Over 200 people packed into the Jerry Sue Thornton Center on the main campus of Cuyahoga Community College for the first public meeting between the City of Cleveland, represented by Mayor Frank Jackson, and the Department of Justice (DOJ), represented by U.S. Attorney Steven Dettlelbach.
The two-hour session was promoted as an opportunity for citizens to put forth suggestions that could be included in the consent decree the two parties are currently negotiating in regards to the Cleveland Division of Police.
The crowd comprised a veritable “Who’s Who” of Cleveland’s movers and shakers. Faith-based leaders from all denominations were sitting at tables alongside judges and other elected officials, heads of social service agencies, community activists, and the heads of three of the largest foundations in Cleveland: Gund, The Cleveland Foundation, and the Sisters of Charity. I guess one could suppose the foundations were in attendance because, when the bills for administering the consent decree begin rolling in, city officials will be hitting them up for funding to assure the job is done right.
Also in attendance, sitting stone-faced, were the heads of the two police unions … but conspicuous by their absence were all of the members of Cleveland City Council, except for Zack Reed. There’s an unofficial rule of City Hall politics that public meetings are either an “Administration event” or a “City Council event” and neither side of City Hall attends events staged by the other side. This outdated mode of thinking is juvenile in the extreme, and, considering the gravity of the subject matter at hand, if there ever was a time to set aside petty political posturing, this certainly is it.
Both the mayor and the U.S. Attorney made opening remarks that indicated that, if there is tension between the two camps engaged in working out the details of the agreement are at odds, the differences are not all that great. They both downplayed any friction between the two of them and amicably put up a solid front, even going so far as to suggest that the media is vastly over blowing rumors of disagreements between the city and the DOJ.
Nonetheless, while the premise of the meeting was indeed meritorious, it’s doubtful that few (if any) of the well thought out and articulated ideas — from changing the city charter to allow the creation of an elected civilian review board, to abrogating the crippling city contract with the police unions, to providing more crisis intervention training for officers — were new to either Jackson or Dettlelbach. This is because the problems in Cleveland mirror the problems in virtually every other American city that’s been put under a consent decree in the last decade or so, and the solutions in Cleveland will also mirror the solutions put in place in those other cities.
One of the reasons consent decrees have been so successful is because of the uniformity of the policing problems they seek to correct. Cop brutality varies little from city to city, so the successful formula to bringing an end to the unfair and unlawful behavior is well known to the DOJ. This is what federal civil rights lawyers do for a living.
Nonetheless, the idea of allowing citizens to put forth suggestions in an open forum was an excellent strategy since, at some point down the road the success or failure of the effort is going to hinge on the extent to which the public buys into the consent decree So, encouraging individuals and organizations to voice their concerns, opinions, and to put forth solutions somewhat assures their buy-in when the document is eventually rolled out. How can the public be against a consent decree that citizens had a hand in crafting?
However, there were a few original ideas presented — one punitive, the other positive. One individual suggested that cops who are convicted of wrongdoing should lose their pensions. While I don’t know what the law is on such a suggestion, it certainly would make a cop think twice if such a punishment were in place.
Alonzo Mitchell presented the more positive ideas. (As a matter of full disclosure, Mitchell is the co-host of my weekly radio show). He’s the young entrepreneur who has staged the highly successful New Year’s Eve bashes in downtown Cleveland the last couple of years, and in response to numerous calls for more black cops patrolling black neighborhoods, he suggested that the city set up booths at career fairs at historically black colleges as a means of recruiting more applicants of color to come serve on the Cleveland department. He further suggested that with the glut of vacant homes that could be rehabbed in Cleveland neighborhoods, sweet deals could be made to attract black cops to move into the communities they patrol — thus solving two problems.
Afterwards Mitchell voiced the concern of many others: If we don’t find a way to attract more black applicants, the problems will continue to fester. “My father is a retired Cleveland police sergeant,” he said, “and the majority of the black officers serving in Cleveland are senior members of the force; they don’t go out and do basic patrol. And the problem is going to be compounded by the fact that many of them are approaching retirement age. Cleveland’s police department is turning whiter as the city turns blacker.”
But all was not sweetness, light and good ideas. Attorney Michael Nelson, a member of the NAACP legal team, got perhaps the most sustained applause of the day when, after categorizing the failures of the Cleveland Division of Police, called for the resignations of Safety Director Michael McGrath and Special Assistant to the Mayor Martin Flask. While some folks (myself included) feel that even if these two senior members of the police force had been replaced years ago, the outcome would still be the same since the rank and file cops who are off the chain were not suddenly going to change their behavior because someone new was in command … it’s not that kind of party.
However, with that said, the consent decree will work only if there’s community buy-in, and as long as Flask and McGrath remain in their positions, citizens — rightly or wrongly — are not going to support or believe in efforts to bring about change. What Frank Jackson must eventually come to understand is that facts don’t drive reality, perceptions drive reality … and no matter how stubbornly he tries, he can’t un-ring the bell: The public has made up its collective mind regarding Flask and McGrath, and the mayor, who is known for his loyalty, has to come to the conclusion that his first loyalty has to be to the residents of the City of Cleveland.
The meeting ended with remarks from both Jackson and Dettlelbach, and while Jackson spoke of being positive in regards of working out the consent decree, the U.S. Attorney’s remarks — if one had a keen enough ear to read between the lines — were much more succinct: We know what we’re doing, we’ve done it before, and we’re going to do it here in Cleveland … despite any obstacles placed in the way.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.