Black Lives Matter Cleveland was established in December of 2015 one year after the murder of Tamir Rice. Inspired by the 21st Century "Black Lives Matter/Hands Up Don't Shoot" Movement which was sparked by the systemic culture of violence in America which disproportionately claims the lives of Black and Brown people alongside a fatally biased cradle to the grave prison industrial complex. HISTORICAL CONTEXT Martin Luther King Jr. pointed to racism, capitalism and militarism as the three evils that plague an American society. More than 40 years after his prophetic witness, his words remain true. The New Jim Crow, per Michelle Alexander, looms from cradle to the grave in marginalized communities and provides evidence of such racial and socio-economic disparities in America. TAMIR RICE- NATIVE SON, Our beloved Tamir was taken from us at the age of 12-year old on November 22, 2014, in Cleveland, OH at Cudell Community Center. Two police officers, 26-year old Timothy Loehmann and 46-year old Frank Garmback, responded after receiving a police dispatch call describing a "young black male" brandishing a gun at people in a city park. A caller reported that a juvenile was pointing "a pistol" at random people in the Cudell Recreation Center, and stated twice that the gun was "probably fake". The officers reported that upon their arrival, Tamir reached towards a gun in his waistband. Loehmann fired two shots within a second of arriving on the scene, hitting Tamir once in the torso. The toy gun was an Airsoft replica. Tamir died on the day after the shooting, his death ruled a homicide by the Cuyahoga County medical examiner. We are mindful that while the gun was a toy, Ohio is an open-carry state. The responding officers did not offer aid to Tamir and four minutes passed before an undercover agent in the area arrived to offer aid to Tamir. Prior to this, Tamir's older sister in a state of trauma was restrained, handcuffed and placed in the back of the police cruiser after coming to her brother's aid. PROPHETIC WITNESS Black Lives Matter Cleveland seek to expose and confront the normalized culture of racism and violence in America which has resulted in state sanctioned murders of civilians, including the killings of Cleveland's 12-year old Tamir Rice; 37-year old Tanisha Anderson; 43-year old Timothy Russell; 30-year old Malissa Williams, 18-year old Brandon Jones, 22-year old Desmond Franklin, and 22-year old John Crawford III of Beavercreek, OH (near Dayton). In addition to our sons and daughters of Ohio, the deaths of Trayvon Martin (Florida), Michael Brown (Missouri), Renisha McBride (Michigan), Eric Garner (New York) and Miriam Carey (a Connecticut woman killed by police on Capitol Hill with multiple shots from behind including a shot to the back of her head) prove a ubiquitous pattern across the nation of racial profiling, normalized culture of racism and abuse of police force respectively. Not to mention the militarized policing (in the form of tear gas, rubber/wooden bullets, and profiled arrests) applied against citizens of Ferguson, MO exercising their first amendment right to free expression, assembly, and the right to petition. In the words of the late Eric Garner, this systemic culture of violence against humanity must stop--"it stops today!" IT STOPS TODAY: A CALL TO ACTION BLMCLe is committed to closing the socio-economic divide which results in a culture of violence, including state sanctioned murder by exposing police brutality. BLMCLe is committed to pro-active steps to prevent police brutality through systemic police reform, investigation, legislation, training, vetting, transparency and education. A SEA OF RED "The LORD said, What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." (Genesis 4:10) "Thus says the LORD, "A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more." (Jeremiah 31:15) BLMCLe is formed in remembrance of stolen lives and shed blood which cries out from the margins and in the streets for justice, peace and reconciliation. They cry: "We can't breathe!" BLMCLe is endowed to the empowering spirit of unity, faith and hope and dedicated to the rich propositions of liberation and agape love. "But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" (Amos 5:24) "It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains." - Assata Shakur
