Mayor Frank Jackson in the first week of his administration made it clear that he’s the man in charge and took on what is typically one of the very toughest issues any mayor faces.
His announced police policy says, “Excessive force shall not be tolerated.”
Jackson told the Cleveland Police Department that he’s in charge and that a new day had begun with the announcement of new rules on “use of force.”
Jackson, by his new rules, cuts off excuse making about police shooting civilians under questionable circumstances. There has been a rash of such shootings in recent times.
I like the way Jackson made this announcement in terse but certain commands. He showed that he is very serious and that he’s in charge.
It was a perfect tone to set for his administration and I’m surprised that it didn’t get more exposure and comment in the news media.
The police department can be a troublesome spot for any mayor and particularly an African-American mayor.
Carl Stokes in his Promises of Power wrote: “I saw as one of my most important tasks the reform of the police, the return to having our police as our protectors, men who would enforce the law, do their job, be responsive to the needs of the people. This great hope became my greatest frustration, my greatest failure.” (Emphasis mine).
The Plain Dealer article noted, “Jackson did not criticize any of the recent shootings or say if they would be unjustified under the new guidelines.” He also put his police reforms in the terms of a “healing.”
This shows Jackson’s careful use of language and intent.
He’s not going to get himself entangled in the past (at least as little as is possible).
However, he is marking a new calendar and I would suggest that the police force understand this man’s seriousness.
They can hurt him. Yet he can hurt them. I’d say they don’t want to be on the wrong side of such a serious man. He is not a typical politician, though he is a politician.
I do not believe Jackson views the position of mayor in the manner of almost anyone else who would run for that office. I do not see a large ego nor do I see someone looking for another political job.
All this means that he doesn’t have much to lose by doing what he believes is right. So why not go ahead and do the right thing as he sees it.
I think it was smart to have along side him Police Chief Michael McGrath and a former police chief, Marty Flask, now interim Safety Director. Both are white, experienced police officers. It looks as if Jackson will keep McGrath who has a good reputation. Flask is a good choice for Jackson as interim, presuming he would want an African-American in the Safety Director’s job when he chooses someone permanently.
Convention Center Sales Tax In Works
What do we have here?
The talk is strong that the Cuyahoga County Commissioners will put a quarter percent sales tax on county residents for a new convention center. They don’t need a vote of the people and they can expect that there isn’t a citizens’ group that would force it on the ballot.
So it means taking a little heat but what the hell the Establishment and the news media, i. e., Plain Dealer, will be all for it.
The pitch will be, naturally, this an economic development tool for the city. It means so many jobs. Oh, yeah!
What it will be is the most regressive tax to support a $500-million or so bond issue. A quarter percent should raise some $30-million, quite enough to allow the County to get a significant bond issue. Here come the lawyers, bond counsels, bond underwriters and bankers. Line up the dough will be passed out.
If you can’t help your friends why be in office? We don’t need no stink’n lobbyists here. We do it wholesale.
Commissioners Jimmy Dimora, Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones, all pushovers for the Corporates, are expected to use the fig leaf to sell the huge bond outlay. It won’t be just for a Convention Center. We’ll get a new Medical Mart and funds for the arts.
The news media will sell the public on a huge expenditure for an unnecessary – and most likely ill positioned – new convention center.
It’s Gateway all over in the expenditure and regressive taxation category, and Browns Stadium all over in choosing the wrong site – ruining the Cuyahoga River development as the football stadium damaged the lakefront.
The Commissioners 3 and Mayor Jackson met recently in secret with officials of Forest City Enterprises. So one may expect the sweet deal should be far along.
You can expect mealy-mouthed Hagan to bring up the liberal end of the deal along with Jones, who may have been elected as an African-American but he seems to serve as the Arts Commissioner.
You can expect Forest City – Sam Miller and the Ratners – to pull the politicians along to choose their site for the new convention center. After all Dick Jacobs sold some old asbestos-ridden buildings for the new Cuyahoga County headquarters, now don't Miller and the Ratners deserve a tax break?
The Commissioners have continued to keep the guys taking the city for a ride happy and satisfied. If it means another burden on low income and middle class Cuyahoga citizens, what else can we do? As Tim will say, “I don’t create this rotten society. I just make the wheels turn.”
It’s disappointing to see Jackson with this crew. It will be even a lot more disappointing if Jackson doesn’t demand a healthy share of that money for Cleveland’s sad sack neighborhoods.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole roldoATadelphia.net
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