CLEVELAND — Black Lives Matter Cleveland (BLMC) released a list of 10 demands for accountability of Cleveland law enforcement in the fight against police violence and racial injustices.
"Ears are tuned to what we’re saying, people are starting to listen,” said Kareem Henton, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Cleveland.
Henton said they won’t let this moment in history slip away.
The demands for accountability requested by BLMC include:
- Officers having independent liability insurance
- A tracking system of police misconduct
- Community oversight of the police
- Psychiatric evaluations once a year
- Mandatory drug and alcohol testing after misconduct
- Defund and abolish blue lives matter bill
- Immediate termination of officers with two or more incidents of misconduct and use of excessive force
- Gag orders on all agencies during misconduct investigations to prevent corruption of grand jury
- Mandatory body cameras for all officers
Their last demand is to defund the department.
"Is it truly necessary that you’ll have to do all of this tactical training and utilize all of these special weaponry that is meant for paramilitary?” Henton said. "If we take some of that funding and we put some of that funding into the things that lead to crime, because most of them are crimes of poverty, then we’ll be able to best eliminate.”
"Gov. [Mike] DeWine may be amenable to some of these proposals and certainly city council,” said Lewis Katz, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.
Katz said most of their demands are legally doable, but it would take some finagling.
"Their proposal for penalizing police officers is inconsistent with the current city of Cleveland police contract, but that’s a matter of contract for negotiation,” said Katz.
Henton said the Cleveland Municipal Bar Association has already been in contact with Black Lives Matters Cleveland, and they also have plans to bring their proposal to city council.
