Courtesy Cleveland City Council
UPFRONT CUYAHOGA COUNTY PROSECUTOR MIKE O’MALLEY (WM) TOLD COUNCILWOMAN STEPHANIE HOWSE (BF) TO “TALK TO HIM PROFESSIONALLY” WARD 7 CLEVELAND CITY Councilwoman Stephanie Howse stood before her colleagues at Monday evening’s council meeting and begged them to do better as they worked to investigate root causes of violent crime committed by youth. Her comments were colored by frustration and impatience. Over the course of multiple safety committee meetings in recent weeks, Howse had asked the various private police departments appearing before council — who have now been granted expanded jurisdictions — for data on the youth who commit crimes. And last week, during a multihour hearing, she was doing a version of the same thing, asking how young people who enter the criminal justice system are assessed. The men across the table included Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mike O’Malley, and they were confused. Was she asking about the victims, they wanted to know? No, Howse said. She was asking about the perpetrators. Howse was naturally annoyed, as she’d been trying to get a straight answer on multiple occasions and was sensing that the inability to respond was symptomatic of how Cleveland profoundly fails young people. But as she re-articulated her question, O’Malley instructed Howse to “talk to [him] professionally.” It was an ugly moment, a guest at council chastising a sitting city lawmaker like a child. And it was a dynamic, in which a white powerful man belittles a black woman, that Howse knew was all too common. Later in the hearing, Howse asked whether the prosecutor’s office took into consideration the active development of young people’s brains, and O’Malley chided her
again. He told her to be professional and then suggested that Howse’s line of questioning was related to the prosecutor’s treatment of her cousin. As Howse addressed the exchange during Monday’s meeting, she revealed that her cousin was serving a 40-year prison sentence for a nonviolent burglary in Pepper Pike. She wondered whether any burglary in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood had ever resulted in a 40-year sentence. Howse said that while O’Malley had made the conversation personal last week, her core focus on the safety committee had been and would continue to be the city’s inability to get a handle on young people and the root causes that lead many of them to crime. Regarding the exchange itself, Howse noted that it was her job to ask questions of city council’s guests, even if those guests were men of power. “And I know that my experience is shared by many black women who are usually in the superminority in places and spaces and have to deal with blatant levels of disrespect,” she said. Howse concluded her remarks by reading a passage that urged women to continue defying their labels -- “aggressive,” “bossy,” “extra,” “awkward,” etc. -- and received a standing ovation. Council President Blaine Griffin assured her that an encounter of the sort she experienced with O’Malley would not be tolerated in the future. One certainly hopes so, as Griffin has previously made it known that he would brook no disrespect against council members. “We’ve got to set a tone that nobody should ever mess with this body,” Griffin remarked in a 2019
Stephanie Howse
council floor speech, after thenpresident Kevin Kelley was escorted from a voter-rights event the previous weekend. “The body of this council needs to be shown respect whenever we go anywhere. We need to send a strong message that when you mess with us, you will be dealt with.” Scene called the speech “authoritarian” at the time, because its ominous message was directed at activists and constituents and pertained to an event hosted by the Service Employees International Union. The effect of the speech was that council members, or at least council leadership, saw themselves as sovereigns and demanded fealty from their subjects. Griffin saw it differently, and even said in the same speech that he “punches up, not down.” If that’s to be believed, he should be much keener to “deal with” the county prosecutor. -Sam Allard
City Pivots After Attempts to Expunge Low-Level Marijuana Convictions Hits Legal Snag City leaders including Mayor Justin Bibb and city council president
Blaine Griffin remain committed to getting rid of minor marijuana convictions from the records of thousands of Clevelanders, but the process will be different than they first intended.Bibb, Griffin and others last month arrived at the Justice Center carrying boxes of filings seeking to expunge cases for around 4,000 residents convicted of minor marijuana possession in the city since 2017. Last week, however, leaders said that state law likely prohibits the city from filing for expungement on behalf of residents. Instead, city prosecutors will now file motions to vacate the convictions and dismiss charges, which will still give thousands a fresh start by reducing barriers to employment and re-entry. But as Cleveland.com noted, Cleveland municipal judge Michelle Earley says there are a few key differences between a case that’s been expunged and sealed and one that’s been vacated. For one, the initial arrest record still exists, which could prove problematic for someone applying for a job. Second, in cases that are vacated with charges dismissed, the city would likely owe court costs and fines paid May 18-31, 2022 | clevescene.com |
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