitration as community activists will rally at 5 pm June 16, 2017 at Heritage Middle School....Malissa Williams and Tim Russell were Black and gunned down unarmed in 2012 following a car chase

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Pictured are Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (wearing beard and eye glasses), Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell (in sky blue tie),  fired Cleveland police patrolman Michael Brelo (in blue shirt), former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty (in red-pink tie with polka dots), Community activist Art McKoy ( in red, black and green turban), 137 shots unarmed Cleveland police fatal shooting victim Malissa Williams (in white shirt), and 137 shots unarmed Cleveland police fatal shooting victim Timothy Russell ( in dark blue sweatshirt).


, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers with some 4.5 million readers on Google Plus alone. And the ClevelandUrbanNews.Com website stats reveal some 26 million hits since 2012. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. 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.


CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- Community members and community activists will rally at 5 pm on Friday, June 16, 2017 in the parking lot of Heritage Middle School where unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell were gunned down in 2012 by 13 non-Black Cleveland cops slinging 137 bullets following a high speed car chase from downtown Cleveland to the middle school in neighboring East Cleveland. (For more information contact activists Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women Coalition at (216) 659-0473, Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime Inc at (216) 253-4070, and Alfred Porter Jr. of Black on Black Crime Inc at (216) 804-7462).


Activists are angry because an arbitrator, on Tuesday, ruled that while officer Michael Brelo should remain fired, the other five officer fired out of the 13 that did the shooting, none of them Black, should get their jobs back without back pay.


They say all six should remain fired and that arbitrator William Heekin was bias in favor of the cops, and that he exceeded his authority under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement at issue.


Brelo was exceptionally callus and shot 49 of the 137 bullets into the car Russell had been driving, after it became cornered and stationary at Heritage school, and was surrounded by an army of cops allegedly hell bent on getting vengeance by any means necessary.


Heekin, who was chosen by the city and the police union from a list of arbitrators from the American Arbitration Association, also upheld the 21-day suspensions for officers Scott Sistek, Cynthia Moore, Randy Patrick, Paul Box and Det. William Salupo, as well as a 22-day suspension for Det. Michael Rinkus.


Activists say the arbitration process is a sham to the detriment of the Black community and others, particularly those subjected to excessive force and other police misconduct.


Participating activist groups who will rally on Friday include Black on Black Crime Inc., the Imperial Women Coalition, the Committee for Social Justice, the Carl Stokes Brigade , Refuse Facism.org., and the Black Man's Army.


Mayor Jackson issued a press release on the issue.


"The city terminated six of those officers and gave lengthy suspensions to the other six," said Jackson, who is Black. "We are pleased that the arbitrator confirmed the severity of the violations committed by the officers and that he upheld the termination of Officer Brelo and that he upheld the lengthy suspensions for the six officers whom the city had not terminated."

Longtime community activist Art McKoy of Black of Black Crime Inc. called the arbitrator's decision to hand jobs back to the five killer cops "terrible."


Don Freeman, who leads the Committee for Social Justice, and who led the charge for the mayor to fire the cops, said he and his group members will attend the rally, which will also include a press conference, activists said.


The city and the police union [the Cleveland Police Patromen's Association] can appeal the arbitrator's binding decision to the court of common pleas on grounds that the arbitrator abused his authority, though overturning an arbitration award in Ohio rarely occurs, regardless of the merits of the case.


In addition to Brelo, the other police officers fired of the 13 that gunned down Williams and Russell were Det. Erin O'Donnell  officers Brian Sabolik, Wilfredo Diaz and Michael Farley, and Det. Chris Ereg.

 

The car chase that resulted in the unprecedented deaths of two innocent Black people culminated in some 64 police cars and some 105 officers, those that did the killing ignoring supervisor orders to back down.


Williams, 30, and Russell, 43, both homeless but not wanted by the law, died at the scene, police later claiming that they were in hot pursuit of the pair due to a mistake by the cop that initiated the chase of the alleged backfiring of Russell's 1979 Malibu Classic as a gun shot


Former county prosecutor Timothy McGinty shielded all of the police officers but Brelo from criminal indictments by a grand jury after they appeared before the grand jury in tears, fake tears, in fact, say community activists.


Brelo faced manslaughter charges in 2015 in a bench trial before Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John 'Donnell who, on May 23, 2015,  freed him on all charges, namely two counts of voluntary manslaughter.


The verdict caused racial unrest with police in riot gear arresting some 71 protesters, mainly in downtown Cleveland, and on charges primarily of obstruction of official business and resisting arrest, many for scrimmages with police.


O'Donnell, who is White, lost a a bid for the Ohio Supreme Court last year by roughly 24,000 votes following fallout from Black voters regarding his controversial verdict, and outright criticism from activists and several Black members of Cleveland City, led by Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell.


The city of Cleveland is currently under a court-monitored consent decree for police reforms with the U.S. Department of Justice.


 

, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers with some 4.5 million readers on Google Plus alone. And the ClevelandUrbanNews.Com website stats reveal some 26 million hits since 2012. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.


 

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Last Updated on Saturday, 17 June 2017 19:13