September 09, 2024

[mic not turned on, inaudible] Defense Committee. Many of you will recognize my name or my face for my work with the Palestinian community advocating for ceasefire resolution here at City Council. But I'm here today on behalf of the fraudulent allegations and charges which have been levied by this city's Police Department against Chairman Fahiem. However I feel inspired to speak today exactly because of my work alongside the Palestinian community for the ceasefire resolution. During that time, I was active in countless protests. I helped lead caravans, I helped be a part of multiple council disruptions here at City Hall, I was in the streets for countless protests, which included shutting down bridges, streets, and even in front of some of the most important economic centers, like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. I mention these things not to brag or for Council to evaluate my decisions, but rather to say that in that movement work and other movements that I have been a part of in the past, I have never once experienced the level of retaliation and police harassment that I did the very first time that we worked alongside New Era on a Juneteenth event.

I worked with New Era to help distribute toys and food to the community in downtown Cleveland. This has remained one of the most important tenants of the Chairman's organizing, if we are in the streets, we are giving back to the community. So on Juneteenth, we provided toys, books, hot meals to the people of this very city, a demand routinely thrown at us by councilpeople who criticized us here and in backdoor conversations for caring about a foreign issue. So what happened when we, including many Palestinian organizers, did join New Era to directly provide resources to this community? Multiple march participants including myself were ticketed and cited for nearly every action in that demonstration, even going so far as to cite a black woman for playing music, tow her vehicle, and charge multiple thousands of dollars worth of damage. I remind you, that was on Juneteenth. The police cited for handing out food and toys to children. We were cited by the police and I know that this was an act of simple intimidation because the police officers didn't show up to any of the hearings that they cited us for. They clearly passed out these citations down solely to intimidate allies from working with Fahiem, and this motivation becomes clear when on record, Dorothy Todd called the Job Corps who marched with us that day at the protest and told them that they should avoid New Era and that it wasn't an organization they should associate with. Since when is it the job of the safety director to give warnings to organizations and private citizens about who they should associate with?

That is the behavior of the mafia and the mob, not in an institution that is supposedly telling people to be serve and protect. These charges against Chairman Fahiem that have been falsely alleged this last month fall into a pattern of this harassing behavior where your police department has insisted on intimidation. It can only be interpreted to me as retaliation for the successful civil suit 2 years ago against the city for his wrongful arrest. You need to get your police department in check before they create a problem of a magnitude this body is incapable of addressing. Help drop the ludicrous charges.

Hello everybody, hello Council, how y'all doing so good to see you. But you know what, today I want to talk about these groundhogs, Kevin. You the councilman in my ward and I'm going say this, to his defense, we have a problem through the whole county, it'ss not just in Cleveland. But I- we need some help seriously. I've talked to the Law Department, Mr. Griffin. They've given me, you know, traps to catch them, and I've caught some. And guess what. I look today, one done coming from the other side, I concrete sides of my house so he can't get in, he done went under there and started digging. I'm going have to pull, pull the lands out again and smooth that over. I've spent thousands of dollars on these groundhogs, because when the people come out to trap, those traps are not cheap, okay. They cost like almost $1,000 so they trap them like for two or three days, they come back and check. So please, because I do not want them to mess up the foundation.

My mom left the house to my son as heir property when she passed on, and we really need help with these groundhogs. And I know it's not just in Cleveland, it's all over. But please help us with these ground hogs. I mean, it's it's a nuisance, it's a problem. Now I don't want to get no BB gun, Kevin, and be handcuffed and start shooting them now, cuz then you have to come and get me out of jail, okay? And then they said we can't poison them. They said you can't poison them, okay.

One time, I had a groundhog that I caught that they gave me a cage for, and they told me because I didn't call at the right time, I would get a ticket. So I put him in my car and took him out there and left him in Solon. And they said, 'why you bringing him out here?' You know what I'm saying. So help us out with these ground hogs. We want to save our properties. We don't want our properties to go bad. Help us with these groundhogs. These properties are heir property the people have paid for and they've left to their grandkids. And my son is getting frustrated with these groundhogs, he wants to shoot them, and I told him you can't do that. So help us out please with these groundhogs. Please help us out. Thank you.

Hey, good afternoon. Thank you guys for being here. Looks like you guys had a good vacation, you all guys look bright- eyed and eager to do your jobs.

