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CLEVELAND, Ohio- "Hands off" rallies were held across the country on Sat., April 5, 2025, including in Cleveland, to protest actions by President Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk and the Trump administration, events that follow a national day of action on International Women's Day, Cleveland's International Women's Day march of March 8 of which was hosted by Women's March Cleveland and drew nearly 2,000 women and community activists.

Hundreds of “Hands off” demonstrations were planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and voting rights activists. Protest sites included the National Mall in Washington, D.C. where the National Women's March rallied, state capitols, and other locations in all 50 states.

Northeast Ohio had "Hands off" rallies in several cities Saturday, including Cleveland, Medina, Cuyahoga Falls, and Akron, Cleveland's event organized by volunteers of a revived Indivisible movement, Cuyahoga County Democratic Women's Caucus, Mobilize the Vote, and NEO. It was held at Market Square Park in the Ohio City neighborhood on the city's near west side where throngs of people gathered neck and neck with a strong police presence nearby.

Speakers included activists, Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel Brown, anti-Trump advocates and women's rights organizers, including Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, who led chants and reminded protesters that her group will host a noon Sat., June 21, 2025 rally and march from Cleveland City Hall steps, also a national day of action. It is the weekend before the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 24, 2022 historic Dobbs decision that overturned its longstanding 1973 Roe v Wade decision that gave federal protection to women nationwide for abortion access and other reproductive rights. The Dobbs decision also handed authority to legislate abortion to the respective states.

Abortion in Ohio, however, is legal since voters, in 2023, approved an Issue 1 statewide ballot initiative following a campaign led by groups like Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights and grassroots activists associated with Women's March Cleveland and other groups. But activists fear that Trump and Republicans are seeking a national abortion ban and have said they will fight against any such thing.

At Cleveland's Market Square Park "Hands off" rally this weekend energized protesters carried anti-Trump and anti-Elon Musk signs as speaker after speaker demanded that the president keep his hands off DEI, healthcare, education, immigration, federal workers, social security, medicaid, reproductive rights, SNAP benefits, and a litany of other measures or programs his opponents say he has been working to either dismantle or destroy since taking office in January for a second, non-consecutive term as president.

Responding to the nationwide protests, the White House said in a statement that "President Trump's position is clear, he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries."

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurban

Former Cleveland councilman Basheer Jones

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor

Investigative article

CLEVELAND, Ohio — After taking a plea deal and pleading guilty late last year to federal public corruption charges and agreeing to pay restitution, former Cleveland Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones is facing sentencing on Tues, April 1 before U.S. District Court Judge J. Phillip Calabreze, a Republican appointed to the federal bench in the Northern District of Ohio in 2020 by President Donald Trump during his first term in office. And while prosecutors are calling for prison time, some greater Cleveland Black leaders, like former HUD secretary Marcia L. Fudge, and some Black community activists say probation is more appropriate, given Jones' overall record in support of the community and because similarly situated White elected officials traditionally get off easy and often are not even prosecuted at all, data show.

Jones, 40 years old, Black, and a devout Muslim, was an east side councilman from 2017-2021.  He did not seek reelection to city council in 2021, instead choosing to run for mayor, a race he lost in a crowded non-partisan primary that yielded a win for current Mayor Justin Bibb, who went on to overwhelmingly beat then council president and second place primary finisher Kevin Kelley in the general run-off election.

The first Muslim to serve on city council, Jones was charged in a two-count information with conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud for using his role as a public official for personal financial gain by allegedly seeking to defraud multiple community stakeholders out of more than $200,000.

According to court documents, from about December 2018 to June 2021 Jones allegedly misrepresented and concealed material facts to induce nonprofit organizations to enter into a variety of arrangements that would benefit him and his romantic partner co-conspirator, who has since been charged.

Prosecutors say Jones’ schemes were devised to line his pockets by deceiving nonprofit entities into making payments toward projects they thought were for the community’s benefit, but research reveals that the situation is more complicated than it appears since city council, per city ordinance, must approve and sign off on community development projects, larger and more lucrative projects of which routinely go to White developers without question.

The true profiteers of Cleveland's community development projects are White developers, sources said Thursday, and data show, and they rarely, if at all, face prosecution.

Nonetheless, Blacks like former Ohio 11th congressional district congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of greater Cleveland, also secretary of HUD (Housing and Urban Development)  when former President Joe Biden held office, want leniency for Jones, saying he lost his way but does not deserve prison.

In a letter to the judge, among supportive letters from dozens of people, including intellectual scholar, famed raced-based author, activist and former independent candidate for president Dr. Cornel West, Fudge wrote that Basheer Jones, her former protege, is a "decent man with a big heart and a love of people."

Some Black community activists of Cleveland also say the former councilman deserves a second chance and should get probation, and that a double standard remains regarding how Black men are treated at all levels of the legal system in comparison to their White, male counterparts. Institutional racism, they say, is primarily at the core of all they do to Blacks, and reforms are direly needed, not withstanding compliance with Civil rights laws and other applicable authorities that preclude race-based prosecutions and racial disparities in sentencing.

"It is unfair," said activist Alfred Porter Jr of Black on Black Crime Inc. "Black men are treated more differently and more harshly than White men by our criminal justice system, and we want it to stop as well as an overhaul of the entire system."

A study commissioned by the United States Sentencing Commission found that Black male offenders received sentences on average 19.1 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders, and were less likely to receive probation unlike White men.

By Kathy Wray Coleman: Kathy Wray Coleman is a longtime Cleveland journalist, blogger, digital and social media reporter, and seasoned investigative reporter

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com