my memory tells me that Cleveland has shrunk in population from
somewhere close to a million, to around 390,000 folks.
If this is even close to being factual, then those left behind are
most probably the ones who can not afford to move, and those who live
in the gated communities.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/21/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Speri writes: "A day after Republican National Convention speakers
discussed
how to 'make America safe again,' a group of young Clevelanders held their
own 'make America safe again' event at a downtown park."
Police line outside Republican National Convention. (photo: Alex
Brandon/AP)
Black Cleveland Residents Tell Tale of Two Cities in the Shadow of
Republican Convention
By Alice Speri, The Intercept
21 July 16
A day after Republican National Convention speakers discussed how to "make
America safe again," a group of young Clevelanders held their own "make
America safe again" event at a downtown park.
As police officers on horseback and bikes fended off a small rally down the
block and helicopters buzzed overhead, the group of mostly of black and
Latino college students huddled around a picnic table Tuesday and talked
about how irrelevant and offensive the Republican event is to many
residents
of its host city.
"America has never been safe for some people," said Alice Ragland as she
flipped through handwritten slides on the history of American oppression,
from the genocide of Native Americans to the lynching of blacks. "For some
of us, it has not been a great place to live."
The students, who branded themselves on social media #CLEoverRNC, riffing
off the ubiquitous #RNCinCLE hashtag, hoped to reclaim space in a city that
this week has largely excluded Cleveland residents - particularly those of
color and little means in what remains one of America's poorest and most
segregated cities.
"I was pissed off when I first found out that the convention was going to
happen here, because the reason why Cleveland is in such condition is
because of the conservative politics that they're going to be talking about
here," said Ragland.
"In a city where we have a huge problem with police violence, racial
discrimination, economic oppression, where a 12-year-old was killed for
having a fake gun, knowing they're going to be in that same city talking
about all those racist policies, and devaluing black lives . for me it's
kind of a slap in the face. It's insulting."
As the massive protests many had predicted ahead of the convention failed
to
materialize in the streets of Cleveland, the groups that did show up were
notably light on black and brown Cleveland locals.
"Having this big ceremony here, where you're going to hear people say
things
that are anti-black and anti-minority and anti-women, it's just another
reason for people not to care, clock out, stay to the far east or far west
and far away from all this," said Dwight Vincent, a student at the
gathering. "And that just makes it easier for them to be forgotten and
ignored."
Protest was the furthest thing from many Clevelanders' minds right now,
added Tatyana Atkinson, pointing out that already inefficient public
transportation into the city was largely disrupted because of the
convention
- and that many with hourly, low-wage jobs found themselves out of work for
the week. "How do you expect residents whom this is affecting every day to
be here and protest if they can't even get here?"
She also took issue with the $50 million in federal funding the city of
Cleveland received to secure the convention - echoing what several people
referred to as a "tale of two cities."
"[They're] putting $50 million into the city but not putting $50 million
into the city," she said. "They got all this money for this fun
military-grade weapons for a city that already has use-of-force issues, and
they just get to keep these weapons to use them against us every day. So
the
Republicans came, they kept them safe, and now they hurt us every single
day
afterwards," she said. "Yay."
With most protests limited to a few hundred peaceful participants, much of
the equipment the city acquired ahead of the convention remained out of
sight, though the event zone surrounding the convention was barricaded in a
labyrinthine system of gated-off streets, and the police presence, if
largely cordial, was ubiquitous. Uniformed law enforcement visibly
outnumbered the people taking to the streets.
Officers from a dozen law enforcement agencies as far away as California
and
Florida patrolled downtown Cleveland mostly on foot and on bikes, greeting
people and maintaining a laid-back attitude. But as soon as rallies grew
larger or more raucous, officers on horseback showed up to disperse them,
and the squads of cops on bikes were reinforced with squads of cops riding
bikes while also wearing riot gear.
As of Wednesday, the largest shows of police force were in response to a
Tuesday rally against police violence organized by mostly out-of-town
members of the leftist Revolution Books group and a group attempting to
burn
a U.S. flag on Wednesday afternoon. At the first rally, protesters held
signs carrying the names of black victims of police brutality in Cleveland
and elsewhere, chanting "indict, convict, send these killer cops to jail"
and other slogans that have become the trademark of the movement that
started in Ferguson, Missouri. But the Cleveland protest was much smaller
than similar ones taking place even in recent weeks in cities across the
country, and it was quickly dispersed with no incidents.
