In Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Lord Clifford states, “The smallest worm will turn being trodden on, and doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.” In other words, anyone will eventually say, “Enough is enough!”
Perhaps that’s why an ad hoc organization, the Justice for Tamir Rice Sponsoring Committee, has gathered more than 80 sponsors who have signed a petition calling for the two Cleveland cops involved in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice to face criminal charges.
Activist Richard Peery, a co-organizer of the petition effort, has signed up a wide array of faith, labor and political leaders from across the region to demand that indictments be forthcoming in the case which is still under investigation by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department.
No matter the outcome of the petition drive, the fact that so many upstanding citizens are now making such a demand moves forward the agenda of reforming the Cleveland Division of Police. It’s one thing when young, relatively unknown protestors and fringe groups that have been demonstrating for change raise their voices … but quite another when powerbrokers from across the region begin speaking out.
When folks like retired Cleveland Municipal Court Judge William C. Corrigan; two members of Cleveland City Council; three members of the County Council; city council members from Fairview Park and South Euclid; state senators; union leaders; three retired CSU professors; and representatives of a variety of faith-based organizations begin petitioning the powers that be need to begin to heed their voices.
Gone — or fast going — are the days when every incidence of suspected police brutality are immediately whitewashed or swept under the rug; no longer will cops be able to simply circle the wagons and wait for the incident to blow over … and then go right back to business as usual. These upstanding citizens are demanding accountability and they know how to manipulate the levers of power to eventually assure that anyone who does wrong will be held accountable. The worm is finally turning.
This is not going to be an overnight process. Policing has been carried out wrongly in America for so long many people actually believe that it’s right … that this is the way is supposed to be — or necessary to be — done. But they’re wrong, and the calls for change are only going to increase, not diminish.
But no one should be foolish enough to think that rogue cops (and those excuse their behavior) are simply going to roll over, play dead, and relinquish the virtual absolute power they’ve possessed for as long as anyone can recall … at least not without a fight.
The fact is, we live under a representative form of government, which means we — as citizens — elect officials to make the rules under which we live; only in police states are those powers to govern in the hands of armed individuals. So when our elected officials begin to feel their demands for accountability are being blown off, they — as they should — begin to get nervous … very nervous.
It’s one thing for arrogant armed and legally empowered men to ignore the cries of anguished families forced to bury their loved ones far too young, but it quite another for them to refuse to ignore and refuse to respect any authority that isn’t back up with a gun. It doesn’t take a constitutional law scholar — or at least it shouldn’t — to come to the realization that when the situation gets this far out of hand the Republic is imperiled. We either begin the process of reining in outlaw cops now, or allow them to make confetti out of our Constitution. Whose country is it, the citizens or the police?
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.