One of the things I would like to point out is, I took the liberty of myself bringing some copies for all the city councilmen to look at the pole conditions within the city. And I also took the liberty to pulling up you guys on rules and regulations when it comes to committees and utilities, and in there I see that you guys are supposed to maintain the prices, maintain the maintenance on them. You guys are the overseers of all that, right. So I took it upon myself to go back 6 years to see what type of work was being done by my city council when it comes to utilities in the city.

What we have right now is failing utility companies. They're not trimming any trees back, they're not doing their poles. As you can see if you look at those papers, one of the papers are stated, that pole has been there for 90 days, okay. I sent it to the media, I sent it to your safety director, and I'm bringing it to you guys, and I'm asking for you guys to address what's important in this community. You guys are getting paid to do this job. These are the rules just like I'm standing here and I have 3 minutes? Well, these are the rules that you guys are abided by. You have to do this, this is something that you can't turn your eye on. This is for everyone in this community including yourselves.

What we experienced with that big storm, we shouldn't have experienced that, okay. That was unacceptable. The storm helped what the poles were already ready to do. That's because they're not being taken care of, they're not properly being maintenanced regularly, okay. We have to do these things regularly. If we want our community to survive and thrive, then we have to all do our parts in our community. We can't sit back as taxpayers and keep allowing you guys who chose to be in these positions, right. You chose to represent this community, represent the community on all levels of the community, not just certain things in the community. Represent everything, because this is a community, we all are in the same community, all of you guys are, we all in the same community. We all drove down here, took the same streets. How can we not get this together as a unit, okay. We have to do better than this. And I'm here to hold you guys accountable on it because it's the law and it's the rules, and if you don't abide by the law and the rules, there's penalties for those things, for you guys, not the taxpayers, for you guys, because that falls up under dereliction of duty, false campaign promises, and everything else. And I'm mainly vocalizing this at the older council members. The newer council members are not familiar with what you guys are familiar with. Let's get on the same team, let's play for the same, playing for the same field. I believe every city councilman in here should have a council office in every ward that's open from eight to five actually addressing real issues instead of sitting here and not addressing anything. Technically, you're not addressing anything right now. This whole system is failing everybody in this room, including you. Thank you.

Good evening. I want to talk about something really important to me. Growing up, I had to deal with things no kid should ever have to face, racism and gun violence. These aren't just words I heard on the news, they are they are my life. Well, no. I'm tired of, cuz to me right now, I was my own victim of gun violence. I got shot one day. The cops don't care. They don't care about us. I wish y'all cared because I don't want to to go to school. I don't want to. I don't. I want to feel safe. Because they press false charges on Fahiem. All he was trying to do was protect his community. That's all he was trying to do. You press false charges. He helped me find out who I was. He helped me find my purpose in life, and y'all just treat him like that for no reason. No reason, no reason at all. I don't know why y'all do this, but yeah, that's what they do. They don't care, they don't care. Y'all might sit around there might end this time when the time go off y'all might go by that day, but somebody got to say it. I'm speaking for people who have no voice. I'm speaking for people who's not able to be in this right opportunity. We need to get teens out of the streets. We need to get them in schools cuz guns not going to take them nowhere. A book and a pencil is going to take them. They need education. Guns don't solve our problems. We need people like y'all to represent, you got to represent the city in a good way, because again, I don't wish I had to live in a world with this violence, and I'm hated for it because my own skin color. I wish this world, I wish this world would just love, just all up, but no. I have to deal with it and that's all I have to say. My hope one day we going to change, that's it. Bye bye.

Hello and good evening Council people, my fellow advocates. Hopefully everyone had a relaxing, enjoyable summer. My name is Diab Dar-Issa. I am a ward 11 resident. Danny Kelly is my councilman, and I'm here for a very important cause.

Back in June I voiced my support for Cudell Park, and how we had to ensure we honored the history and legacy of that park. Well, today I'm also highlighting an adjacent parcel of land that desperately needs our help. The piece of land in question is the former CVS site, which is currently enthralled in the middle of a dispute with surrounding pedestrian overlay district. I'm sorry, it's violating the surrounding pedestrian overlay district in terms of how they plan to utilize the land, and how the neighborhood is zoned impacts what the owners plan to do with it. They want to make the area a gas station.

I'm here to stress that this is definitely not the highest and best use, and that there are other practical options for us to explore. Furthermore, I want this to set a precedent, because brick and mortar businesses have been in trouble for quite some time. This isn't the first, and this won't be the last former big box drugstore that will shutter, and the surrounding community will need to find a way to grapple with this and learn how we can utilize the space going forward.