Civil rights advocates warned against considering that a success, however.
They noted that police didn't need to turn to more suppressive crowd
dispersal tactics largely because they had already intimidated most people
out of attending in the first place.
"There are police everywhere, they have massive weapons, and this creates a
chilling effect on people's willingness to come downtown and engage in
their
free speech rights and right of assembly," Jacqueline Greene, a coordinator
with the Ohio chapter of the National Lawyers Guild told The Intercept as a
line of officers on horseback blocked off a road by Cleveland's Public
Square, the heart of most rallies. "We're at a breaking point in terms of
racial justice issues, and it's critical that those conversations happen,
but the appropriate response is not militarized police, and it is not the
chilling of expression of First Amendment rights."
Julia Shearson, the executive director of Ohio's chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, told The Intercept that some 4,000 members of
the National Guard were stationed down the road from her office.
"What's happened is that we have incredible suppression of public
participation in the protest movement, so many people stayed away, even
regular people who would maybe just want to come down and see what's going
on, because this has been turned into an armed camp," she said. "That's not
how the political process should be. If the politicians are so afraid of
the
people, I think they need to question what kinds of policies they're making
vis-a-vis the people."
Shearson was speaking from a small Tuesday morning rally against police
violence, as Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio was escorted into the convention
center followed by dozens of journalists and a couple of boos and shouts of
"shame on you."
The rhetoric and hatefulness from speakers on the convention's first night
were also a deterrent to many locals, Shearson said. She singled out former
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for calling the Black Lives Matter movement
"racist."
"You cannot get more tone-deaf to the suffering of the African-American
community," she said. "It doesn't help law enforcement to have this
vehement, bigoted response to what are legitimate grievances. . People are
so dejected and so apathetic and have so little hope in the American
political system to solve the problem."
Speaking at the same Tuesday morning rally, professor and civil rights
activist Cornel West told reporters that because the political class
failed,
someone had to keep pushing for justice and an end to racism.
"Some of us have to stand up for justice, love, sensitivity," he said. "If
the party wants to live in a bubble, if they want to live in denial, then
they're going to reap what they sow. But I'm not here to convince the
Republicans."
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
valid.
Police line outside Republican National Convention. (photo: Alex
Brandon/AP)
https://theintercept.com/2016/07/20/black-cleveland-residents-tell-tale-of-t
wo-cities-in-the-shadow-of-republican-convention/https://theintercept.com/20
16/07/20/black-cleveland-residents-tell-tale-of-two-cities-in-the-shadow-of-
republican-convention/
Black Cleveland Residents Tell Tale of Two Cities in the Shadow of
Republican Convention
By Alice Speri, The Intercept
21 July 16
day after Republican National Convention speakers discussed how to "make
America safe again," a group of young Clevelanders held their own "make
America safe again" event at a downtown park.
As police officers on horseback and bikes fended off a small rally down the
block and helicopters buzzed overhead, the group of mostly of black and
Latino college students huddled around a picnic table Tuesday and talked
about how irrelevant and offensive the Republican event is to many
residents
of its host city.
"America has never been safe for some people," said Alice Ragland as she
flipped through handwritten slides on the history of American oppression,
from the genocide of Native Americans to the lynching of blacks. "For some
of us, it has not been a great place to live."
The students, who branded themselves on social media #CLEoverRNC, riffing
off the ubiquitous #RNCinCLE hashtag, hoped to reclaim space in a city that
this week has largely excluded Cleveland residents - particularly those of
color and little means in what remains one of America's poorest and most
segregated cities.
"I was pissed off when I first found out that the convention was going to
happen here, because the reason why Cleveland is in such condition is
because of the conservative politics that they're going to be talking about
here," said Ragland.
"In a city where we have a huge problem with police violence, racial
discrimination, economic oppression, where a 12-year-old was killed for
having a fake gun, knowing they're going to be in that same city talking
about all those racist policies, and devaluing black lives . for me it's
kind of a slap in the face. It's insulting."
As the massive protests many had predicted ahead of the convention failed
to
materialize in the streets of Cleveland, the groups that did show up were
notably light on black and brown Cleveland locals.
"Having this big ceremony here, where you're going to hear people say
things
that are anti-black and anti-minority and anti-women, it's just another
reason for people not to care, clock out, stay to the far east or far west
and far away from all this," said Dwight Vincent, a student at the
gathering. "And that just makes it easier for them to be forgotten and
ignored."
