On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice bestowed $1,875,000 on Cleveland to fund the hiring of 15 new police officers. (No word yet on how many will be stationed in the Muni Lot to help hold your beer bong.)
Just hours prior, City Councilman Zack Reed publicly called for 200 more officers to be hired in the city’s upcoming budget. The Ward 2 councilman has routinely taken time during council meetings to illustrate the heightened levels of violence in what he’s termed “the other Cleveland.”
So far this year, Cleveland has 75 homicides on the books, most of them occurring in neighborhoods not boasting any Hilton hotel construction. Reed pointed Monday night to a 19-year-old man who had been shot in the chest earlier that day in Longwood Estates at East 37th Street and Longwood Avenue. News of young black men being shot down in the city has become all too common, and the numbers are rising in contrast to previous years. Outside of the metro pages, though, that sort of stuff doesn’t get talked about too often.
“We needed money to redo Public Square, we found the mo
ney. We needed money to build the bridge to the lakefront, we found the money,” Reed told WEWS. “If those things are important to the city, I think the lives of the young men who are dying everyday on our streets — that’s important.”
Boots on the ground are one thing. What would be truly exceptional would be if some level of funding actually prompted officers to do their jobs and, say, follow felony booking protocol. The Plain Dealer’s Rachel Dissell, before being altogether booted from her beat by the NEOMG crowd, dropped a bomb earlier in the week when she revealed that Cleveland police officers don’t collect DNA from those arrested for felony offenses (contrary to state law and common sense). But boots on the ground are a start. It’s unclear how much support Reed’s budget calls will garner from council.
Bearing all of that in mind, Reed will be hosting a non-violence conference of sorts Oct. 7: the “Gun Violence Prevention and Solution” forum at the Jerry Sue Thornton Center. The event is free, but do register at safercleveland.org.
Listen: The problem is we have a problem, but most of Cleveland’s visible problems are being ameliorated in time for the Republican National Convention in 2016. How about the violence in the streets?
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2014.
Zac wants to put a band aid on the issue. Why doesn’t he look into the root cause of the issue and determine why it’s gotten this bad and try to fix that? Is it family structure, lack of religion/morals, gangs, education, govt enabling this behavior? I think it’s all of this and more.
Where’s Jessie J and Rev Al to provide solutions? Where’s the black businesses to offer jobs and solutions? Where are the black role models that aren’t athletes, rappers, gangsters, or prisoners to offer solutions? If the black man can’t fix these issues, how is the white man supposed to other than writing a check?
Why don’t they make areas with a certain rate for crimes/murder a military zone and use the national guard to protect? Have checkpoints and curfews. When the crime/murder rate dropps to a certain percent, then the national guard can leave.
East side of Cleveland will continue to be an issue until drastic changes are made.
Cleveland has their priorities all jacked up. First off, I live by Cleveland City police department. Good luck finding any one of them actually showing a presence. They’d much rather get drunk after their shift making local bars stay open past hours and then pop shots off in the air.
Make these cops do their jobs. If they don’t want to or have grievances, we’ll move them out or hear them out. Whatever is being done (nothing) isn’t working. Just random complaints about needing more inadequate cops.
Find some money for the roads in these neighborhoods jackasses. If you want people to have pride and ownership of their community, do your damn part to keep it nice. It’s bound to spread to their yards, homes, and overall attitudes. If not, at least us passers-through can safely drive through without a trip to the mechanic.
Idiots…..