As a ward 11 resident, I know that my voice carries weight. I'm right on West 98th Street. I'm proud of the history of my neighborhood, a neighborhood that preceded the car and the wide adaptation of the family automobile. These neighborhoods are literally built for people, not cars, and while yes, I do acknowledge the irony as I drove myself here in my car, two things can be true at once. Where I can also acknowledge -hold on I lost my spot- where I can also acknowledge that the neighborhood was built for walkability, mass transit, people, and community. A gas station, simply put, does not coincide with the history nor the street grid pattern in this neighborhood. Not only will it stick out like a sore thumb, but it will put our children and those who walk, bike, roll, and play in the surrounding area in danger.

I implore the city of Cleveland to use this as an opportunity for us to return to form, where we can take this parcel of land and imagine something that will not just fill the space because it's shiny and new and gives us temporary tax incentives, but give back to the local community, something that benefits all members of the neighborhood, not just those of us who have cars in our driveways. Thank you so much, that's my time.

Hi, I'm Andrew Carpenter. I'm 15 and I haven't really been on my right mindset before I joined this camp, and my life been very difficult. See, I came from a family where it's been hard, it's been so many of us, and I've been having to do everything. Even though I was the second oldest, but I had to act like I was the man of the house, cuz my dad was hardly there, and my mom, well, stepmom, going through a whole bunch of things, and it was really painful for me because I had to go through so much and it was pretty much going through it all alone. And now since I'm away from them and now I got my mom and other mom also, and you see now I'm trying to live a better life. Still trying to get everything else, still trying to go through school. But it's hard when you got to go through people trying to kill each other, and I can't be- I can't even be a kid.

But now, since I joined this camp, I actually feel like I have a life, and so now all my brothers and sisters like Mikiyah, and Chairman, he been a whole father figure to me, and Ramir, they both been my like brothers and fathers to me. And it's not like I had any like that before, because my dad will always just be weird. So I'm actually glad that I got them, and it's just crazy how y'all trying to press charges on him for something y'all know he didn't do. And y'all see he's out here every day working his butt off trying to make sure this community is straight. So I ain't even really going to just be all out cuz composing myself, but honestly, I just want y'all to get yourself together, cuz like, I know I'm a kid, I can't really be talking to adults like this, but I need y'all to get y'all stuff together. Y'all can't just be out here, be trying to point fingers like oh yeah, yeah, he did this, he did this. But y'all see every day how we working our butts off trying to make sure this community straight.

So it's just painful, so trying to see like pretty much, my dad go through all this, and I'm sitting here like oh yeah, since I'm a kid I can't really do nothing. No, us kids we got something to say about it. We got power, so y'all better up y'all game, cuz me and Mikiyah, we got something to say about it. But I don't really know what else to say. But I'm sorry.

Good evening Council members, Council President and Mayor Bibb, my name is Maryam Assar. I live in Ward 15, and I'm the attorney representing Antoine Tolbert, known as Chairman Fahiem, in the criminal case before the County which I'm sure you have heard of already. I've signed up to speak with you tonight because I believe each and every single one of you as elected public leaders who endeavor to protect the city and aid in the flourishing of all Cleveland communities have a vested interest in his freedom so that Mr Tolbert continues his impactful work with the youth in the community, and that New Era continues to conduct safety patrols and engagement walks in high crime neighborhoods where the police continuously struggle to respond in time.

Here is some context. There has been a troubling increase in youth violence in child slayings right here in Cleveland. According to the data, the homicide of teens has increased more than 60% over the past decade. According to the city's own 2023 report, for the second consecutive year, there was an increase in homicides of young residents. These are kids 0 to 17 years old. 13 homicides in 2022 and 25 in 2023. To that end, on the night of Friday, August 3rd, Mr. Tolbert and New Era work conducting their bi-weekly safety patrol or community engagement walk in the Lee- Harvard neighborhood, based on the marked increase in violent crime in that area, and common knowledge that after the youth party in the local event center, afterwards they would gather in the Lee- Harvard Plaza completely unsupervised, high or drunk and packing guns, all markings of a potentially volatile and violent situation that could result in death, young death. That night, New Era was checking in with these youth in de-escalating fights that periodically arose, essentially babysitting them. Afterwards, New Era got into a disagreement over caring about these children with the clerk at a nearby gas station, the details of which I will not go into now, but what ensued afterwards was the completely false allegations made by the owners who were not even there. I could speak to the police's failure to perform their due diligence in investigating these claims, but more alarming is the fact that a councilman appeared to vouch for these owners despite knowing Mr. Tolbert and New Era's work, and that such allegations were clearly self-serving lies. We would hope to learn that this is a misunderstanding.

