Al Sharpton delivers 'justice revival' in wake of Cleveland officer's acquittal

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/30/al-sharpton-cleveland-police-voting-reform

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Related: Cleveland announces historic second settlement over chronic police abuse

When Al Sharpton got up to speak at the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland on Friday night, he was given a standing ovation. At what was billed as a “justice and reform revival”, attendees, mostly congregants of the church itself, had been primed by several hymns and scriptural invocations. Their pastor, reverend Jawanza Colvin, introduced the civil rights campaigner as “one of God’s trombones”.

Sharpton proceeded to deliver a barn-burning speech that had the assembled on their feet and shouting praise, sometimes drowning out his words. Among them, the crowd was told, were family members of Tamir Rice, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, the three victims of police violence who have been most on the minds of city residents this week.

Last Saturday Michael Brelo, the officer who fired 49 of 137 police shots at Williams and Russell at the end of a car chase in November 2012, was acquitted on two counts of voluntary manslaughter. An investigation continues into the death of Rice, the 12-year-old who was holding a toy gun when a Cleveland officer shot him dead in November 2014.

Some local commentators had criticized Sharpton for coming to the city. For much of his speech, he seemed to be at pains to rebut their doubts. He told, for example, the story of a man who had been sitting next to him in first class on the way to Cleveland.

“The man asked me whether there was gonna be violence,” Sharpton said. “There has already been violence!”

Sharpton also insisted that he had only got involved when the families asked.

“If it takes all the breath in my body,” he declared, “they will never stand alone, and we will not be quiet.”

Sharpton called for a voter registration drive and repeatedly pointed out that Ohio is a swing state. He also pointed out that in 2016, the Republican convention will be held in Cleveland. He said he was not so concerned with the mayor of Cleveland, Frank Jackson – a Democrat – as he was with presumed GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Scott Walker.

He said he had not come to Cleveland for a “black on black fight” but instead had those “bigger fish to fry”. The atmosphere, one of hope with a palpable edge of bitterness, was characteristic of the general mood in Cleveland. It has been more than five months since Rice was shot, and there are fresh teddy bears on the picnic table behind Cudell Recreation Center, where he died. No one has been charged.

The protests that followed the acquittal of Brelo resulted in more than 70 arrests, but nearly everyone here was at pains to point out how non-violent those protests were in comparison to recent events in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri. Sharpton said the Cleveland protests “showed a dignity and respect that has not been seen” elsewhere.

The announcement of the federal Department of Justice’s consent decree on policing in the city so soon after the Brelo verdict undoubtedly helped preserve a certain tense peace. Though Sharpton barely mentioned it, the stringent provisions of the settlement have been making headlines all week, and to many seem like a good step towards reform.

There was, of course, one loud voice of dissent: the head of Cleveland’s patrolmen’s union, Stephen Loomis, gave an interview in which he complained that the provisions, when implemented, were “going to get somebody killed”.

“There’s going to be a time when someone isn’t going to want to do that paperwork, so he’s going to keep that gun in its holster,” Loomis said.

Even among those who support reform, there was palpable unease about just how much progress it would bring about. Those who lingered on the sidewalk outside the church after Sharpton’s speech gave at best qualified statements of hope.

“All I can say is, it’s a step in the right direction,” said a 22-year-old man who identified himself only as Mario. But he thought the problems were wider than the consent decree could possibly address. He said he had been happy to hear Sharpton mention voting, because he wanted to see a “bigger discussion on how citizens can actively play a role in policing”.

His friend Rufus Hill, however, was downright pessimistic.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” the 26-year-old said. “They [the Department of Justice] came here twice already.”

Plus, he pointed out: “This is not just a black problem. It’s a problem for all of humanity.”

Hill was concerned, he said, that taxpayers were funding the very police who were attacking and killing them.

“Yeah, we are literally paying them to kill us,” another friend agreed.