Written by West Shore FOP Secretary Sgt. Steve Fioritto, the letter accused council members Sarah Kepple, Dan O’Malley and Tristan Rader of attending the May 30th protest in downtown Cleveland and “adding to the chaos” by remaining downtown after dusk, when property destruction began in response to police violence.
“These so-called city leaders should have left the area once these protests began to turn violent but chose to remain and be part of the problem,” the letter alleged.
Further, it accused Sarah Kepple of attending a June 2nd protest which was scheduled to include a demonstration outside Lakewood City Hall. The letter insinuated that Kepple kept this information from police.
In light of these invented infractions, the West Shore FOP demanded a “formal apology” from the named council members to all its officers who were “put into great danger on Saturday.”
The Lakewood Council members issued a written response Monday. “We are confounded and disappointed that you would send a letter so full of inaccuracies and demonstrably false allegations,” they wrote.
All three said that while they attended the May 30th demonstrations, they had long since departed by the time of the evening looting. They also refuted the idea that Council member Kepple knowingly withheld information about the June 2nd protest.
“It was common knowledge to the public and to law enforcement that these
demonstrators might peacefully march to City Hall and assemble there,” they wrote. “This has been confirmed by department leadership and many other officials we have spoken with before and since. To represent otherwise and allege that a councilmember “put police officers at greater risk” by not sharing information that was already widely known is an appalling accusation.”
Far from an apology, the letter questioned what the FOP sought to achieve by “besmirching our efforts to provide leadership and reassurance at this
moment of heightened tension in the community.”
Reached by phone, councilman Dan O’Malley called the FOP letter “bizarre,” especially given his legislative support for police in the past.
“Ironically, my last interaction with Sgt. Fioritto was when I introduced the police officers memorial week resolution two years ago and personally presented it to him,” he said. “This is my next interaction with him, being accused of looting and rioting and putting officers in danger. It’s crazy.”
O’Malley said that while he and his council colleagues certainly did not participate in rioting, they were proud to be at the demonstrations.
“What’s going on in this country needs to change,” he said. “And that they would interpret our presence [at the protests] in this way is completely ridiculous.”
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This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2020.
I am old enough to remember a time when Lakewood and East Cleveland were nearly identical. Same style homes and commercial buildings. My grandmothers Shaw Ave home could have been mistsaken for any Lakewood street. Get out while you can.
These lakewood leaders are a danger to the city. Kepple is an antifa agent the city council placed in a council seat vacant seat under suspicious circumstances. Now that they are at full white liberal, these white people all spend their time blaming the problems they are causing on systemic racism while never addressing the crippled Lakewood economy and the giant pond in the middle of downtown that was supposed to be new homes and offices.
The Lakewood City council is disgusting. They have ruined the city. At least they FEEL good though.
And you know what else needs to change, is the outrageous property taxes that Lakewood residents have to pay!!!
And that’s in addition to the already outrageous property taxes is forced upon us property owners by thief Budish and cohort Taxin Jackson!!!
So were the white Democrats from Lakewood City Council protesting how the black Democrats running the City of Cleveland are treating African-Americans or how the Democrats running the City of Minneapolis are treating African-Americans or both?
Kepple was appointed to Lakewood City Council by the other 6 council persons after an open call was put out to the city. Over 20 applied but O’Malley disposed of half of the applicants with the excuse of taking up too much time. Kepple’s resume was made public with the others showing a severe lack of qualifications with her leftist activism of organizing an anti-trump protest in 2017 as her main qualification. Otherwise she has not worked since 2014. The council preached transparency as they held multiple selection sessions privately from the public. Somehow, in spite of tbe real qualifications brought forth by other applicants, council emerged from the secretive sessions and Kepple was presented as a unanimous selection by the council. Citizen complaints about the appointment of a radical leftist to council were dismissed by the remaining members of council though it is inconceivable that she would be the selection based on the pool of qualified applicants.
The entire Lakewood City Council needs to be removed and replaced with conservative leaders for Lakewood to survive.
Dan O’ Malley’s brother is infamous in the Gordon Square area, where they frequently party and act like bafoons. These guys interact with left extremists who identify as Antifa often. I have witnessed dozens of crimes in my thirty years in Greater Cleveland, from everyday harrassments of women to assaults and armed robberies, and virtually every single time it was a white person being victimized by a black male. You’re definetely right Dan. Something needs to change in this country and in Lakewood.
it is amazing to me that progressives think they are doing good when all they do is destroy their own communities with stupid policies and decisions. Progressivism has literally destroyed every city its been implemented in. What successful example can these progressives even give to support their ideology. Below is a list of progressive hellhole cities that became that way because of progressive policies. Does anyone have even ONE progressive city that’s nice?