To conclude, this criminal prosecution works against the interests of the very community it should purport to protect, and we remain hopeful that the charges will be dropped once the air is cleared. Thank you.

I want to start by saying that I hope you all have the humanity to address what has been said today. The arrest of Chairman, the charges and arrest against Chairman Fahiem of New Era Cleveland are clearly political. The organization called for a picket of a Lee-Harvard business at 3 p.m. on August 14th. Fahiem was arrested 20 minutes before that picket. There's no doubt that this is politically motivated, and a council person was named on the police report which justified this arrest.

New Era has been lauded for their anti-crime work by Mayor Bibb, by Blaine Griffin, and by everyone who's honestly investigated their work. But now, their leader is facing many years in prison on false allegations that are politically motivated. The last thing the city needs is to make a political prisoner out of Fahiem, and I hope you all understand what that means.

I want you all to remember the political arrest of Huey Newton, and the subsequent campaign to free him was the spark that led to the Black Panther Party becoming the Vanguard Party for Black Liberation politics within the United States. You all need to think critically about what it means to make a political prisoner in the situation and act accordingly. New Era was only in the Lee-Harvard shopping district because of the late night car meetups that have been leading to shootouts there. They were present on the scene to do conflict mediation. All of their work gets live streamed to Instagram. It's been watched by hundreds of people, including people in this room, and is clear they played a positive and de-escalatory role. No shootouts have occurred when they are present on the scene. For years, residents have complained about the violence and criminal activity that's been happening at this shopping district. The neighborhood is targeted for gentrification, that is not a secret. The police are not responding to complaints that residents have in this neighborhood and residents have been receiving incessant calls from land speculators asking them to sell their homes. All of this has led to the reasonable conclusion that there's a concerted effort to displace the majority black residents of Lee-Harvard and turn the neighborhood into a profitable real estate venture. None of this is hidden, people are aware this is happening, it's not a secret, and all this is to say nothing of the national implications of this case.

New Era Cleveland has been openly calling for a ceasefire in Cleveland and in Palestine. They've been building inroads with the Palestinian community, many of whom are here today, and they have been building and working to build organization to deal with the common violence that both of their communities are being inflicted by. As word gets out about this case it is going to shift the political landscape in this country. We have an election in November where the issue of Palestine is a key matter, and when this gets out that the pro- Palestinian anti-crime black leader is being falsely charged, it is going to be a massive problem for the Democratic Party establishment. Do you all want Cleveland Democrats to be responsible for this?

Good evening, President Griffin, Council, thank you for allowing me to speak to you tonight. President Griffin, you brought me here tonight for your comment in response to some email. You said you asked Danny Kelly if the community support the gas station. He said to you, yes. I'll talk about this. But thank you for making the support of the community as condition for your support.

We had one meeting with councilman Danny, sorry, Kelly, prior to him taking us to the Board of Zoning. We had one meeting attended by about 40 people. Out of the 40 people, 39 opposed the gas station. One person, a woman, supported the gas station and that woman is like his shadow. She's with him in the Planning Commission, Board of Zonin.g They were together, I mean, talking to the channel 5 last week. And I want to say something about that woman, who that woman is. I'm sorry Ms. Rice, I have to mention, that woman was the woman who made that frantic call 10 years ago, unneeded, unnecessarily hateful call to 911 that resulted in the murder of child, 12 years old child Tamir Rice. That's his front, that's his community. support. That location, that location is under at the southwest corner of Cudell community park. 10022, where they want to put the gas station, is at the southwest corner of Cudell community park. Behind it to the east, there is Marion C Seltzer Elementary School, and the east side corner of Cudell community park, and the students come from West 102, West Boulevard, West 103rd fourth, five, six, they come through that location to the school. And they want to put gas station, to breathe the gas fume. I understand if greedy business owners don't care about kids, other than their kids, but to have councilman [unclear] worse than the owners themselves for the gas station. Look, we protect our kids, our kids are not game. Thank you.