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Cleveland calm but wary as protesters react to acquittal of police officer Cleveland stays calm despite acquittal of officer in case of 137 police shots
(about 1 hour later)
Related: Cleveland officer not guilty over deaths of two people shot at 137 times by policeRelated: Cleveland officer not guilty over deaths of two people shot at 137 times by police
Cleveland’s police chief, Calvin Williams, said on Saturday afternoon that the city remained peaceful after the acquittal of police officer Michael Brelo on charges arising from the death of two people in 2012. Cleveland was tense but calm on Saturday night hours after Judge John P O’Donnell found police officer Michael Brelo not guilty on two counts of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the deaths of two unarmed African Americans in November 2012. Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell were killed when officers fired 137 shots at their vehicle, after a 20-minute car chase.
Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell died in a volley of police gunfire that ended a high-speed, 22-mile car chase on 29 November 2012. Police fired 137 shots at the couple, who were unarmed – 49 of them were fired by Brelo, including 15 from the hood of Williams and Russell’s car. Officer Brelo fired 49 times at the victims’ 1979 Chevy Malibu, including 15 shots while he was standing on its hood.
On Saturday morning, Cuyahoga County judge John O’Donnell found Brelo not guilty on two charges of voluntary manslaughter. The federal Justice Department announced a review of the testimony and evidence presented in the trial. Brelo, who broke down when the verdict was announced, remains suspended without pay. Anger over what many perceived as another case of police impunity involving deadly force used against African Americans was palpable. Some spectators at the courthouse shouted “No justice, no peace” when Judge O’Donnell announced his verdict on Saturday morning. However, weeks of preparation by the city appeared to have averted an outbreak of violence such as was witnessed in Baltimore and in Ferguson, Missouri, following the deaths of young black men at the hands of police.
“The city will not tolerate any violence and destruction and people need to understand that,” Williams said, as police and media watched protesters in the city, mindful of the rioting which affected Baltimore last month after the death of an African American man in police custody. The atmosphere in the city was already tense. A week ago, supporters and family members of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was holding a toy gun when he was shot by a Cleveland police officer in November 2014, had planned a protest march for Saturday. They wanted to ask why the investigation into Tamir’s death had taken so long, and why the officer had not been charged.
Brelo is white; Williams and Russell were black. The plan was to protest in front of Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty’s house. Some expected confrontation: the neighborhood is very white and has many police officers among its residents. As the march began, a coffin was carried by a mostly African American crowd, who chanted: “No Justice, No Peace.”
Williams said demonstrators in Cleveland had been peaceful, and said police were “assisting them in expressing their first-amendment rights”. But events took a strange turn. At the justice center downtown, Judge O’Donnell reached his verdict. In a city that had been waiting three weeks for a verdict and with protesters carrying a sign saying “Cage Killer Cops” marching through a neighborhood where many lawns sported signs saying “We Support Our Cleveland Police Officers”, you might have expected the lid to blow.
On Saturday Ohio native and Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James told reporters that “violence is not the answer, and it’s all about trying to find a solution, for good or for bad.” But it didn’t, in the prosecutor’s neighbourhood and elsewhere in the city, and according to most observers on Saturday it was unlikely that Cleveland would erupt into the kind of burning and looting that recently occurred in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after the deaths of young African American men at the hands of police.
At an earlier press conference, Mayor Frank Jackson expressed similar hopes. He said “It is my expectation that we will show the nation that a peaceful protest is a right” but added that anyone with “a different agenda” would not be tolerated. At an afternoon press conference, the police chief, Calvin Williams, said: “The city will not tolerate any violence and destruction and people need to understand that.” But he added that protesters had been peaceful, and said police were “assisting them in expressing their first-amendment rights”.
“This is a moment that will define us as a city and define us as people,” Jackson said. One of the reasons for the calm was that the city’s leadership, Williams among them, had three weeks to prepare for O’Donnell’s verdict. But it was also because Cleveland residents on both sides of the issue have come to believe confrontation taken to excess will do no good.
