CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cleveland Chapter NAACP, then under the leadership of chapter president George Forbes,  protected the theft of homes through illegal foreclosures by judges, county prosecutors and former county sheriffs Gerald McFaul and Bob Reid, as Forbes bought hundreds of the houses for cheap, including in the cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland, and he protected malfeasance against the Black community by corrupt White judges and police from various municipal jurisdictions in Cuyahoga County, a Cleveland Urban News.Com investigation reveals. His sidekick, Cleveland Attorney James Hardiman, then the first vice president of the Cleveland NAACP,  and now the legal director for the Ohio ACLU, did some of his bidding and ran interference for him, data also show. CLICK THIS LINK HERE TO READ THE BOB REID THEFT OF HOMES VIA ILLEGAL FORECLOSURES ARTICLE

At that time Blacks alleging discrimination and other harassment relative to an ongoing county corruption probe and otherwise could not for the most part get a meeting with NAACP officials, and Forbes, a former Cleveland city council president and now general counsel for the Call and Post Newspaper, a Black Cleveland weekly, blocked them, including community activists, from even entering the Cleveland NAACP building, then located on Stokes Blvd in Cleveland. And even though an NAACP commissioned study found that the majority White 34 judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, led by Chief Judge Nancy Fuerst, who is White, were handing out harsher jail and prison sentences to Blacks in comparison to similarly situated Whites, Forbes and Hardiman did nothing and he and Black judges associated with the local chapter NAACP covered up the malfeasance by the judges, most of the alleged culprits of whom are White.

"Mr Forbes did some good things at one time some people say but in the last decade he has, some community activists believe, hurt the Black community because of his greed, insensitivity and innate love of White folks," said Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman, who led at least one protest of the Cleveland Chapter NAACP in the past three years and  fought for open-door access by the Black community. "Mr. Forbes and Mr. Hardiman got rich while the Black community got done in."

The Rev Hilton Smith, an associate minister at Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church  in Cleveland and a vice president for communications at Turner Construction Company, took the helm as chapter president in December 2012 and things got better, at least people could get into the building to talk to chapter officials, said Coleman. And activists, she said, were allowed to take testimony on alleged housing discrimination and  foreclosure fraud by former county sheriff Bob Reid, other county officials and judges through the NAACP Housing Committee, which is led by the Rev David Hunter, senior pastor at Bright Star Missionary Baptist Church and president of the Baptist Ministers Alliance.

But other serious issues, said Coleman, such as police brutality, Blacks being denied attorneys in criminal cases in Bedford, Berea and other suburbs of Cleveland though deemed indigent, and gross malfeasance by judges and others against Blacks, are allegedly protected by a Cleveland NAACP Criminal Justice Committee led by Cleveland Attorney Michael Nelson, who refers to Forbes as his Godfather. Hardiman is  co-chair of the committee.

Nelson, said Coleman, routinely harasses Black women that call for help about discrimination by judges, city prosecutors, police and others, all while collecting bond monies for his law practice from former county prosecutor Bill Mason and current county prosecutor Tim McGinty, both White men. Forbes and Hardiman also receive bond monies from the county prosecutor's office for their law firms.

"Community activists call for Attorney Michael Nelson and Attorney James Hardiman to step aside as co-chairs of the Cleveland NAACP Criminal Justice Committee so they can stop lobbying for White Folks against the Black community while getting back-handed monies for their law practices to protect corruption and malfeasance by judges, police and others," said Coleman. "Attorney Nelson will not even hold regular committee meetings and neither he, nor Hardiman or other leaders of the Cleveland Chapter NAACP will speak out on the 137 shots deadly Cleveland police shooting of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell by 13 White Cleveland cops because most of them are on the take."

Coleman said that Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Sheila Wright, whom Smith appointed, is better than former executive director Stanley Miller, who served under Forbes, but her hands are tied because of people like Hardiman and Nelson, and the fact that Forbes still meddles to do what he can to help Whites to the detriment of the Black community, sources say.

"Community activists may need to picket them again," said Coleman. "If they will allow two unarmed Blacks to get gunned down with 137 bullets and will not speak out because they are bought and sold by the White establishment than the Black community of greater Cleveland is in big trouble." (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)