The grassroots coalition fighting for a police accountability ballot initiative, Citizens for a Safer Cleveland, has issued a statement confirming that it is in no way responsible for a piece of anti-Zack Reed literature that arrived in the mailboxes of Cleveland residents Thursday.
“We want to correct the record and unequivocally confirm that we did not issue any mailers or campaign literature of any kind regarding any of the mayoral candidates. We are pursuing information to determine and remedy who inappropriately used our disclaimer,” read the statement from Citizens for a Safer Cleveland campaign manager Keizayla Fambro.
“Using the Citizens for a Safer Cleveland campaign to attack political candidates and spread misinformation is a blatant misrepresentation of our goal to pass real police accountability in Cleveland. It is also a clear violation of the law to use a false or fictitious disclaimer in political communications.”
The mailer, arriving several days before the Sept. 14 municipal primary election, features a cartoon of Zack Reed driving under the influence and mentions his three DUIs. On the back, it says, “not one law passed, but many broken.” In the bottom left hand corner is the erroneous disclaimer, “Paid for by Citizens for a Safer Cleveland.”
The source of the mailer is as yet unknown, but candidate Kevin Kelley, who’s famous in these parts for his efforts to stall and crush citizen action on the basis of minor technicalities and legal disclaimers, will no doubt be eager to get to the bottom of it!
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This article appears in Sep 8-21, 2021.
