This one hit a little too close to home for many of us here in Cleveland.
After a good election night in which things generally went well for Democrats in Ohio, this appeared in my Facebook feed Tuesday night:
Tonight was a night of 1st - tonight was the first time I have ever been put in handcuffs and tonight was the first time I have ever had a gun drawn on me in Brooklyn, Ohio - City of Brooklyn, Ohio all thanks to 9 Brooklyn Police Department officers who said after running my plates my car came back stolen as a "stolen vin". Now of course my car was not stolen and after running my name and keeping me and handcuffs for 10 minutes they let me go and told me I should contact City of Cleveland Division of Police to get it taking care of. My question is how do you make a mistake that big? Even if the car was stolen why come to the car with guns drawn? God is good but this situation could have easily been bad. We need to improve the system.
(Brooklyn is an inner-ring suburb of Cleveland).
Michael Houser, whom I know from Democratic circles here in Cleveland, who is an assistant to the chief of staff of our county executive, a former intern for congressman Tim "The Good" Ryan, a former driver for Sherrod Brown, and a candidate last year for the Ohio House, could easily have been the next dead black man — a polite, soft-spoken, suit-and-tie-wearing young black man.
His story is all over the news now. Given that he works for the office of the county executive and that he's been very active in grassroots politics here, it's getting a lot of attention and it has shocked a lot of people.
"Brooklyn Police Draw Guns on Wrong Vehicle, Handcuff Innocent County Worker"
http://m.clevescene.com/...
"Police Mix-Up Leaves Driver Rattled"
http://www.cleveland19.com/...
I'm really sick over this, thinking about how little provocation would have been necessary before someone who is widely respected and loved in our community could have become a statistic.
Sherrod's wife, Connie Schultz, posted,
Michael J. Houser was Sherrod's constant companion during the 2012 campaign. After spending so much time with him and relying on him constantly, I once told him I loved him like a son. Michael took it stride. No one was more trustworthy in that challenging year. This story is so upsetting.
To make things worse, Mark, another activist I know, posted in Connie's thread,
This after an evening hearing county prosecutor McGinty demean a rape victim, demean Samaria Rice saying she is in it for the money, interupting people asking questioms about ongoings at the prosecutors office and the overall misogynistic treatment of the women who asked him questions.
He was referring to a meeting of the Westshore (suburban Cleveland) Democrats tonight where county prosecutor Tim McGinty was the guest speaker — the man who has dragged his feet for nearly a year without any action of the two officers involved in the killing of Tamir Rice and who recently released a pair of reports, outrageously claiming his killing was "reasonable."
Maybe you read Shaun King's diary about THAT:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Mark added,
My mom also pointed out how he talked about a rape victim's refusal to cooperate was also really bad. He was dismissive of why the victim wouldn't want to participate in a prosecution.
McGinty had a reputation as a judge for misogyny, racism and homophobia, which I had no personal knowledge of. I wasn't really following his career until he stepped up to run for county prosecutor in 2011 (he was elected in 2012). A lot of people were hoping they'd misjudged him but that no longer seems to be the case. Publicly demeaning Tamir Rice's mother is unworthy of any elected official and only serves to aggravate the anger a lot of people are feeling about how little their lives seem to be valued.
All I can say is I'm glad nothing worse happened to Michael, as it so easily could have.