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Community members needed to join sixth Cleveland
Consent Decree Community Conversation sponsored by NAACP- Cleveland
Chapter and United Way of Greater Cleveland: 6:00 pm, June 09
By Rich Weiss, for Neighborhood & Community Media
Association of Greater Cleveland
If you missed your chance to attend the May 12th
public input meeting on the Cleveland Police Consent Decree, your
input is still needed for the upcoming Consent Decree Community
Conversation at6:00 pm on June 9 (on Zoom). This public meeting
(co-sponsored by the local chapters of the United Way and NAACP)
seeks your opinions and questions on progress of the Cleveland
Division of Police in the areas of Families and Communities Building
Resilience.
Rosie Palfy, who is a community advocate, a homeless
advocate, a veterans advocate, and a member of the city of Cleveland
Mental Health Response Advisory Committee since it was created in
2015, said, “I think that the event was really well received...and
I’ve got nothing but positive feedback from the community. Strangers
have reached out to me on social media, and it’s a small world out
there. So somebody knows somebody, who knows me and they send me an
email, and so I’m really glad I participated in it and I actually
felt empowered afterwards. I was very pleasantly surprised at how it
went.”
Carole Ballard, Director of Education and Training
for the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS)
Board of Cuyahoga County, said, “I think it’s important for
residents to get a chance to ask unique questions, because you may
not go to the district community meetings, you may be aware of other
ways that you can ask questions live. So it gives that opportunity
to stay informed at a collective level and it gives a way for the
community to be heard, and that’s important.”
Cleveland’s Mayor Jackson and several local community
organizations requested the2014 U.S. Department of Justice
investigation into the Cleveland Division of Police that found
Cleveland Police engaged in law enforcement patterns and practices
that broke Federal laws and violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S.
Department of Justice cited patterns of excessive force,
operational, and structural issues within the Cleveland Division of
Police.
The City of Cleveland and U.S. Department of Justice
entered into the Cleveland Consent Decree (a legally binding
settlement agreement), which requires the Cleveland Division of
Police to make specific, fundamental, and well-publicized changes to
its policies, practices and procedures to correct violations and
ensure Cleveland permanently adopt Constitutional law enforcement
patterns and practices.
The Consent Decree also specifically mandates that
the communities of Cleveland be involved in shaping new patterns and
practices for the Cleveland Division of Police. Cleveland Division
of Police compliance with Consent Decree patterns and practices is
enforceable by a federal judge.
Bridget Brennan, Acting U.S. Attorney for the
Northern District of Ohio, said, “As you know, this was the fifth
conversation that we have had with the United Way and the NAACP
organizing these community conversations. We’ve participated in all
of them so far and the expectations are simply that we have an
opportunity to engage with as many people in the community as
possible in terms of getting out the department’s message about how
important this Consent Decree is, the efforts we are undertaking to
ensure that the mandates of the Consent Decree are complied with,
and really just trying to make sure that those who are interested in
having a voice in the process know how very welcome their voices
are.”
Advocate Rosie Palfy felt, as a panelist, the conversation allowed
room for her criticisms of the Consent Decree. She also felt
community members, themselves, were able to impact the discussion
through the reading of live text questions: “When I was able to
watch it I saw the audiences’ questions, and I felt like the
audience was listening to what I had to say, and they were asking
questions based on concerns that I raised. That was my
interpretation so I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with that.”
The next meeting is at 6:00 pm on June 9, and the
theme will be Families and Communities Building Resilience. To
answer the call for your input, your concerns, and your questions,
register for this or any of the six other remaining Consent Decree
public meetings by visiting unitedwaycleveland.org.
NCMA-CLE: Input from community members needed for
Cleveland Consent Decree | 2
NCMA-CLE_Dialogue on the CLE Consent Decree_Series Overview_20210426
Meeting 5: Crisis Intervention and Officer Wellness
(Dialogue on police reform mandated through the Cleveland Consent
Decree and its ramifications for our community)
NCMA-CLE: Input from community members needed for Cleveland Consent
Decree | 1
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