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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 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.

Stephanie Howse

-Sam Allard

City Pivots After Attempts to Expunge Low-Level Marijuana Convictions Hits Legal Snag

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

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back to the defendant.

Griffin said that won’t stop the administration’s plans.

Earley said that those affected will receive a notice advising them that they can individually ask for their cases to be sealed. A notice will also be posted on the muni court’s site.

Muni court judges on the original cases will decide on each filing in the coming months.

-Vince Grzegorek

DIGIT WIDGET

3.1 million

Miles driven by Cleveland’s iconic red trolleys operating under the Lolly the Trolley banner. The company will call it quits at the end of May after 37 years of operation.

5.5 hours

Initial travel time from Cleveland to Cincinnati along proposed 3C+D (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati + Dayton) rail line proposed by Amtrak. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine asked for funding to research the feasibility of the route last week. Travel time would likely fall below five hours after track improvements.

40,000

In 2015, the number of households in which the nonprofit DigitalC wanted to establish high-speed internet connections by 2024.

1,200

Number of households to which DigitalC actually provides high-speed internet service, as of early 2022.

Urbanist Guerillas, Fed-Up Neighbors Install Speed Bump on Street Where Cleveland FiveYear-Old Was Struck and Killed

Earlier this month a team of tactical urbanist guerillas, in partnership with residents in the Clark-Fulton and Stockyards neighborhoods, installed speed bumps and a caution sign on W. 50th Street south of Clark Avenue, at the site where a five-year-old Congolese refugee named Apoline Asumani was struck and killed by a reckless driver in late April.

Unwilling to wait any longer for physical traffic calming measures or legislation to codify safer street design, those who installed the speed bumps did so to make drivers slow down on a street where children play. But they also did it to send a message to city leaders, to publicize their impatience and to demonstrate that interventions to create safer streets can be low-cost and straightforward to implement.

The delays have become unconscionable for some pedestrian safety activists and for people who live in residential neighborhoods where children are regularly killed by speeding people in cars.

“The fact that we are willing to spend our own money on this speed bump and not wait for the city shows just how important we think it is,” said one of the urbanist guerrillas, who requested anonymity. “Mayor Bibb said ‘People over Cars’ but so far I have not seen that in action.”

The portion of W. 50th Street falls in the far southwestern corner of Councilman Kerry McCormack’s Ward 3. McCormack has been the most vocal city legislator in calling for pedestrian safety. It was he who agitated in recent budget hearings for an additional allocation of city dollars toward “Vision Zero,” the effort to eliminate traffic fatalities. And alongside Mayor Bibb, he has sponsored the “Complete and Green Streets” ordinance, which aims to make city streets safer for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians.

McCormack spoke briefly at a vigil for Apoline Asumani earlier this month and alluded to these legislative efforts. He said that after meeting with Apoline’s family in the wake of the tragedy, he’d heard the message loud and clear that the city needs to take action to make streets safer.

“It’s a truly horrifying situation,” he said, “but this legislation is the sort of thing we need to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. My name is on that legislation, and I think we should name it after Apoline. I’m sending my thoughts and prayers to the family, but I’m also making a commitment. I know people are sick and tired of speeding drivers across the city.”

An elder in the local Congolese community spoke passionately after McCormack. Speaking in Swahili with translation provided by Mayele Ngemba, the community’s local leader, the elder said he couldn’t believe the government hadn’t acted already.

“Every time I look at that picture [of Apoline], I feel like I am going crazy,” he said. “If this had been in Africa, it would be a very different story.”

The neighbors who gathered at the vigil and offered words of condolence remarked upon the diverse and welcoming community they’d worked hard to create in their corner of the city, one that has become home to immigrants and refugees and one where children play up and down the street and in the yards of neighbors. To them, speeding drivers have long been a menace.

The anger of residents on W. 50th was reflected in the comments of the guerrillas, who installed the speed bumps with the neighbors’ blessing Wednesday night.

“I know things take time,” one of the guerrillas told Scene. “But as Mayor Bibb said, ‘Cleveland can’t wait.’ Apoline couldn’t wait, and neither can any other Cleveland kid or pedestrian. If the city comes to take away [the speed bump] without replacing it with something even better, it will show where the city’s priorities are.”

Jacob Van Sickle, the director of Bike Cleveland, told Scene he had been made aware of the efforts on W. 50th Street. He was unable to speak by phone — he was preparing to testify at the Planning Commission — but sent a written statement on behalf of Bike Cleveland.

“While Bike Cleveland would prefer that these traffic calming measures be installed by the city and approved through the proper channels, we certainly understand the frustration in the community and the urgent need for intervention. Our thoughts are with the Asumani family, neighbors, and the Congolese community.

“Bike Cleveland believes that action needs to be taken immediately city-wide to address the safety of its residents and its streets. We encourage the city to respond by expediting the passage of an updated Complete & Green Streets Ordinance, including a residential traffic calming program. We also ask that the city not remove the speed hump in hopes that it brings some peace of mind to the family of Apoline and the children on W. 50th street – they deserve peace and safety.”

Mayele Ngemba posted a message on Twitter expressing gratitude for those who installed the speed bumps.

“This will slow down drivers and lives will be saved,” he wrote.

-Sam Allard