Progressive hellholes:
Seattle (CHAZ), Portland, LA, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, Austin, DC…
Let’s see how many times my comment is erased. In my many years in Cleveland, I have witnessed many crimes being committed, from harrassments and assaults to armed robberies. Almost every single time the victim was white and the culprit was black. Are we allowed to speak about our personal experiences or is it only when it affirms a particular position?
You just named a bunch of cities that millions of people love and that are attracting people by the thousands daily???
We deserve accurate representation. Lakewood and Rocky River are not communities of radical left wing activists, and I can say that as a tax payer in Lakewood, knowing they were at those protests is absolutely disgusting.
Lakewood City Hall is still operating remotely due to the covid19 pandemic. They shuttered local businesses and restaurants. O’Malley himself already was quarantined for 2 weeks after being around a covid positive person on a vacation in Washington DC. Yet these elected leaders thought it was OK to go to multiple protests with hundreds and thousands of people who do not practice social distancing.
Kepple has a pic on her fb from the June 2nd protest of her in a blue dress with flowers as she is being confrontational with a line of police officers on bicycles escorting a blm protest through Lakewood.
Woah, you lakewooders let them put another radical leftist on your city council? Let me know when they turn the city hall there into an autonomous zone.
Sarah Kepple is a public official who can be reached at (216) 200 – 5050. She thinks its OK to terrorize her community using blm as a cover to advance her leftist agenda. She thinks its fitting of her position to participate in a riot. Where did she come from and why was she appointed to the council without any relevant experience?
Our council members are also private citizens and have the constitutional right to protest in a peaceful manner with respect to whatever issue they choose. I’m surprised at the backlash in these comments, most of which is either exaggerated, off topic or wrong. If you people think any of our council members are “radical leftists,” you haven’t experienced what a real “radical leftist” is like.
Fudgeface, 1 no one has been able to go anywhere. 2. Those cities used to be great places people wanted to go visit. Now they are all super dangerous, filled with crime, heroin, rampant homelessness, and there is feces all over the sidewalks. 3. People are fleeing these leftist run cities as they become even more unsafe with cuts to police.
jfox, unfortunately with a majority voting system there is no balance of power. The whole city could be 49% conservative and 51% leftist but rather than having a council that reflects that, the majority in each ward is going to then elect and fill the council seats with all the same ideology. The council members had a opportunity to add some political or racial balance to the council earlier this year but instead chose another white leftist, Kepple.
Wow, all you guys should chill. Yesterday was a beautiful day. Did you go to the new steps at Lakewood Park for sunset? And by the way, the High School renovations look great. Maybe having progressives run the city isn’t such a bad idea. If you don’t like it, move to North Ridgeville and focus in the plague of cow tipping.
Walt, I guess you missed the pond in the middle of the city that used to be a hospital and was supposed to be new trendy development. You might have missed it since its surrounded by the dozens and dozens of empty store fronts that line Detroit ave. Wait until the progressive idiots there disable the police with their blm bs and the cleveland crime goes pouring in. Then they’ll sell the pond site to a low income high-rise. They do have those nice steps in the park though.
I suspect a lot of these negative comments spamming this article are from police officers or right wing white supremacist trolls. Multiple destructive individuals at protests and social media accounts have been found to be associated with white terrorist groups like Proud Boys, Boogaloo, etc.
Lake Erie Larry is a liar. The proud Boys have no presence in northeast Ohio. There are multiple antifa chapters in Ohio, all who were present and even posted pics of themselves there. The videos are public the damage was initiated by white antifa types then the looting was carried out by black youth while antifa had a anarchist fantasy night. Right wingers don’t destroy their own city you friggin liar. Check the arrests, if one person was a white supremacist, it’d be headline news. They’d never release them. Instead they rioters were free to go after processing because theyre radical leftists protected by the government or the protected class of colored youth.
Jfox, your ridiculous comment about Conor and Dan could not be further from the truth. When you engage in that kind of character assassination, be a real person and put your name on it. My name is Rory O’Neil, I’ve known the O’Malleys for years and I live in Gordon Square. I’ve been out socially with these guys over the years and nothing like what you wrote is true. If anything, people like Dan and Conor are part of the solution to some of our communities problems.
Tristan Radar has cringey “dear fellow where people you are racist” video up on his Facebook. He’s also the same one that coincidentally keeps ‘finding’ racist flyers and grafiti and swaztikas cut into wet concrete. Sure.
Do you people really think these crazy leftists can do a good job running your communities when they behave this way? Everything is falling apart and they’re taking their time to participate in riots and post videos telling you you are racist. Why did you elect this person? Or any of these people? They’re so dumb.