CLEVELAND — Across Northeast Ohio Sunday night, law enforcement braced for another night of unrest.
In Cleveland, a curfew went into effect at noon Sunday and was extended through 8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2nd as National Guardsmen moved in.
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Not even 24 hours after Cleveland witnessed police cruisers burning and looting along Euclid Avenue, two local leaders weighed in on the violence.
One is from Black Lives Matter and the other from the City of Cleveland.
“What you’re seeing in part is a response to bottled up frustration,” said Councilman Basheer Jones, Ward 7.
“Looting does not give honor to George Floyd,” he added. “Looting does not give honor to Tamir Rice and all of the men and women that have been murdered at the hands of a racist system.”
Whereas Jones could not condone the destruction in Cleveland Saturday night, Kareem Hinton of Black Lives Matter could not quite condemn it, either.
“If I were to say anything to them, ‘I feel your pain, I understand why you did what you did. Why you’re doing what you’re doing,” Hinton said. “While I have empathy for any hard-working business owner, I would hope that they also have empathy and understand that what they’ve seen are people venting, people speaking out, people grieving.”
Hinton said their actions were like language.
“People tend to want to respond in a language that they think they will best be heard in and understood in. And unfortunately, we live in a nation where property is often valued more so than human life,” he said.
Dr. Martin Luther King once said that “rioting is the language of the unheard,” with Councilman Jones noting that what happened was complicated.
“I don’t think it’s as simple as what we see on television,” he said. “If you see those who are out and about, which you’re seeing that most of the looting is taking place at the hands of white men and white women.”
The police officer in Minneapolis at the center of the unrest seen kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes has been charged with murder. The three other arresting officers with him were fired.
Yet Jones and Hinton say action must not end there, and that change involves dialogue, legislation, and getting more people to vote, empathize and act.
“This is not a 2020 incident,” Councilman Jones said. “This incident of police brutality against black and brown people is as old as this country, and it has to be addressed…it’s not a black issue, it’s a human issue.”
“There’s a frustration,” Kareem Hinton said. “People want to be heard. People want accountability, something that we very rarely see.”
Additional protests took place Sunday in Akron and Lorain. There will likely be more, with organizers already planning an event for next Sunday in Medina.