Innocent Black male children under arrest elsewhere by police for protesting, a scenario that might meet home in Cleveland Hts, Oh. if a curfew law that allows police to arrest Black and other children for protesting on issues of public concern without first contacting police remains in effect. The controversial curfew law also allows Cleveland Hts. police to arrest children under 18 for eating at restaurants or otherwise patronizing businesses after 6 p.m. in the Cedar-Lee Business District and the business district that stretches across Coventry Road between Mayfield Rd and Euclid Hts Blvd. 

Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller. The leader of the local branch of the nation's most historical and respected Civil Rights organization says that the curfew law hurts the Black community and that the 6 p.m. deadline for children not to patronize restaurants and other businesses in select areas of the city of Cleveland Hts . or get arrested  is ludicrous.

From the Metro Desk of the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (NOTE: CHILDREN UNDER 18 ARE NOT INVITED TO THE RALLY IN THE ABSENCE OF A PARENT OR GUARDIAN, THOUGH WE CANNOT BY LAW BAR THEM FROM IT--KATHY WRAY COLEMAN) (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Community activist groups, including The Imperial Women, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, The Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, The Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network and The Spot Youth Empowerment Organization will rally with other community groups at 6:45 p.m. Mon, July 18 in front of Cleveland Hts City Hall, 40 Severance Circle, because of a curfew law that Cleveland Hts. City Council adopted two weeks ago. Activists  say the law  targets Black children and strips all children, regardless of race, ethnicity or gender, of a host of constitutional rights by giving police the authority to arrest them if they eat at restaurants or otherwise patrinize businesses after 6 pm in the Cedar-Lee Business District and the business district that stretches across Coventry Rd. and is between Mayfield Rd. and Euclid Hts Bld. 

The curfew law also has a provision that requires that kids contact police before holding any protests on issues of public concern, a provision that has James L. Hardiman, Legal Director for the America Civil Liberties Union and Vice President of the Cleveland NAACP, crying foul as a violation of the free speech clause of the First Amendment. And the law gives police discretion to pick and choose what children to arrest if it is broken, a measure that community activists say heightens the risk that young Black men and boys will be victimized by a public policy ordinance that is outright racist. 

After the 6:45 p.m. rally activists groups will attend the Cleveland Hts. City Council meeting at 7:30 pm that same evening to call for the curfew law at issue to be dropped from the books. And on Tuesday the groups will meet from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm at Aribica Coffee House University Circle, 11300 Juniper Rd in Cleveland, with State Sen. Shirley Smith (D-21), a Cleveland Democrat whose district includes Cleveland Hts. The meeting is open to the public and Smith's office number is 614- 466-4857.

Smith, who says her role is to protect the interests of the larger community including children and city businesses and has not yet voiced a stance on the controversial and unprecedented curfew law publicly, said that she will listen to community concerns at Tuesday's meeting and take them back to Cleveland Hts Mayor Ed Kelley and City Council representatives.

Contacts for the rally are Imperial Women Leader Kathy Wray Coleman at 216-932-3114, Black on Black Crime Community Activist Denise Taylor at 216-548-3884 and Imperial Women and Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor Member Valerie Robinson at 216-321-1677. William Clarence Marshall, a member of The Carl Stokes Brigade, will also lead the rally, one that community activists say is necessary to protect the constitutional and statutory rights of the community's children from the arbitrary and capricious abuse of power by a runaway Cleveland Hts. City Council. 

The controversial curfew law, which is actually an amendment to a general curfew law that has been around for decades, gives police the authority to arrest any child under 18 that is caught patronizing or otherwise in the area in the business districts of consequence after 6 pm without a parent or guardian, or a valid excuse such as an emergency with written parental consent. 

The problem though is that since a predominantly Black crowd of youth is the impetus behind the legislation, it could violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by targeting Black children.

"This protest is needed because the legislation is unfair to Black kids and children in general," said Valerie Robinson, a White member of The Imperial Women and other activist groups who is a retired elementary school teacher who lives in Cleveland Hts with her husband, Dr. Stewart Robinson, also a community activist. "Though the legislation applies to all kids under 18, it is pretty obvious that it is aimed at Black children."

The unprecedented law, also known as a city ordinance, comes on the heals of what media and some others have deemed flash mobs, or large gatherings of youth, including a recent festival that drew some 1500 of them  to the middle class city and resulted in a few fights. And the Cleveland Hts. city manager, who is now Robert C. Downey, has been given independent leeway via another provision of the curfew law to name other city venues where children would be arrested if they patronize them or are caught in the area after 6 pm. General curfew requirements in the city, absent a few exceptions like school activities and theater, require children 12 and under in by dark, unless with a parent or guardian, those 13, 14 and 15 in by 10:30 p.m., and teens 16 and 17 in by midnight. 

Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller is also weighing in saying the law is not good for the Black community and that a 6 p.m. curfew for teens relative to the business districts at issue is ludicrous and unreasonable. 

The Heights Community Congress, Revolution Books, Black on Black Crime and a host of other organizations have debated the issue over the past week with some members of the groups favoring the unprecedented legislation and others calling it irresponsible and commensurate to the days when Blacks would not be served at Woolworth's lunch counters, activity that helped to spark the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, one led by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

In addition to Coleman and Valerie and Stewart Robinson other community members supporting the rally include Willie Stokes, Denise Taylor, Brett Jackson, Abdul Quahhar, Sharon Danann, Jean Whitte, Marva Patterson, William Clarence Marshall, Angelique Cunningham, C. Cunningham, Tina Bronaugh, Destini Bronaugh, Nia Perry- Richardson, Lavora Perry-Richardson, Frances Caldwell, Betty Brown, Linda Jones, Bill Swain, Carol Fisher, Mark Jefferson, Priscilla Cooper, Ada Averyhardt  and Taralawanda Aaron.

Cleveland Hts, with a population of some 40,000 residents, is roughly 50 percent White and 42 percent Black, U.S. Census Reports reveal It. borders numerous cities, including Shaker Hts, University Hts., South Euclid and the predominantly Black cities of Cleveland and E. Cleveland. 

 Journalist and Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman can be reached at either 216-932-3114 or ktcoleman8 [at] aol [dot] com.

Journalist and Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman can be reached at 216-932-3114 and ktcoleman8 [at] aol [dot] com.
Journalist and Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman can be reached at 216-932-3114 and ktcoleman8 [at] aol [dot] com.
Journalist and Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman can be reached at 216-932-3114 and ktcoleman8 [at] aol [dot] com.