FrankRep
07-19-2010, 07:39 PM
Investigator Exclusive: NAACP calls city's police response racist (http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=140523&catid=3)
WKYC News
July 19, 2010
CLEVELAND -- NAACP President George Forbes today accused the city of using an organized police presence to discourage African-Americans from visiting one of the city's hottest entertainment districts.
City leaders say they have asked police and sheriff's deputies to move partygoers off West Sixth Street in the Warehouse District once bars close at 2:30 a.m., in response to numerous noise and rowdiness complaints.
But Forbes told Channel 3 News said the police action is racist because many of the people on the street at that hour are African-Americans.
"I can't believe (in) 2010 that black folks are targeted," Forbes said. "That they can't go certain places and you use the force of the police to make sure it's enforced."
Forbes said he's has demanded a meeting with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.
"You couldn't have an organized force of police going down West Sixth Street unless the administration and the council knew about this," Forbes said.
Jackson's spokeswoman Andrea Taylor declined to comment. Sgt. Sammy Morris, a police spokesman, denied any allegation that racism is involved and said police are concerned about underage individuals getting into clubs on the street and drinking illegally.
Forbes made the allegations at Cleveland's Municipal Court, where the owner of Lust -- the only predominately African-American nightclub on West Sixth Street -- is fighting to stay in business.
Lust owner Joe Carey, who rents his space at 1303 W. 6th Street, says the building's owners are using technicalities in the lease agreement to target his largely black client base.
"The downtown business establishment doesn't want black people in that area," Carey said.
And, Carey says, City Hall is going along with it by sending the Third District police commander down last Saturday to personally shut the nightclub down.
"He got real snotty," Carey said. "He said, 'You close at 1 o'clock or I'm coming in here and I'm going to put a group of police to run everybody out of here.'"
Downtown Councilman Joe Cimperman says the police presence on West Sixth Street goes beyond Lust, although he did note that complaints police get involve that nightclub.
Channel 3 news found cops have responded 41 times to calls at Lust since February of last year.
"What we don't want is the situation that we had a couple years ago, when the situation got so out of hand that people ended up getting shot and killed," Cimperman said.
"We also want to make sure that what we don't have is West Sixth street turning into the Flats East Bank."
In addition to the beefed up police presence, business owners in the Warehouse District are being asked by Cimperman, the city, and the powerful Downtown Cleveland Alliance to read and sign a letter of understanding or risk losing their liquor license.
The letter asks owners to hire a certain number of off-duty Cleveland police to patrol their businesses, based on the number of patrons and the amount of booze that is sold.
SOURCE:
http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=140523&catid=3
WKYC News
July 19, 2010
CLEVELAND -- NAACP President George Forbes today accused the city of using an organized police presence to discourage African-Americans from visiting one of the city's hottest entertainment districts.
City leaders say they have asked police and sheriff's deputies to move partygoers off West Sixth Street in the Warehouse District once bars close at 2:30 a.m., in response to numerous noise and rowdiness complaints.
But Forbes told Channel 3 News said the police action is racist because many of the people on the street at that hour are African-Americans.
"I can't believe (in) 2010 that black folks are targeted," Forbes said. "That they can't go certain places and you use the force of the police to make sure it's enforced."
Forbes said he's has demanded a meeting with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.
"You couldn't have an organized force of police going down West Sixth Street unless the administration and the council knew about this," Forbes said.
Jackson's spokeswoman Andrea Taylor declined to comment. Sgt. Sammy Morris, a police spokesman, denied any allegation that racism is involved and said police are concerned about underage individuals getting into clubs on the street and drinking illegally.
Forbes made the allegations at Cleveland's Municipal Court, where the owner of Lust -- the only predominately African-American nightclub on West Sixth Street -- is fighting to stay in business.
Lust owner Joe Carey, who rents his space at 1303 W. 6th Street, says the building's owners are using technicalities in the lease agreement to target his largely black client base.
"The downtown business establishment doesn't want black people in that area," Carey said.
And, Carey says, City Hall is going along with it by sending the Third District police commander down last Saturday to personally shut the nightclub down.
"He got real snotty," Carey said. "He said, 'You close at 1 o'clock or I'm coming in here and I'm going to put a group of police to run everybody out of here.'"
Downtown Councilman Joe Cimperman says the police presence on West Sixth Street goes beyond Lust, although he did note that complaints police get involve that nightclub.
Channel 3 news found cops have responded 41 times to calls at Lust since February of last year.
"What we don't want is the situation that we had a couple years ago, when the situation got so out of hand that people ended up getting shot and killed," Cimperman said.
"We also want to make sure that what we don't have is West Sixth street turning into the Flats East Bank."
In addition to the beefed up police presence, business owners in the Warehouse District are being asked by Cimperman, the city, and the powerful Downtown Cleveland Alliance to read and sign a letter of understanding or risk losing their liquor license.
The letter asks owners to hire a certain number of off-duty Cleveland police to patrol their businesses, based on the number of patrons and the amount of booze that is sold.
SOURCE:
http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=140523&catid=3