*National civil rights organizations and local clergy ask Rev. Al Sharpton to help unify the Cleveland community following Brelo verdict acquitting Cleveland police officer of manslaughter; release of DOJ report finding pattern of unconstitutional policing and excessive use of force; ongoing failure to charge officers in Tamir Rice shooting
WHO: National Civil Rights Leader Rev. Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network (NAN)
WHAT: On Friday, May 29, Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the keynote address at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio and outline a call to action around criminal justice issues. Sharpton’s address comes at the request of national and local civil rights groups and community leaders working to address criminal injustices in Cleveland. The address will be delivered in the battleground state where presidential candidates will vie for African American support and the criminal justice system is in need of significant reforms.
WHEN: Friday, May 29 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE:Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, 8712 Quincy Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
BACKGROUND:Rev. Al Sharpton will be in Cleveland at the request of local and national civil rights groups – including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Greater Cleveland NAN, Urban League of Greater Cleveland – and community leaders to address criminal injustices in Cleveland. The rally arrives following the recent acquittal of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo, a report from the Justice Department finding Cleveland police officers routinely engaged in a pattern of “unreasonable and unnecessary use of force,” and the ongoing failure to charge officers in the fatal shooting of twelve-year-old Tamir Rice. For the last quarter of a century, National Action Network (NAN) and Rev. Sharpton have championed and advocated on behalf of many victims of racial violence and misconduct at the hands of police. From Rodney King in Los Angeles in the 1990s, to the marches NAN organized for Eric Garner in Staten Island, to eulogizing and rallying on behalf of young Michael Brown in Ferguson, NAN has worked tirelessly in this area. Rev. Sharpton recently published an op-ed on the need for Republican presidential candidates to address the issue of police brutality and reform in light of recent events in Cleveland.
You can read the op-ed here.
source:
Elizabeth Kenigsberg
National Action Network
[email protected]
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