Protest was the furthest thing from many Clevelanders' minds right now,
added Tatyana Atkinson, pointing out that already inefficient public
transportation into the city was largely disrupted because of the
convention
- and that many with hourly, low-wage jobs found themselves out of work for
the week. "How do you expect residents whom this is affecting every day to
be here and protest if they can't even get here?"
She also took issue with the $50 million in federal funding the city of
Cleveland received to secure the convention - echoing what several people
referred to as a "tale of two cities."
"[They're] putting $50 million into the city but not putting $50 million
into the city," she said. "They got all this money for this fun
military-grade weapons for a city that already has use-of-force issues, and
they just get to keep these weapons to use them against us every day. So
the
Republicans came, they kept them safe, and now they hurt us every single
day
afterwards," she said. "Yay."
With most protests limited to a few hundred peaceful participants, much of
the equipment the city acquired ahead of the convention remained out of
sight, though the event zone surrounding the convention was barricaded in a
labyrinthine system of gated-off streets, and the police presence, if
largely cordial, was ubiquitous. Uniformed law enforcement visibly
outnumbered the people taking to the streets.
Officers from a dozen law enforcement agencies as far away as California
and
Florida patrolled downtown Cleveland mostly on foot and on bikes, greeting
people and maintaining a laid-back attitude. But as soon as rallies grew
larger or more raucous, officers on horseback showed up to disperse them,
and the squads of cops on bikes were reinforced with squads of cops riding
bikes while also wearing riot gear.
As of Wednesday, the largest shows of police force were in response to a
Tuesday rally against police violence organized by mostly out-of-town
members of the leftist Revolution Books group and a group attempting to
burn
a U.S. flag on Wednesday afternoon. At the first rally, protesters held
signs carrying the names of black victims of police brutality in Cleveland
and elsewhere, chanting "indict, convict, send these killer cops to jail"
and other slogans that have become the trademark of the movement that
started in Ferguson, Missouri. But the Cleveland protest was much smaller
than similar ones taking place even in recent weeks in cities across the
country, and it was quickly dispersed with no incidents.
Civil rights advocates warned against considering that a success, however.
They noted that police didn't need to turn to more suppressive crowd
dispersal tactics largely because they had already intimidated most people
out of attending in the first place.
"There are police everywhere, they have massive weapons, and this creates a
chilling effect on people's willingness to come downtown and engage in
their
free speech rights and right of assembly," Jacqueline Greene, a coordinator
with the Ohio chapter of the National Lawyers Guild told The Intercept as a
line of officers on horseback blocked off a road by Cleveland's Public
Square, the heart of most rallies. "We're at a breaking point in terms of
racial justice issues, and it's critical that those conversations happen,
but the appropriate response is not militarized police, and it is not the
chilling of expression of First Amendment rights."
Julia Shearson, the executive director of Ohio's chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, told The Intercept that some 4,000 members of
the National Guard were stationed down the road from her office.
"What's happened is that we have incredible suppression of public
participation in the protest movement, so many people stayed away, even
regular people who would maybe just want to come down and see what's going
on, because this has been turned into an armed camp," she said. "That's not
how the political process should be. If the politicians are so afraid of
the
people, I think they need to question what kinds of policies they're making
vis-a-vis the people."
Shearson was speaking from a small Tuesday morning rally against police
violence, as Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio was escorted into the convention
center followed by dozens of journalists and a couple of boos and shouts of
"shame on you."
The rhetoric and hatefulness from speakers on the convention's first night
were also a deterrent to many locals, Shearson said. She singled out former
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for calling the Black Lives Matter movement
"racist."
"You cannot get more tone-deaf to the suffering of the African-American
community," she said. "It doesn't help law enforcement to have this
vehement, bigoted response to what are legitimate grievances. . People are
so dejected and so apathetic and have so little hope in the American
political system to solve the problem."
Speaking at the same Tuesday morning rally, professor and civil rights
activist Cornel West told reporters that because the political class
failed,
someone had to keep pushing for justice and an end to racism.
"Some of us have to stand up for justice, love, sensitivity," he said. "If
the party wants to live in a bubble, if they want to live in denial, then
they're going to reap what they sow. But I'm not here to convince the
Republicans."
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http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
