Cleveland

Terrance Curtain has attended a few different demonstrations around Cleveland since the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. Sometimes, the pastor and assistant school principal speaks about racial inequality. Sometimes, he leads the crowd in chants. But when he started thinking about how he wanted to mark Juneteenth this year, he imagined something different.

The team overseeing Cleveland’s police reform agreement will review the department’s handling of local demonstrations prompted by the death of George Floyd. Monitor Hassan Aden notified city leaders of the review in a memo dated June 17 and filed in federal court Thursday. The review will examine preparations for the protests, community engagement, arrests and uses of force, Aden wrote.

Updated: 11:28 a.m., Thursday, June 18, 2020 Cleveland is temporarily freezing the spread of dollar stores in city neighborhoods. City council on Wednesday afternoon approved a moratorium on new zoning permits or occupancy licenses for small-box retail. The pause will last until Nov. 1, while the city drafts new regulations for such businesses.

Cleveland expects two more years of federal oversight for its police department before being freed from what was meant to be a five-year consent decree. The city’s consent decree coordinator, retired judge Greg White, told city council’s safety committee Monday the city is not yet in compliance with the reforms included in its 2015 agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. But the city has turned a corner, he said.

The lawyer for Cleveland’s police union says an incident like the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis would not happen in Cleveland. During a Tuesday lunchtime session hosted by the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Joseph Delguyd said the consent decree in Cleveland and the Department of Justice oversight it has brought are preventing police brutality.

The Cleveland branch of the NAACP is demanding reforms to local law enforcement agencies, amid renewed attention on police use of force, especially with black people. The proposed reforms stop short of calling for the total defunding or abolishment of police departments, as some groups have demanded.

The FBI on Friday arrested two out-of-state men, accusing them of bringing weapons and flammable materials to Saturday’s protest in Downtown Cleveland. According to the Bureau’s Cleveland office, agents arrested Brandon Long and Devon Poland in Erie, Pennsylvania Friday morning. The pair were stopped Downtown on the night of the protests by Cleveland police officers after the curfew was put in place.

Anthony Body spent Monday at the Justice Center. It’s part of his job as a staffer at the Bail Project, to be there, helping defendants who can’t afford their bonds. Afterwards, he chatted with Cleveland Municipal Judge Michelle Earley, who thanked him for his work. But later that day, police stopped Body twice, eventually arresting him for violating Cleveland’s curfew order — even though he’s a Downtown resident who was heading back to work at the Justice Center.

About 150 protesters gathered outside the First District police station in the West Park neighborhood of Cleveland Tuesday afternoon to speak out against the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and excessive force by police across the country.

Updated: 8:20 a.m., Tuesday, June 2, 2020 Wearing masks and speaking to jailed defendants by videoconference, judges on Monday began hearing the cases of the dozens of people arrested during the weekend’s demonstrations in Downtown Cleveland. Defendants face charges including aggravated riot, breaking and entering and failure to comply with a police officer’s orders. Most of those arraigned Monday received personal bonds, allowing them to leave jail without putting down any money.