Williams also appealed to parents to keep tabs on any children who might be considering protesting. “Parents out there should be aware of where their children are,” he said, “and we ask that they keep them close where possible.” Art McKoy, a radio host and African American community activist who was marching in the Tamir Rice protest, said: “The people who live in this neighborhood know what’s going on.
“Maybe they haven’t seen this same racist thing like this verdict so many times as I have, but I can tell they know there is a problem that needs to be fixed. Maybe that’s why you aren’t seeing the confrontation.”
Many of the residents in the prosecutors’ neighborhood, West Park, did not want to talk to the media. But Terri Brown, a marketing copywriter, summed it up this way: “Everyone has been peaceful, and it has been very controlled. We care about the city, and I think [the protesters] do too. I think everyone in this neighborhood respects the right to protest.”
Still, the authorities had prepared. Cleveland police Swat team members were called around 6pm on Friday and told they should come into work on Saturday at 8am, though they were not told why. The first Twitter postings that a verdict in the Brelo case might be coming didn’t appear until about 7.30am.
Judge O’Donnell and the city worked together on preparation for the verdict and its timing. Cleveland public schools ended classes for the summer on Friday and sources told the Guardian city leaders had expressed concern to O’Donnell that a verdict while school was in session might cause problems downtown.
City leadership also thought a verdict announced on the holiday weekend would push possible problems back a day. Many people would be traveling, while a 10am announcement in an empty downtown area was critical.
The people who live in this neighborhood know what’s going on. They know there is a problem that needs to be fixed
The way O’Donnell disclosed his verdict may also have eased tensions. He spent about an hour explaining his verdict, and used mannequins to explain the significance of each bullet. He also explained what legal criteria were needed to prove excessive force used by law enforcement, and how the prosecution had failed to do so.
He started his hour-long explanation of his reasoning with some philosophical statements. He cited Ferguson and Baltimore, saying that “people are mistrustful and fearful of police” in cities across America, and that “Cleveland is such a place”.
“The verdict should be no cause for civilized society to celebrate or riot,” he said.
O’Donnell, 50, is a Democrat not known for being extremely active in party politics. But he is known for being very meticulous on legal details. According to lawyers who have tried cases in front of him, he is more of an academic type of judge.
“Guessing and finding out beyond a reasonable doubt are not compatible,” O’Donnell said during his explanation of his verdict.
Another reason that Cleveland might not see civic unrest in response to the verdict, as Baltimore and Ferguson did, is that the city is very defensive about its image. Cleveland is still losing population and has one of the highest poverty rates in the country – 54% of children live under the poverty line – and one of the highest crime rates. Recent FBI figures ranked the city fifth in the country for violent crime.
But in recent years, Cleveland has tried to shed its Rust Belt job loss image and promote itself as a comeback city. So though vast parts of the city remain in dire distress, the city government likes to emphasize that the Republican party chose the city for its 2016 convention, that millennials are moving into apartments downtown, and that LeBron James came back to the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team.
On Saturday James, leading the Cavaliers in the NBA Eastern finals against the Atlanta Hawks, told reporters: “Violence is not the answer, and it’s all about trying to find a solution, for good or for bad.”
A mantra heard over and over again in Cleveland in recent years is “We’re not as bad as Detroit”; in recent weeks, Baltimore and Ferguson have been added to the list.
Mayor Frank Jackson expressed that attitude – that the nation would be judging Cleveland after the recent riots in Baltimore and Ferguson – on Saturday after the verdict. Jackson has engaged church pastors, community voices, business bosses, and educational leaders in the past few weeks, to get out in the community and encourage peaceful protests if need be but to also watch out for “outside agitators”.
“It is my expectation that we will show the nation that peaceful demonstration and dialogue is the right direction as we move forward as one Cleveland,” the mayor said. “We all understand and respect the fact that people have a right to protest and let their voice be heard.
“However, while we encourage and support peaceful protest, I want to make sure that those who are here that have a different agenda understand that actions that cross the line, whether by police officers or citizens, cannot and will not be tolerated.”