On this past Saturday,
at least 56 peaceful protestors were arrested in Cleveland, Ohio as they expressed their frustrations over the acquittal of Officer Michael Brelo. In 2012, Brelo stood on the hood of the car of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams
and fired 49 shots into their front windshield. They were completely unarmed.
Protestors took to the streets almost immediately and it appears police tried to "teach them a lesson." In interviews with Doug Brown of Cleveland Scene, protestors described the outrageously unsanitary conditions they were forced to endure in a place called the "workhouse".
"We were in the workhouse, it was disgusting," one man explained. "The beds were disgusting, we were getting sick as we were sitting their breathing in that air."
Another backed that up: "Yeah, I was held in the workhouse. It was terrible, I don't think there was anybody in there before us or that it had been cleaned since it was built. The mats we were given had holes ripped through them, the water was disgusting. There was a water fountain, right? The water came out piss-yellow, so no one touched it. We demanded water. So they bring us a cooler of water — piss yellow. Another 30 minutes goes by, another cooler of water — piss yellow. Another 30 minutes, piss yellow. Smelling like fucking eggs. There were spiders everywhere. There was a thing of spoiled milk underneath my bunk — five cartons of spoiled milk from April 20th."
These deplorable conditions are fundamentally outrageous and potentially illegal. Just a few weeks ago,
protestors in Baltimore were similarly jailed for days, in outrageous conditions, then released without charges.
